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Credit card mistakes are extremely common, regardless of whether they are due to carelessness, financial problems, or confusion. While the fallout to the borrower can be costly, there are a variety of mistakes in which your credit card company won’t actually mind you make. By failing to use your credit card responsibly, your credit card company can actually profit from your mistakes. Identifying these potential problems can help you to avoid them in the future.

Making Only the Minimum Payment

Making only the minimum payment on your debt is a mistake that is typically not a concern to most credit cards. To help your credit, it is important that you are paying at least the minimum payment, but doing so is not likely to get your debt paid off. Your interest rate will likely cause your debt to grow, and in some cases your outstanding balance will continue to grow despite consistently paying the minimum required amount.

New rules established by the Credit CARD Act of 2009 make it easier for you to determine how long it will take you to pay off your credit card debt by simply making the minimum payment. For example, if you have a credit card with a 14% interest rate and a balance of $5,000, only making the minimum payment of $100 will take you over 20 years to pay off the debt. You will also pay over $6,000 in interest. By simply increasing your monthly payment to $150, your debt could be paid off in as little as four years, and the amount of interest you pay will be less than $1,400. Checking your credit score after you repay this debt you will also be more likely to see a positive credit history than you would if you simply paid the minimum required payment.

Missing a Payment

Another one of the major credit card mistakes you can make that your lender won’t mind is to miss a payment. This error can be extremely profitable if the borrower catches back up and eventually corrects their mistake. Interest is incurred during this time, and the card issuer is also likely to issue a late fee which is usually around $30. Some credit card companies will also increase the interest rate on the cardholder’s account, and this can make any future balances more expensive to the borrower and more profitable for the lender.

You should also note that missing a payment is quite different from defaulting on your payment or refusing to pay. This type of delinquency is known as non-default. Most major credit card companies note that 2-10% of their borrowers are situated in that stage of delinquency. By utilizing credit monitoring services, you can keep up-to-date with how this mistake is affecting your credits core.

Ignoring Your Monthly Billing Statement

Whether your monthly billing statement is sent to you via mail or you access it online, it is important to ensure that you view it. Mistakes can happen, so it is important that your review your monthly statement to make sure that no charges have been placed on it in error. If unfamiliar charges suddenly appear on your bill, this can be a sign of identity theft, so it is important to contact your lender right away to report any discrepancies.

Lenders don’t mind when borrowers neglect to read their statements. Reading through your bill can help you to understand how long you will need to pay off your debt. Credit card companies, who are in the business of making money off of the interest you pay on your outstanding balances, aren’t concerned if you miss this step. The numbers outlined on your bill could provide you with a wakeup call to increase the amount you are paying each month in order to get your debt paid off.

Certain credit card mistakes can be costly to you as the borrower, but they can result in a profit for the lending company. By identifying these mistakes, you can work to avoid them when using your credit card in the future.

With the 2013 advent of the seven-day switch policy in the UK, you can, in theory, be fully transitioned from one bank account to the next within the span of one week. However, switching bank accounts is still a relatively big decision that can impact your other finances and doesn’t need to be made lightly. Simply because you can switch from one banking institution to another in just a few short days doesn’t mean that you necessarily should, especially if you have strong ties to the institution that includes other accounts and investments. Here are some reasons to avoid switching bank accounts.

Linked Accounts
If you have a chequing, savings, and mortgage account with the same institution, moving one of your accounts away can disrupt your transfer habits. When accounts with the same institution are linked online, it’s easy to transfer money. If you move money to another institution, it’s not quite as simple to get money from one account to the next. Likewise, if you and your spouse have accounts at the same bank and are able to easily send each other funds because you have linked the accounts – moving to a new bank will mean new hassles when it comes to sharing finances.

Easy Account Management
On top of losing the ease of transferring money from one account to the next, switching bank accounts also means that you can’t make all of your deposits with the same institutions. This means two trips to two banks to deposit checks and managing your accounting with two separate websites and apps. When you move to a new bank you can’t see all of your account data on the same screen and easily move money around within a few seconds. While it may be possible to send money from one account to a different one with a second bank, the transfer will never be instantaneous.

Fees
If you switch bank accounts at the promise of a free account, bear in mind that hidden charges may await you that your current bank doesn’t have. If you face large fees for deposits over a certain amount of money, for instance, moving to a new bank may not be worth it after all. Similarly, in order to enjoy the same leniency buffer on overdraft situations that you have with your current bank account, you may need to upgrade to a paid chequing account with your new institution. The future penalty fees and charges that you may be subjected to at a new bank must be considered when you weigh out whether or not to switch bank accounts. If they are greater than what your current bank offers, any other savings will slowly be negated.

History
When you have history with a bank you sometimes have more weight to your requests. For instance, if you want to get fees waived or open a new loan with a good interest rate, having a positive history may work in your favour. You can point out your loyalty to the bank when you are asking for a good rate or decrease in fees and they may oblige you to keep you on as a customer. On the other hand, if you don’t have a positive history with a bank simply because you are a very new customer, you may not have the same pull when it comes to getting good benefits out of your accounts. Keep your relationship with the bank in mind, and don’t switch if you have reason to believe that a lengthy relationship with the institution could work in your favour in the near future.

Switching bank accounts is a relatively big decision, especially when you have many bills that are automatically paid out of a current account. While the seven-day switch promises to make the change low stress, you may still need to ensure that all of your creditors have your new bank account information for payments. In addition, you should consider whether or not your new bank will have a convenient number of cash point machines in the right places. If getting cash from your account becomes a very difficult task, then switching bank accounts may not end up feeling like a very smart decision.