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Not paying your debt on time
If you want to buy something and opt for a credit card, try to pay on time every time, if you want to avoid late charges that should be paid when you won’t have enough money.Â
“When I got my first credit card I ran it up immediately,” says Erica J. Sandberg, a personal finance expert. “It was an American Express card and I needed a winter coat. It was $120 or so, which at the time (just after college) was a fortune. So I paid in bits, and then missed a few payments, so I was hit with late charges. In the end, that stupid coat cost me many hundreds of dollars! It was an important lesson to learn. After that, I paid on time, no matter what.”