what things should i be looking for? seeing as ill most likely be making the decision when I turn 18, im guessing i should look at their credit card offerings, see what will help me build credit? idk, i have no clue what im doing lol
The things to look for are where you can deposit and withdraw, and what fees they charge.
The one important thing to remember with credit cards is to pay off your balance in full each month before the due date, so only use it to buy things that you would be able to with your own cash and bank funds.
Any interest you pay wipes out almost any other perk you get from credit cards like cash back or whatever (the exception is fraud/scam protection). If you want I can explain how interest works for most cards in North America.
i think i understand interest. u spend 1k in the month, only pay back 500, now they add a percentage each month that you have to pay back on top of the 500 u owe yes?
That’s the basic idea, but what a lot of people forget is that the interest starts counting from when you made the purchase, not the statement dates or due date.
Example: say you have a 20% rate credit card you spend $1000 on January 1st, your statement comes in Jan 31 and you pay $999 on the day it’s due, February 21st.
The next day your balance will effectively be $29 (they might not charge you until next statement along with any additional interest), which is $1 leftover balance + $28 in interest because you borrowed $999 for 51 days which is about $0.55 per day. If you pay anything above the minimum payment but less than the statement balance you get hit with that same charge, they only remove the interest if you paid it in full. That’s what you need to be careful about. And don’t use your credit cards to send money, for any sort of gambling or at an ATM or else you will get hit by a cash advance fee and unwaivable interest.
Basically, yes. Some companies also have “leeway months”, so to continue your example say you don’t pay it off entirely for the first 3 months, but just a portion. My credit card has (1) year to the date of purchase before interest accrues, so as long as it’s paid off within the year I can take as long as I like to pay it off.
what things should i be looking for? seeing as ill most likely be making the decision when I turn 18, im guessing i should look at their credit card offerings, see what will help me build credit? idk, i have no clue what im doing lol
The things to look for are where you can deposit and withdraw, and what fees they charge.
The one important thing to remember with credit cards is to pay off your balance in full each month before the due date, so only use it to buy things that you would be able to with your own cash and bank funds.
Any interest you pay wipes out almost any other perk you get from credit cards like cash back or whatever (the exception is fraud/scam protection). If you want I can explain how interest works for most cards in North America.
i think i understand interest. u spend 1k in the month, only pay back 500, now they add a percentage each month that you have to pay back on top of the 500 u owe yes?
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That’s the basic idea, but what a lot of people forget is that the interest starts counting from when you made the purchase, not the statement dates or due date.
Example: say you have a 20% rate credit card you spend $1000 on January 1st, your statement comes in Jan 31 and you pay $999 on the day it’s due, February 21st.
The next day your balance will effectively be $29 (they might not charge you until next statement along with any additional interest), which is $1 leftover balance + $28 in interest because you borrowed $999 for 51 days which is about $0.55 per day. If you pay anything above the minimum payment but less than the statement balance you get hit with that same charge, they only remove the interest if you paid it in full. That’s what you need to be careful about. And don’t use your credit cards to send money, for any sort of gambling or at an ATM or else you will get hit by a cash advance fee and unwaivable interest.
Basically, yes. Some companies also have “leeway months”, so to continue your example say you don’t pay it off entirely for the first 3 months, but just a portion. My credit card has (1) year to the date of purchase before interest accrues, so as long as it’s paid off within the year I can take as long as I like to pay it off.
Still, always pay off in full when you can.