If you could teach "Credit Card Beginners" - what would you teach?

alex350

Hello everyone,

An optimistic question for you all,

If you could teach absolute beginners around Credit Cards (& Credit in general) what things would you teach them?

another way to think of the question:
What things do you wish, you had learned earlier in your life about credit?

Quick (general) thoughts:
All the different types of credit (fixed & revolving)
Secured Lending vs. Unsecured Lending
APR's (compound interest, purchse & cash interest)
What is reported on a Credit Report/File


I would love to hear the thoughts of the forum
"what should people know?"
"What subjects should already be covered in school?"
"what knowledge could help someone struggling with money?"

thank you kindly,

[Deleted User]

Fat too much to put here. So I will just offer one though that would solve 95% of the problems posted here:

Read and understand what you're signing.

shortcrust

Is someone writing an essay/syllabus?!

alex350

hahaha, no (those days are long behind me)

I'll word it this way, I have an opportunity to do the above with quite a few people & I just wanted to gather some comments & feedback from various well informed people.

MEM62

Deleted_User wrote: »

Fat too much to put here. So I will just offer one though that would solve 95% of the problems posted here:

Read and understand what you're signing.

zx81 is absolutely right. You could write a book on the subject.

If you had to keep points to a minimum I would say that its a financial tool - not a financial crutch.

adindas

alex350 wrote: »

Hello everyone,

An optimistic question for you all,

If you could teach absolute beginners around Credit Cards (& Credit in general) what things would you teach them?

another way to think of the question:
What things do you wish, you had learned earlier in your life about credit?

Quick (general) thoughts:
All the different types of credit (fixed & revolving)
Secured Lending vs. Unsecured Lending
APR's (compound interest, purchse & cash interest)
What is reported on a Credit Report/File


I would love to hear the thoughts of the forum
"what should people know?"
"What subjects should already be covered in school?"
"what knowledge could help someone struggling with money?"

thank you kindly,

You could start from here.
https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/credit-cards/
and here

http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/credit-card-guides/

After knowing the basic and you have a specific question then ask on credit card forum here on MSE.

Dobbibill

I agree with all the comments above. We could go on for days on this topic.

* Understand how to use it without paying interest.
* There are responsible lenders but also responsible borrowers too.
* Make it work for you - rather than working long hours/overtime to pay for it.

It's part of a much bigger picture of overall finances/budgeting/rewards/stoozing/buy now - pay later culture of society.

nomoneytoday

My rules -


It's free money, for up to 2 months, as long as you pay it all off on time.
The rewards are a bonus for big ticket items - again pay it all off on time.
Sometimes you can't pay it all off on time, so look for the lowest interest or balance transfers if appropriate.


My main one - it's a lot harder to pay off an existing balance than to build it up spending in the first place..

Candyapple

What things do you wish, you had learned earlier in your life about credit?

That a credit limit is not a target.

And that everything you spend - you have to pay back.

They may sound silly, however it's far too easy to spend, spend, spend, but when that bill comes in and assuming your card is not a 0% purchases one, then unless you can clear your entire bill then you'l start paying interest. Interest which can amount to a lot of money over time if you can only afford monthly minimum repayments.

eskbanker

I'd tell them to spend a bit of time reading through threads on this board to see all the real-life problems and misunderstandings that crop up as a direct result of lack of knowledge about how credit cards work and how best to use them to your advantage!

Theory is good as well obviously but nothing like seeing actual experiences reported first-hand to see what can go wrong, although clearly this would need to be caveated with 'ignore all posts by certain familiar names who recommend paying interest' though....

Akahotpot

I had to learn
Ignoring things does not make them go away
A small amount above the the CC minimum payment is better than just paying the minimum payment