Manage Your Credit Cards and Save Lots of Cash

If you're like most people you keep a few credit cards in your wallet. Two or three is typical, but many Americans have way more than that. (Read on to see just how many.) Most people rarely take the time to evaluate the credit cards they carry: are they working for you, tools that you use to lubricate your finances, or are they draining hundreds of dollars from your budget needlessly? Here are a few little-known facts that you may find interesting:

1) Today's average consumer has 13 credit obligations that the credit bureaus have on file. Nine of those are credit cards of some type - department store cards, Visa, gas cards. Four of those credit obligations are likely to be installment loans of some type.

2) The average consumer's oldest credit obligation is fourteen years old! This is an indication that he or she has been managing a credit obligation for a long time. Only five percent of consumers have credit histories shorter than two years.

3) Credit card debt among young adults is $4,088. There was an increase in this amount of fifty-five percent from 1992 to 2001. Credit card debt among young Americans is growing, and a young adult with the average amount of credit card debt can now expect to pay 24% of their income to maintain payment on that debt.

4) Roughly seventy-five percent of US families polled in 2004 owned credit cards. Of that group 58% of them carried balances on those cards. The average American with a credit history on file has $16,635 in outstanding debt (excluding mortgages).

5) Of families with credit cards 1 in 6 of them only pays the minimum due every month. Twenty-eight percent of all families who were surveyed said that their ability to completely pay off their credit card balances has gotten more difficult.

Startling figures! Apparently many of us are carrying balances on our credit cards, which can be expensive. By the way, the sources of those numbers include The Federal Reserve Bulletin, US News and World Report and Experion (credit agency) - reputable sources. Americans in particular and most people in general continue to carry a good bit of debt. Chances are they are not taking advantage of opportunities to optimize that debt. This is a simple thing to do in many cases, and it can be done from the comfort of your home. If your situation is similar to the average, it could save you hundreds or even thousands of dollars!

Significant savings in interest payments can be found in 0% Balance Transfer Credit Cards. By applying for a new credit card that offers 0% balance transfers, you can aggregate balances from other credit cards that are charging interest into an interest-free loan. This is a fantastic deal that can save you a lot of money over time! Depending on the outstanding balance of your current credit cards and the interest rates of those cards the savings in interest paid make it worth your while to move your money to a 0% balance transfer card. Let me give you an example: for every $1,000 in credit that you have outstanding on a credit card that charges 14% interest you will pay $140 dollars in the next year in interest alone. Many credit cards carry higher interest rates, and many people have balances that exceed one thousand dollars, so by moving that same debt into an interest-free position a great deal of money can be saved.

Credit cards are easy to apply for on-line and you can complete the whole process from the comfort of your home - application, acceptance, balance transfer and if you wish, closure of your old account. Then your debt is interest free! You should also get into the habit of shopping credit card deals including balance transfers every twelve to fifteen months - they change over time and if you haven't shopped them in a while you can almost always do better than the deal you're carrying in your wallet.

Article Source: http://www.articlegoldmine.com

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