Excellent Tips for Handling Secured Credit Cards
Let’s discuss today several tips that can help you manage your secured credit card in the most effective way possible. Here are 5 pointers for secured credit cardholders.
Don’t spend more than your credit limit. Always remember that in secured credit card programs, the spending limit will depend entirely on how much security deposit you submit to your card issuer. So, keep that amount in mind. That way, you can determine the balance you can still use on your card. Moreover, it will be easy for you to assess whether or not you’ve reached your limit so that you’ll know when to stop charging transactions, like purchases or bills, on your card account. By doing so, you can avoid paying overdraft charges and other relevant penalties usually charged to consumers who have maxed out their credit cards.
Settle your bills in full and on-time. That way, you can prevent your interest charges from ballooning out and getting way out of hand. To have enough funds to cover your credit payments, we suggest that you set aside money for your credit card bills as soon as you receive your monthly salary. In so doing, you will have just the right amount of cash ready to make a complete and on-time payment. You can also benefit from signing up for automatic payment arrangements with your bank. In such arrangement, the personnel of your bank will withdraw funds directly from your savings or checking account that it will use to pay off your credit card transactions. By relying on such service, you won’t have to worry about missing out or skipping on your monthly dues.
Always examine your billing statements. After all, this is the only way for you to detect if someone has gained illegal access to your credit card information and is using it to make unauthorized charges. Bear in mind that fraudulent transactions will not only inflict severe damage to your credit history. You might also be held liable for purchases you never made, if you won’t report them to your card issuer, immediately. So to avoid complications, we suggest that you report unauthorized transactions to your card issuer, right away. That way, they can conduct thorough investigation on your claim to finally resolve your problem.
Keep all your financial records intact. Never throw away receipts, proofs of purchases and even small financial records. This is because you’ll never know when you’re going to use them for validating your card transactions as well as for disputing errors in your credit report.
Always remember that the key to the quick resolution of a credit dispute lies on the relevant paper-works that will be submitted by the cardholder. So, have your financial records ready just in case you might need them for cleaning up your credit report as well as your billing statements. Don’t close your secured credit card when you qualify for an unsecured card program. This is because cutting one of your lines of credit can lead to the deletion of a substantial part of your credit history which might in turn pull your credit score down. So, keep your secured card account open and active as long as possible. Try charging small purchases and bills on your card and make sure that you settle them, as soon as you can.