h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

We struggled for years to get to a point where we paid off the credit cards each month to avoid interest charges. Here are some ideas that helped.

Limit the number of credit cards you carry. One is convenient, ten is an illness.

To take advantage of the convience of a credit card and avoid spending money twice, write a check to the credit card company each time you make a credit purchase, save up the checks to send in at the end of the month. (don't purchase a non-vital item that you could not afford to write a check for by the end of the month)

I've one thing to say about getting a credit card: don't. Debit cards are *much* safer, since they only allow you to withdraw money that's in your account, i.e. you can't spend money you don't have.

On the other hand ... my wife & I use the Discover card, a credit card that pays US 1% of everything we buy. We pay off the balance religiously every month, so have never paid a finance charge. And we pay for everything we can with it - groceries, gas, everything - so we get a nice check once a year for a couple of hundred dollars.