Credit cards may seem like your best friend when you’re in a financial rut.
But it could be easy to fall into hardship even more, especially if you don’t know enough about them.
College students students trying to establish a credit history make an easy target for credit card companies, because it seems that without credit you can’t do much in life. It affects everything from buying a car to renting or buying a home to refinancing student loans.
Daisy Granados, a Delta student, doesn’t have a credit card but said that “I don’t know what to expect and don’t really know anything about how to choose one or how percentages work.”
The thing to point out is that not everyone has an idea why paying attention to which credit company they do business with is important.
Annual Percentage Rate is a big factor of credit cards. At its base, it means how much interest rate is charged yearly — but there can also be many added charges when using credit cards.
The higher the APR, the worse off you are and that means paying attention to which credit card companies are offering the lowest APR rate and the limit allowed to spend.
Annual fees, over charge fees, returned payment fees, etc. are conditions to be conscious of because it can hurt you in the long run because it’s connected to your credit which does get docked.
“I didn’t know about APR until after but I think they’re good for my credit,” said University of Pacific student Camila Rodriguez.
The catch is that you have to pay off your balance by a certain date or the interest is added on the next statement.
Minimum payments are not exactly helpful because it might take longer to pay off the credit card so be aware of that.
The more you pay, the easier it is to keep ahead.
I believe that credit cards can help you if you’re just aware of how to keep track of it and not to go over your budget because it can be hard to take back control when you go over limits.