Keep Your Credit Limit in Check
September 25, 2008 · Print This Article
Being mindful of how you spend your money is something that most people learn at a early age. Even so, there are plenty of opportunities for businesses to make you trip in this regards. You can be standing at a register in a retail store and find a candy bar that looks tasty or a utility that seems particularly useful, or you could just want to upgrade your car to the latest model. Whatever the case may be, it’s not always easy to resist the traps that are laid out there to keep the money flowing from your wallet.
Of course, with as much marketing that is put in your face on a daily basis, one couldn’t hardly afford all that is brought to their attention. From fast food to cellphones, televisions to home appliances, there is hardly enough money between a family to afford the things shown to them in a single day, much less any period of time longer than that. However, there are some expenses that may have to be purchased without the necessary funds, such as a home or a vehicle, and these require credit.
Credit empowers you to make a purchase and pay for it later. This seems simple enough, but the concept is so broad in scope and affects so many things that you can easily get caught up reading about it all day (which would be a good thing). For the purposes of keeping you from getting in debt, however, you should understand how this applies to your personal finances — especially in the form of a credit card.
A credit card is a device that gives you your credit directly and allows you to make purchases based off of it, generally speaking. You probably already know this, but even if you do, it’s important to keep in mind the exact nature of the tool so that you can use it appropriately and within restraint of your budget. Credit cards can easily allow you to spend more than what you actually possess financially, so they’re very good at putting you into debt if you don’t respect their limitations and — most importantly — your own.
You should start by knowing just how much money you can afford to spend on a monthly basis and to put that knowledge into perspective regarding your financial lifestyle as it concerns your credit. Keep your card limited not by its own maximum, but by what you choose to limit yourself to, budget-wise. You don’t want to spend more than what you can afford to pay back every month, because if you rack up a balance, you’ll end up paying the interest rates that are applied to them, which can get quite financially disastrous if extended over a long period of time.
Credit cards are very much a useful product when handled appropriately, since they can easily help you build a solid credit score conveniently and steadily, without having to resort to big loans or whatnot. You just want to keep in mind that they come with a responsibility to yourself and your income, and that this responsibility is something you have to keep track of yourself, not the company that has issued you the card.
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Its because the credit limit went up or some bs like that…I'm like whatever just as long as I'm good money…the rep was cool & helpful
The display read wrong…she had $120 left; not $20.
lolll… just applied for my first credit card
it's only a studen one, with a limit of £500 so i'm safe
Who else, but I liked it!
excellent work!
It's the total balance you are allowed to charge onto the card, including monthly interest charges. It is a rolling limit. For example, if you have a $1,000 limit, and in month 1 charge $250, in month 2 you can still spend $750 + whatever you sent in as a payment.
You won't get an increase if you are living on financial aid.
Brilliant idea: a financial chastity belt! A credit or debit card alerting you to a limit you've set, yourself.
Small business backs Labor proposal to end credit card limit fees: Small business has backed a Labor election prop…
Two common cards that do not report limits are Amex & Capital One. … You can also ask your credit card company to raise your credit limit to …
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RT I wish I had a credit card with no limit… #OMGTeenQuotez
good stuff bradley
From my understanding you should keep the account open while you are reducing the balance. This works to your benefit as far as your credit score is concerned. After you've paid off the balance close the account.
Thanks. Glad you found it useful
RT There's no limit to what a Woman can achieve, if she doesn't care who gets the credit.
Missing his monthly payment by a few days had surprising consequences for a Lloyds TSB customer of 29 years. A Lloyds TSB credit card customer of 29 years has had his limit slashed from more than £11,000 to £500, all for paying his monthly bill a few days late. Bill Freeman (not his real name) applied for a Lloyds credit card in August 1981 and was given a limit of £250. Over the years he has used the card as his main source of credit, carrying a large balance of debt from one month to the next, and the limit had been increased to £11,400. In March, Freeman switched £10,000 from his Lloyds card to one from MBNA offering an interest-free transfer. Since then he has cleared his Lloyds account in full each month by cheque. But despite sending off a cheque as normal to clear his bill of £89.86 on 28 June, when he received his statement in July he was shocked to see he had been charged £12 for late payment and that his credit limit had been cut by £10,900. The bank could not find the…
There is technically no limit on how many time they can do it, but I wouldn't expect them to keep doing it. There is no warning, and you usually don't find out until it's already done. This has become a common practice that big banks have been doing even to customers who always pay on time, or even those who don't even carry a balance. If your account is in good standing, it was probably a one-time thing, otherwise it could continue.
You can use this credit monitoring service to pre-estimate future scores for different scenarios of such payments – credit-report-free.totalh.com
awesome game! I love this series. X]
Yesterday I tweeted I wanted the new Apple TV, today Barclaycard increased my credit limit by a stupid amount. Conspiracy to ruin me?