The Principles of Good Credit Card Hygiene

 

Introduction

Good Credit Card Hygiene is based upon several principles. They are the focus of and shall be reviewed in this blog post. Before any discussion can be held about extreme credit card benefits, one must have a firm grasp of the basic principles especially the components of your credit score.

Good credit card hygiene
Credit Score Chart Showing the Components of your Credit Score from TFD
The Components of Your Credit Score

To start with, it is very important to gain and maintain between a very good to excellent credit rating. Even if your credit is poor to start with, there are many resources, both nonprofit and professional that can help you to raise your credit or FICO® score. See the pie chart below for the breakdown of components.

Payment History

Payment history has top billing in the equation. It is crucial to always pay your monthly bills in full and on time. This is the first of the five components of your credit score and counts for 35% of the credit score algorhythm. You could say that it is the key player in good credit card hygiene.

Level of Debt

The next component that counts for 30% of your credit score is your level of debt. What this means is that the amount you owe or your monthly debt should not comprise more than 30% of the entire amount of credit that has been made available to you. If your total credit allocation is $100,000 then you should charge less than $30,000 each month. Actually, the most recent numbers I have heard, are that the credit reporting agencies are looking for a percentage of between 6-9%. This means that one’s monthly debt (credit card charges, loans, mortgage payments, etc.) should not exceed between $6,000 to $9,000.

Age of Credit

The first two factors make up 65% of your score so clearly they are the most important ones in obtaining and maintaining good credit card hygiene. Next is the age of your credit which makes up 15% of your score. Start applying for a credit card as early on as you can so that you will have a long credit history. In order to increase your chances of getting one, apply for a card for which you have been pre-approved. That way your credit score will not go down because of your application. Picking out a card that has not be pre approved will result in the reduction of your credit score whether you get the card or not. But it may not be a serious problem. You can still have good credit card hygiene and a decent FICO score.

Types of Debt and Credit Inquiries

Now you have 80% of your credit score accounted for. These are the three most important factors. But don’t ignore the others. It is good credit card hygiene and good for your score to have a mix of types of debt, credit card, loans, and/or mortgage. Here again, since this makes up only 10% of your score, it is not crucial. Likewise, credit inquiries also make up 10% of your score. So they are not crucial either.

good credit card hygiene
What Is A Good Credit Score? From Experian.com
More About Good Credit Card Hygiene

There are numerous types of credit score systems, each with its own algorhythm. Two of the most popular systems are shown above FICO and Vantage. FICO® was created by the Fair Isaac Corporation. VantageScore is comprised of the input from these three reporting agencies, TransUnion, Equifax and Experian. They do not have the same exact rating scales but the difference is not far off. So let’s continue with the characteristics of good credit card hygiene.

Good Credit Card Hygiene Do’s and Do Not’s

Do not apply for too many cards in a short period of time. You will know that you are applying for too many in too short a time if you start getting rejections and that is the reason the credit card company gives for it.

Be mindful to not do anything that will result in negative comments on your credit report. If you do, these will reflect poorly on your credit score. This is not considered good credit card hygiene.

Check your credit card activity often and your credit scores regularly. Now that most, if not all credit card companies have this as a free feature, it is very easy to do. If you find any errors on your credit card, contact the company immediately. If you suspect fraud, contact the police as well as the credit reporting agencies. This can be very serious. Do this in a timely matter.

It is recommended not to close credit card accounts especially old ones. But if you must, wait until you have zero debt to do so. You don’t want to negatively affect you debt to available credit ratio.

good credit card hygiene
15 Credit Card Do’s and Don’ts from Time.com
Conclusion

That’s about it for a review of what good credit card hygiene is. Once you have established a level of comfort and confidence with it, you can move on to the exciting part, Extreme Credit Card Benefits. That is the topic of the next blog post. I promise you will be WOWed by it.

Sources and Resources

What Is A Good Credit Score?

Using Credit Cards for Survival and Profit

15 Credit Card Do’s and Don’ts

Continue Reading

Using Cash Reward Credit Cards for Survival & Profit

 

Introduction

I’ve talked a lot about using cash reward credit cards, lately. It actually feels like I am living in a credit card world. In fact, this for two reasons. One is because I have wanted to learn everything I could about cash reward credit cards, credit scores and credit reports, too. The other reason, probably the most important one, is that cash reward credit cards have become one of my most essential survival tools.

cash reward credit cards
Alison D. Gilbert, The Credit Card Maven
The Credit Card Maven

As a result of my intense interest and need to know everything I can about credit cards, I’ve even created a Facebook page called The Credit Card Maven. This is where I post information as I have researched and sourced it. I have found a number of websites, blog posts, Facebook pages (listed here) and groups that are extremely helpful resources in my quest for knowledge as The Credit Card Maven in my credit card world. Included are:
Credit Card Mastery
Credit Karma
CreditCards.com
NerdWallet
Wallet Hacks
Wise Bread
 

cash reward credit cards
Viper Tool Storage Box Survival Toolkit as part of My Credit Card World
Credit Cards as a Survival Tool

As I mentioned at the start of this post, credit cards have become a survival tool in my credit cards world. It was not by design that this came to be.

