The Curse Of The Credit

Are you a millennial that tends to use your credit card for expenses between paychecks? Millennials are all about the experiences now-a-days even though you may know 100% that you can't afford these sorts of experiences you still end up living above your means and end up digging yourself into a hole. In a Forbes magazine article, 69% of millennials have anxiety over money. If you are still using your credit card for things you simply can not afford then that means you need to raise your income or the obvious: spend less! It is so easy to get comfortable using that plastic thing filled with money but it could really put a strain on your finances making it more difficult to establish good credit and saving any money. Most millennials don't even know the basics of how credit cards work, and the lack of knowledge can lead to very costly mistakes. A few things to be aware of before using or even applying for a card is one, know the interest rate. If you see it's a 20-25% APR (Annual percentage rate) then that's a red flag, stay away from cards with that kind of interest rate. Keep in mind if you pay your balance off for the month then you avoid the interest, kind of a no brainer. Now, if you already have a card with a high interest rate a good thing to do is to call the credit card company and ask them if they can lower the rates and for the most part they will fulfil the request for their customers. The last thing I'll mention is find out what the penalty fee is in case a late payment is made. Sometimes they are so high that it just might scare you to ever even make a late payment. If we educate ourselves more and come up with a different approach with money then I believe our "money problems" won't be problems anymore!