You can most likely remember the excitement you felt when you received your first credit card. However, this feeling quickly subsided when you received your first statement. Even so, your credit card debt was manageable at this point. Fast forward to today and, if you are like most Americans, your credit card debt is a tangled web. According to Visa International’s survey, 48% of credit card owners only pay the minimum monthly payment. The majority would likely be hard pressed to remember exactly how they incurred the balance on their current cards. Was it a vacation? Or, maybe it was something more serious like medical bills or groceries. It was in all probability a combination of events and transactions that led to the balance, coupled with month-after-month of interest charges and miscellaneous fees. Unfortunately, the credit card companies do not play fair. There are many tricks of the industry which leave you susceptible. Now is the time to cease being victimized and implement a plan to overcome the credit card trickery.

Trick One – Not posting payments on the day received. Even though the credit card companies are required by law to post payments on the day they are received, many of them have an unrealistic cut-off time (i.e. 9:00 a.m.). Additionally, they do not post payments on weekends even though most companies employ personnel on the weekends.
Plan to Overcome – You must mail your payment at least 10 days prior to the scheduled payment date. Life is busy and this is not always feasible so you should consider an alternative option. One alternative is to arrange for your credit card company to make an automatic withdrawal from your checking account each month. You can have the minimum payment withdrawn or a specified amount. If you want to pay more you can mail an additional payment.

Trick Two – Changing the due date to get you to pay late.
Plan to Overcome – Open your statement as soon as it arrives and verify the due date. Being aware of this trick is half the battle to winning.

Trick Three – Credit Insurance.
Plan to Overcome – Refuse it. If you read the fine print you will discover that your chances of actually receiving money from this credit insurance policy are slim.

This list is by no means exhaustive. There are many more tricks used by the credit card companies. The best plan of attack is to pay your balance in full each month. You will still have to worry about making certain your payment is received on time and posted properly, but you eliminate exposure to many of their other tricks.

Example: Paying more than the monthly payment. Does it make a difference?
Consider that a person has a $2000 balance and is charged 19% interest. If the minimum monthly payment is calculated at 2.5% of the balance, the payment would begin at $50. If someone paid only the minimum monthly payment, it would take 239 months to pay the balance in full (assuming no additional charges of course). The total interest paid would be $3,002.09. However, considering the same facts, if the amount actually paid each month was increased to $75, the balance would be paid in 35 months and total interest paid would be $619.01. This is a significant difference.

Rather than becoming victim to the credit card industry, determine a plan of action to guarantee that you will overcome the common trickery and keep more of your hard earned money for yourself.