It was more a matter of circumstances. Once I got a feel for how useful and profitable using credit cards could be, my desire to use them and master it increased. Let me give you an example.

I have had cash reward credit cards for a number of years. I can accumulate up to about $40. in a two month period from one of them. That was a good beginning. Then I decided to get a travel rewards card in anticipation of someday going to visit my family in Colorado. I used it and kept on accumulating points.

Credit Card Currency

When I went to check on the conversion to paying for an airplane ticket, the results were not impressive. I had to find something better. This time by design, I set out to find the best deal I could for air travel benefits using a credit card. I found one that I ultimately used for my flight. It rewarded me with 30,000 points and a $100. discount on my airplane ticket. This was such a great deal that I have enough points to return to Colorado for free, right now.

cash reward credit cards
Credit cards currency from 123RF.com
Now that’s what I call using credit cards as currency. If I could do that with a travel rewards credit card, I wondered what other benefits and rewards I could manifest in my credit cards world. I familiarized myself with a few other travel rewards cards as part of getting a second ticket for my husband and having funds for other things related to our vacation. All in all, my activities resulted in a savings of between $400 and $500 for our trip.

 

 

Credit Card Investing

Let me present one more situation where the skilled use of a credit card became very profitable. I found an offer for a cash rewards credit card that would refund $100 on spending $500 within 90 days of acquiring the card. That would be a 20% profit. I had never accomplished that in the stock market. It seemed like a very good investment to me. I wasn’t sure if I would be granted another card as I had accumulated quite a few by this point. But it came through. I fulfilled the requirements. Now I am just waiting for my investment to pay off.

cash reward credit cards
Credit Card Monthly Rotation represented by a photo from blog.taxact.com
Credit Card Monthly Rotation

I made another discovery. It may seem a bit confusing. In fact, I am kind of surprised that I am even able to do this. I am calling it credit card monthly rotation. It is based upon a combination of the nature of credit cards themselves and good credit card hygiene.

Each credit card has a closing date and a payment due date. Since I have several cash reward credit cards and they have different closing and payment dates, I can stagger them and not have to pay them at the same time. If I make my purchases and schedule my payments using my monthly rotation system, I have a revolving credit situation. In other words, if my budget in a particular month needs to be exceeded, I can use a card that has a closing date that will allow payment the following month. I just have to make sure the funds will be available then. I also have to have a very good bookkeeping system to keep track of every detail of every card.
 

cash reward credit cards
Brian Cain’s Credit Card Mastery Course
Credit Card Mastery

What is credit card mastery? Have I achieved it? It turns out that this term exists. I did not invent it as I thought I had. There is actually a course called Credit Card Mastery that costs $97. Much of it seems similar to my own system. Although I have not taken that course, it looks very comprehensive. This is an introduction to the course and an explanation of it by founder, Brian Cain.

Based upon my understanding and goals to achieve Credit Card Mastery, I believe that I am on my way but I have not achieved mastery yet. When will I achieve it? There are several requirements that I have established for myself:
• My credit scores average will be over 800 again. It is only about 10-20 points from that now.
• My monthly rotation system will have proven itself to work and I will have a sense of mastery in my credit card world
• My Credit Card Management Chart will be complete and committed to memory. As a result, I will have a firm grasp on all my cards and a natural flow for their use in rotation as needed.

Conclusion

To many people, understanding credit scores and reading credit reports are overwhelming and confusing. There is no need to not have transparency and clarity about your credit cards world. Credit cards are an important tool and can even be crucial for personal survival and business development. Study the resources provided. Take the Credit Card Mastery Course if you can. Having one’s finances in order and being able to live solvently in a credit card world are not luxuries. They are necessities and everyone deserves to have them.

cash reward credit cards
The Cool Piggy Bank property of The WalletHacks.com and the cover image of their facebook page
Sources & Resources

CreditCardMastery.com, a course developed by Brian Cain
CreditCards.com, find a credit card that’s right for you
CreditKarma.com, free credit scores and more
NerdWallet.com, Best Credit Cards of 2017
NextAdvisor.com, all about finances
WalletHacks.com, founded by Jim Wang
WiseBread.com, great blog post advice about credit cards and everyday frugal living

FICO SCORE AND CREDIT REPORTING AGENCIES
Equifax
Experian
Transunion
Identity Guard

Continue Reading