Canadians are walking around with a whack of credit cards in their wallets. With more than 74 million MasterCard and Visa cards in circulation, every Tom, Dick and Harriet now has a card or four. Hey, a credit card is great if you're using it for convenience and to build a credit history. But make these common mistakes and you could find yourself out of pocket and with a bruised credit score:
Minimum Payment Mistake
Perhaps the biggest mistake cardholders make is looking only at the minimum payment box and thinking that's fine and dandy if they just pay that. Hey, if all you're after is a great credit score, this is one way to do it, but you'll pay dearly. On a card with a 19.9% interest rate, a small balance - let's say $500 - looks like nothing much with a $10 minimum payment. But if you only pay the minimum, it'd take you nine years to get that puppy paid off. And by then, you'll have paid more than your original balance in interest.
3 credit card mistakes that cost
