What you don't know about your credit card ratings can hurt you.
Life can be motoring along smoothly until you decide to get that loan to buy a new house, or get the latest, greatest phone, or even a better credit card.
That's when it hits you - you have bad credit ratings.
Not good.
What you don't know can hurt you.
When you finish reading through this article, you'll know how a bad rating can affect you and how to avoid this happening to you.
First things first - how do your credit card ratings affect your financial future?  

• Determines whether or not you can get a loan.
  Especially now during our tough economic times, no lender is going to take a risk on you if you have a bad rating.
  
• Determines your interest rate on any loans that you do get.
  So say you can get a loan.
  That's great.
  But if you haven't maintained a good credit card rating, you won't get a good interest rate and this ends up costing you big bucks over time.
  
• Determines what kind of credit card you can get.
  Credit cards are a big market today.
  There is a credit card to fit every whim and need - shopping rewards, travel rewards, gas rewards, money-back rewards.
  All of these sound good, but don't expect to be getting one of these cards if your rating is bad.
  
• Determines how low your interest rate will be on your new credit card.
  Bad rating = high interest rate.
  
• Determines your value as a customer.
  Want that cool new phone you're seeing advertised? Don't get too excited if you have a bad credit card rating.
  When your rating goes down, so does your value as a customer and your purchasing power.
  

So this is what can happen if you let your ratings fall into the toilet.
Let's take a look at what steps you can take  to prevent this from happening to you.
 

• Don't over-charge.
  A credit card isn't free money.
  Learn to think of it as a mini-loan.
  They are "loaning" you money to buy an item and will change you interest, just like a bank loan, until you've paid them back - every last cent...
  
• Only buy what you really need.
  I know.
  Sometimes it just makes you feel better when you buy something.
  Stop it.
  Instead of thinking of the pleasure you're going to get from that unneeded item, think of the negative consequences that are going to occur later on - kind of like a credit hang-over.
  
• Do your best to pay off your entire credit card each month.
  Of course, if you have a lot of debt, you can't do this at first.
  But once you get your debt under control, make a pact with yourself that you will only charge what you can pay off each and every month.
  This way, you rarely have to pay any interest.
  You get the benefit of building good credit AND saving money.
  
• Make more than one payment per month.
  Have a little extra money? Go ahead and pay some on that credit card bill.
  There is no rule you have to wait until the bill is due.
  This will go a long way in increasing your "customer value".
  

Now that you know how bad credit card ratings can affect you, you can start taking the steps outlined in this article to pay off your debt and get great ratings.
Just think of how good you will feel knowing you don't have that debt hanging over your head and having banks begging to lend you money!