Manage Credit Cards

Introduction

Credit card is a good financial tool which brings a lot of benefits when use wisely.
It helps you go build credit score when managed properly.

Some ground rules on managing your credit cards:

  • Check your bill for unauthorized transaction.

  • Pay full for each month, avoid minimum payment.

  • Keep within your credit limit.

  • Review recurrence payment which no longer needed.

Advantages of Credit Cards

Some people try to avoid credit card completely. However, when used properly, credit cards will bring you extra cash back and rewards. Paying the full amount monthly is strongly advisable to avoid paying interest to bank due to outstanding balance.

Spending with credit card is not spending future money, one have to practice that every expenses spent on credit card shall be recorded with expenses tracking tool and deducted from balance fund to ensure sufficient fund allocated to pay off the bill by end of the month.

Manage Credit Card with Personal Finance Planner

Credit Card Account

In Personal Finance Planner, credit card account come in 3 columns:

  • 1st Column (Q) : Actual spending

  • 2nd Column (R) : Identify billed expenses with "x", (I will show you the details on next section)

  • 3rd Column (S) : Billed transaction.

  • Total Usage : Sum of total annual spending on the card.

  • Credit Limit: Maximum credit limit granted by bank.

    • Yellow Cell : Enter credit limit of your card

    • Green Cell : Show remaining credit limit after deducting all expenses

Example

  • Example on the right shows series of expenses charged to credit card in column Q from Row 42 to 50. Each expenses is recorded with negative value indicate spending.

  • Column R is used for cross check credit card statement with your expenses. Put a "x" on each transaction appear on your credit card statement will transfer the amount to column S for payment.

  • Row 52: For credit card with cash back, this transaction indicate cash back received from month end statement. So, it's positive value and billed.

  • Cell S6 show payment due by next payment date, which should be identical with the amount in your credit card statement.

  • Cell Q10 show your remaining credit limit. Keep an eye on it to avoid spending exceed your credit limit as some bank will charge extra interest on it.


Payment

Row 53: Credit Card payment recorded as positive value in credit card account follow by "x" in Column R. Same amount is deducted from savings or cash at same row where fund is used for this payment.

Noticed that value in Cell S6 is zero once payment had done.


Expenses Analysis

Now you have all the data entered, let's run some analysis on your spending pattern. Learn more...