Financial Resource

If you hold more than one credit cards, you will want to do some planning first before sending in your money. Planning ahead will help you manage your budget and expenses more efficiently and avoid unnecessary cash crunch .

The first step is to review your monthly billing schedule. Here are a few important things you must be aware of:

Statement Date – This is the date the statements printed. Very likely it will be 2 or 3 days before your receipt of the statements.

Payment Due Date – This is the last day you must make payment. You must pay at least the minimum amount due to avoid late payment penalty

Together with the statement date, you can work out the grace period duration in case you are do not know this.

The next step is to understand the amount due.

Total Amount Due – This is the sum of any unpaid amount from the previous month and all new charge and interested incur for the current month.

Minimum Amount Due – This is a small percentage of the total amount due. The percentage varies from one credit card to the other but it is usually around three percent. This is also the amount you must pay to maintain a good standing with the card company and avoid late payment fee.

The third step is to understand your cash inflow date. For most people, this will be the day where they receive their salary. For some, there will be other sources of income such as part time business or property rental.

Once you have a clear understanding of your cash inflow and outflow, you can then plan your budget and expenditure accurately. In fact, you have gain an understanding whether you are having positive cash flow each and every month. If there are too many months where there are negative cash flow, you need to analyze your expenditure and do the necessary cost cutting measures.

Now, your objective is always to pay the credit card bill in full and on time. By knowing when your cash is coming in and going out, you have a good idea when you need to put aside cash for bill payment purpose.

Occasionally, you may need to carry a balance due to unforeseen circumstances such as medical fee because of a minor accident. In such cases, you should try your best to pay everything back in full the following month.

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