EP - 07 Understanding Credit Cards

You may have one or two but do you know actually know how to use a credit card and what that fine print on the bottom of your application means?

In its simplest form, credit cards allow you to borrow money up to a certain limit which you are then required to pay back over at some stage. Some people use credit cards to pay for things that they otherwise couldn’t afford, which I strongly recommend you don’t do, but sometimes it is unavoidable. Maybe you like to travel and want to build up points, which is a pretty standard reason for people to get their first credit card. Other people use credit cards to help them smooth out their cash flow, so this may be a small business owner who only gets paid at infrequent times and in variable amounts, so having a credit card to see them through the month may help to achieve this.

There are a number of reason why people use a credit card but the main one is that people don’t have money in their bank account to pay for something they want or need so they purchase it on credit. Which if you aren’t good at managing your money can be very dangerous and can leave you with a lot of debt.