Have you gotten yourself in a bit of a mess of credit card debt but still need one for work? Are you trying to prove that you can handle a credit card rationally? Here are the rules for you:
- Pay it off every month
- If a balance remains at the end of a month, you can’t use the card again for a month
- Have one card. One.
- Don’t have a card from a retail store.
- Don’t pay off a credit card with a credit card.
- Don’t be generous (with the credit card). It just hurts you in the end.
If you break any of these rules, it’s time to give up the card for good.
Credit cards aren’t for everyone, and people can make their lives much worse through credit card misuse. You can literally rack up tens of thousands of dollars in debt and it can haunt you for a decade or more.