Using a credit card responsibly requires making only planned purchases and determining a payoff timeframe. One of the things that will get more people in trouble with credit cards than anything else is making unplanned impulse purchases. What is worst is people do not keep track of these purchases. Before they know it, they are in way over their head in debt. Don't let this happen to you!
To avoid this common problem, you must stick to a budget and exercise some discipline. Or even better, don't even carry a credit card with you. This single act of leaving the credit card at home can save you more money than you think. It causes you to think about the purchase and you will begin to ask yourself questions such as do I really need it? Is this within my budget? How soon will it take me to pay this off? These questions are the key to financial discipline.
Always Analyze Your Statement
It is estimated that millions of unauthorized charges and billing mistakes go unnoticed because credit card holders don't thoroughly analyze their monthly credit card statement. If you use your credit card frequently at the end of the month it becomes time consuming to scrutinize it. What's worse is that sometimes you don't remember the charge in the first place. In order to prevent paying for unauthorized charges you must take the time to thoroughly analyze each statement. Don't assume that just because you are in physical possession of your credit card that no one else has your credit card number. Over half of all cases of credit card fraud occur when credit card owners are in physical possession of their credit cards.