Wednesday, December 20, 2006

Are Credit Cards for You?

If you spend any amount of time on a college campus, sooner or later you will run into a credit card company offering a free gift in exchange for signing up for one of their credit cards. But should you? It seems that so many young adults, especially those from the ages of 18-23, are piling on the credit card debt. Imagine being out of the house for the first time and having someone offer what appears to be free money. "Buy now, and take years to pay it back!" What sounds too good to be true, most often is.

However, should you choose to carry a credit card and use it responsibly, they can come in handy. If you do your research, and remember some credit card advice, you can use credit cards to help you. A professor of mine was also a financial planner and he paid with a credit card for all of his purchases. BUT, he made sure to pay it off at the end of the month, every month, and for the full amount. By doing so, his money stayed in an interest yielding account, while he used the credit card company's money for items during the month. You must be very diligent to do this though.

It also helps to stay abreast of credit card news by using sites specifically dealing with credit cards UK.

My suggestions is that if you apply for a credit card, only get one, and keep your limit low.

No comments: