While I was looking at my credit card transactions history within the past 4 months until the current period, I've notice a few small valued transactions. What's so weird about these transactions is that I've never even noticed them until looking at my Mint account summary. I'm referring to the finance charges that are easily overlooked with usually buried underneath all the transactions. Sometimes it pays to check account transactions on a daily basis and see if there are mischarges and non-regular activities. I usually do check three times per week at a minimum and this has become a habit of mine ever since I started studying my finance up closely.
If I know what I know now, I should have been more smarter about my finance and not let the credit card companies take advantage of me. They've probably charged me thousands of dollars over the span of my adult years and have never noticed it. But then again, who in the world would lend you money with nothing in return to begin with (unless it's a friend or relative)?
The most current snapshot of my credit card account filtered to only show the finance charges. The first thing that you'll notice is the consistency in the dates in which the charges were issued. It happens to be the 11th day of the month in my case.
I like credit cards and they serve a good purpose for those who are strict in their budget. For one thing, they're pretty good when it comes to disputing irregular transactions and prompt at crediting your account back. Secondly, reward points-again they're only considered a "reward" if you don't do it for the sake of getting the rewards. To me, a reward does not warrant an extra purchases just because you want to rack the rewards points. It's just an icing on the cake. The smartest thing to do is to only use the credit card as a buffer, which means that you actually have the money on hand to pay it off at this present time.
Given the snapshot above of my 4 latest finance charges amounting to $19.43, I actually outsmarted the credit card company by getting more out of them. Over the past two months alone, I've accumulated over $300 worth of rewards points. I used the rewards to purchase more books and other things from Amazon. Just to back up my claims, a snapshot of my points summary from 4 statements ago is below.
I have an Amazon rewards card and for starters, 2500 points amounts to $25 which in this case, I redeemed $100 just for that that statement period. For the record, I incurred the points not by spending more but by managing to use my credit card as a vehicle for purchases. Since I learned that my credit card company charges me every 11th of the month, I made a mental note to pay off my credit card twice per month and not have any balance around that day. Lately, I've been starting to use my credit card to pay the cell phone bill and other bills that accepts credit cards. Unfortunately, Countrywide home mortgage doesn't take anything other than a regular checking account (bastards) and that could easily turn into a thousand plus points easily.
In conclusion, the process that I've stated above works as long as you're disciplined when it comes to your personal finance. As long as the rewards are not your main priority and you pay off your credit card every month, then you're good. I'm pretty sure a lot of people do the same thing but just though I'd share. If you think about it, the only way to really beat them is to play the game and learn how to outsmart them.
- Dennis