{"id":4983,"date":"2021-09-22T09:18:00","date_gmt":"2021-09-22T16:18:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.soundcu.com\/?p=4983"},"modified":"2025-05-20T09:51:26","modified_gmt":"2025-05-20T16:51:26","slug":"get-smart-about-credit-card-warning-signs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.soundcu.com\/blog\/get-smart-about-credit-card-warning-signs\/","title":{"rendered":"Get Smart About Credit Card Warning Signs"},"content":{"rendered":"
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This month\u2019s Get Smart About Credit Day (October 21, 2021) gives us a great opportunity to get on the right foot with credit.<\/p>\n

If\u00a0keeping up with\u00a0credit\u00a0card balances\u00a0has become a challenge, it\u2019s smart\u00a0to assess\u00a0your\u00a0overall financial\u00a0picture\u00a0and\u00a0your spending\u00a0habits.<\/p>\n

Remember:\u00a0taking on credit card debt\u00a0is borrowing money you haven\u2019t earned yet. It is\u00a0smart\u00a0to keep\u00a0the focus on this\u00a0fundamental\u00a0truth.<\/p>\n

To\u00a0get\u00a0smart about credit\u00a0cards<\/a>,\u00a0be\u00a0aware of the\u00a0common\u00a0warning signs that might indicate issues with credit card\u00a0usage:<\/p>\n

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  1. You are only able to make minimum payments\u202fon your credit card debt.\u00a0\u00a0Making only the minimum payment means you\u2019ll end up paying much more in interest charges, and it will take you longer to pay your debt off.<\/li>\n
  2. You\u00a0have been denied\u00a0credit.\u00a0If you\u2019ve been denied, take a beat before\u00a0applying with another creditor.\u00a0Applying for multiple credit lines within a short\u00a0period of time\u00a0can result in a lot of hard\u00a0inquiries, which\u00a0can have a negative impact on\u00a0your\u00a0credit\u00a0score.<\/li>\n
  3. You find it challenging to set aside savings.\u202fIf it is challenging to set aside savings on a consistent basis, review your monthly budget and look for ways to reduce spending to save a little from every paycheck.<\/li>\n
  4. Your credit cards\u00a0are near or over your credit limit.\u202fYour creditors set your limit based on your credit history, income and outstanding debt. If you are at or near this limit, take a good look at your financial\u00a0picture and\u00a0focus on making\u00a0smart\u00a0purchase decisions\u00a0in the\u00a0future. A good rule of thumb is to try to keep your balances below 50% of your available credit limits.<\/li>\n
  5. You are taking cash advances\u202ffrom cards to pay your other bills.<\/li>\n
  6. Collectors are calling.\u202fReceiving calls from creditors happens to many people.\u202fYou can\u00a0relieve this financial stress by figuring out a budget with a financial counselor and reviewing your options\u00a0to start paying debts\u00a0back on\u00a0time.<\/li>\n
  7. You are using one credit card to pay off another credit card.\u00a0 This is like digging one hole to fill in another hole \u2013 and usually the hole just gets deeper and deeper!<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    A Smart Approach to Credit<\/h2>\n

    Smart use of\u00a0credit cards is part of financial wellness. Managing credit is possible with planning and\u00a0the\u00a0understanding\u00a0of\u00a0how credit can\u00a0affect your financial future.<\/p>\n

    It\u2019s all about the basics: looking at monthly expenses, looking at income and setting spending priorities as well as building up emergency savings.\u00a0These principles will continue to be the building blocks of achieving financial success!<\/p>\n

     <\/p>\n

    This article is shared by our partners at\u00a0GreenPath\u00a0Financial Wellness<\/a>, a trusted national non-profit.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\n\t<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    It\u2019s all about the basics: looking at monthly expenses, looking at income and setting spending priorities as well as building up emergency savings.\u00a0 Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":4984,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"content-type":"","_searchwp_excluded":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[50],"tags":[87,88,62,134,135,90],"class_list":["post-4983","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-life-finances","tag-build-credit","tag-checking-credit-score","tag-credit","tag-credit-card","tag-credit-limit","tag-credit-score"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.soundcu.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4983","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.soundcu.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.soundcu.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.soundcu.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.soundcu.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4983"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.soundcu.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4983\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15201,"href":"https:\/\/www.soundcu.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4983\/revisions\/15201"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.soundcu.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4984"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.soundcu.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4983"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.soundcu.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4983"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.soundcu.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4983"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}