Hi, Welcome to my podcast The Way I See It. Here we'll talk about money, the market, and of course personal finance. My name is Carlu Hager, and this episode I want to talk about credit cards. You know, credit cards what we call or what I call a necessary evil. You need them because you want to get a good credits call right, but they're very dangerous because if you misuse them, they do put you into a
lot of problems. So somewhat text out there on how you use your card as I do, like my top should we say about top thirteen reasons why you should get a card credit card and how you should use lettles. Go down the list. Number one is get maybe one or two cards maximum. You don't need five or six cards to boost your credits CAD. One card is good, two cards are good. That's really enough. I would say, you know, if you want to til that down, let's go to
a number two point. Get a card or get cards based on how you spend. So like if you do your groceries, you can get a general card that you're going to use to pay in the store. Let that card have points on it, right, so if I'm spending I'm getting points back. If I like to travel, I want to get travel my house back. So if I'm going to have two cards, I could use one card for my grocery shoping to pay all my expenses, and I get points back, and I can use one card to travel, so I get those points
as I travel. So get one or two cards and be a max. Three cards, and then make sure your cards are all point cards. So if you use your credit card just to get the points, it's almost like free money. You're not putting the balance on the card. It's just to get those three points because you're always going to shop, right, So that's how you want to use it. Third point is use your cards frequently.
Don't get the card and keep it, use the card, pay the card, don't carry the balance, but use the card, pay the card so you get the points. Right. Also, you keep your credit quote unquote yeah, it is. As long as you pay the card off in full every month, then you don't have any interest. You don't have in any APR to worry about. The fourth point is if you want to carry a balance, balance means that you don't pay the card off completely in the month
you've used it. If you're gonna carry a balance. Try to keep that balance below thirty percent. That then gives you your life sort of skating below where you can make your credit card start to fall. So if you're gonna carry over a balance, what I means if you if your card is one thousand dollars and you spend one thousand dollars, try to pay at least seven hundred so you only have thirteen percent that you're carrying overright, So very very
important. If you can pay on your card, great, if you can, try to keep the balance at below thirty percent. Number five most important, never miss a payment, Never ever ever miss a payment on your credit card. The minimum most cards to pay is two point five percent off the card balance. Set that up on autopay. So even if you forget to pay your card or you have an explorer your your card is charged and you're
aware of it, at least you pay the minimum. Then you can go back and contest or dispute or whatever you want to pay your want to keep your call exactly correct, So never ever ever miss a payment. That kills you. Right. Payments is about that's paying your cards consistent. It's about twenty five percent offer to the credit card. You only keep that as high as possible. Right when you're traveling, it's a six point, try to use your credit card or not your debit card. I mean, it's why
it's well most debit cards, maybe you should buy your bank. Right if you have a dispute or fraud on a card, they tend to shut those cards down. So imagine if you left your home and your on holiday and maybe somewhere exotic, and your card gets shut down, then you're like, you don't you can't use that debit card anymore. But with credit cards, they can try and they can focus on just that transaction in dispute, but
your car still stays open. So just the hack I mean, go with your credit card is I think it's quote unquote is easier for you to file disputes than using a debit card. That's what I'll say on that point on six. Right on seven, you want to make sure you keep your ficoscore i e. Your credits CAD as high as possible, so the card allows you do that. So the more you use your card and pay your card
off and keep your balance is slow the best. That's the best way to keep your ficlescore up and up and up and up, so use your card paid off in full or keep a balance below tedy percent. That's one very very good practice to keep your credits care up and up and up. On
a eight points, don't close out older credit cards. The first credit card you get trying not to close it out, or the older cars trying to close them out wide because how long your cards have been gives your score on your fire c is about ten percent, So the longer you've had your credit get about ten points. It helps you with your fycroscope so you don't have to use it. You don't have to buy a thousand dollars on your card, buy gas or buy coffee with the old cards paid off. End of
story. Instead up on autopay. Every month it maybe pays some tiny tiny Winni bill and you paid off your autopay. Keep the car active. It gives you those points and you're good to go. Number nine. Be careful about how you apply for new loans. The more you apply for loans, even outside your own institution, it records. The more you apply, it dings you when your credit is being pulled. So if you apply one story strap and all that, it's recording that against you. And it's dinging you.
When it's pulling your credit, it shows up that you're applying for credit and it's not illegal. It's not muchly shows if you want to buy a house, clearly you're gonna have to go shopping around to get the best ap R. But be careful that you don't pull a lot of credits. You go to a store and say, hey, if you get this stuff, you're gonna get ten percent if you apply for a credit card. Try not
to do those stuff. It's not that necessary forward to pull creditors to get a discount and new jacket, right, So be careful about applying for new loans. Number ten, if possible, get on the card that you don't pay annual credit card fees. Most cards now are zero percent and all fees. You don't have to pay a fee to a card. Hold are lots of cars out of US sero percent, so go for those ones. Don't pay any and all fees for a car doesn't make any sense now. Number
eleven. If you suspect fraud, report immediately immediately. Most claims are only good if you report within sixty days off you discovering right, So make sure once you see a fraud or dispute, are not aware of call the bank called the credit card company, issue immediately and report that very very very important number twelve. This is more like a hack. Right, you want to
build credit out for your kid. If your kid is eighteen years old, you can go with your kid and apply for credit together as a joint with your child. But look at the cabyet Right, I wouldn't give my kid a credit card. I would apply for the credit card, get the credit card, keep it. When I spend on that credit card, my kid gets the credit score. It gets the better because of that credit card as
well. Right, I can use the credit card and pay for its expenses, but I might not give him the card to use, right, I mean it's your call. Ultimately, there's not a law that says you can't give him your card. But it might be your kid goes to school at eighteen, and it spends four years in school or five in school, and you're spending on that card and pain back on time when he graduates. HA got a better credit care than his colleagues. So that's a hack for you.
For twelve. You might want to get that credit card and put your kid once it's eighteen on that card and just build his credits piggyback in off you. Then the last one is min number thirteen. So credit reports and
America at least are free the lossage. You get one from the credit compinning once a year, and I think America has got four with means technically, if you get four free reports, it's not your FICO score, but the credit report that shows your inquiries why might have a good or bad credit score is very detailed. It's good practice to at least pull once, at least once in six months and just take a look at it or what has happened? Do I agree with all this? Whenever I don't agree with to call
the bank or the credit card company, I do a dispute interity. It is a good had for you to get it and to review it and know exactly what's happening with your money. That's the guy's thirteen points on how you want to use your credit score, not not just to get a good FICO score, but also to build a practice of savings and spending responsibly. I hope it helps you, and I hope you will gin back next time. We do have a podcast, and my podcast is the way I see it
to share and subscribe and appreciate it. I appreciate you guys listening. Thank you so much, and by