We’re talking credit card tricks. The expensive kind, in which over-limit fees, residual interest, default APRs, and other surprises suddenly appear as if by magic on your credit card statement.

No, your credit card company isn’t exactly dealing off the bottom of the deck. In each instance, they are within their rights to take your money, thanks to the often inscrutable terms of your cardholder agreement. But just like Three-Card Monte, these tricks can clean out your wallet faster than you can pick a card, any card.

Some of these tricks may soon be outlawed by the Federal Reserve Board’s proposed Unfair or Deceptive Acts or Practices reforms. The public submitted a record 56,000 comments on the reform proposals, which the Fed says it will issue in final form by the end of 2008.

In the meantime, keep your eye on your statement, your hand on your wallet and watch out for some sneaky credit card tricks.

• Credit Card Tricks to Watch Out For
• What should you Watch out when Getting a Credit Card?
• How can a Person Avoid Paying Interest when using a Credit Card?
• How do you Trick a Credit Card Company?
• Can you just Stop Using a Credit Card?

Credit Card Tricks to Watch Out For

1. The closing date mind crunch

Cardholder Lynnae McCoy thought she was doing the right thing when she switched from paper to paperless billing on her 0 percent APR card. When she didn’t receive an e-mail notice of payment due around her customary statement date, she chalked it up to a transition glitch and made her normal payment at the usual time of the month.

Read Also: How long does a Credit Card Balance Transfer take?

The following month, her online statement showed that a late fee and interest had not only bumped her balance by $100 but shot her 0 percent introductory APR up to 11.24 percent.

To McCoy’s surprise, it turns out the card company had changed her closing date to later in the month. “Apparently my payment was posted one day before the new billing cycle began, so I ended up making two payments in one billing cycle and none in the next,” McCoy says.

Liz Pulliam Weston, author of “Easy Money,” sees this happen frequently to folks who try to buff their credit score by paying off a chunk of credit card debt a month before they apply for a major loan.

“The way the credit card computer systems are set up, they are only looking for payments between the statement closing date and the due date,” she explains. “So if you paid early and failed to make a second payment in that little window, then you’re counted as late.”

In other words, early birds get the shaft. McCoy admits she’s one of the lucky ones because she didn’t have other outstanding card balances whose rates may have similarly been bumped due to a highly controversial practice known as “universal default.”

After repeated, lengthy phone calls, McCoy convinced her card company to drop the late fee and restore her 0 percent APR, “but they didn’t take the interest off. It was about $37. I just gave up and paid it. There came a point at which my time was worth more than $37.” The McCoys have since sworn off credit cards for good.

Solution? “Pay off the card,” says McCoy. “That and persist. If you’re thinking about going to paperless billing, really stay on top of it, and maybe even make a small extra payment in the middle of the cycle until you’re sure when your billing cycle is.”

Gail Hillebrand, senior attorney for Consumers Union has an additional suggestion: “I think it’s actually quite helpful to not take paperless billing. I do think this makes it harder for the customer to hold up their end of the bargain and pay on time.”

2. The over-limit limbo

At the other end of your minimum payment is the credit limit on your card. What happens to those Icarus-like cardholders whose spending flies above their credit limit? They get burned by an over-the-limit fee that not only typically exceeds $35, but keeps recurring every cycle that they remain out in the blue. It’s the credit card fee that keeps on taking.

There are numerous ways to accidentally soar over your limit. You can charge over it, of course. A stray automatic payment for an annual or semi-annual insurance bill could do it. If you’re close enough already, an annual fee or even additional interest on purchases could exceed the ceiling.

Some card companies also use this clever trick: They suddenly lower your limit below your balance and then ding you with an over-limit fee.

Weston says the practice runs counter to what those credit card TV ads would have you believe. “Everybody has seen the commercial where the guy is taking his boss out to dinner and his card gets turned down,” she says. “Well, typically, they won’t turn you down because they can charge you that fee. The time you get declined is when you’ve really screwed up and it has gone to collections. You can wind up paying these fees to infinity.”

Solution? Weston suggests using online personal finance programs such as Wasabi, Mint or Quicken to monitor closely your available credit.

Flying a little lower financially may be your best option, however. “Try to stay under half your limit,” says Hillebrand. “It helps avoid the problem, it’s better for your credit score and it also leaves some reserve if you have to get your car fixed.”

3. Toad in the hole

Credit card companies survive on the simple notion that, left unchecked, a good number of us will choose to remain indebted to them ad infinitum rather than curb our spending. They prefer us to be toads in the hole, jumping in but never actually climbing out.

Toward this end, some card issuers limit the number of payments you can make each month to one or two.

“This really upsets some folks because they get paid weekly, they want to pay their credit card bill every week, and some are being restricted from doing so,” says Weston. “If you’re talking little payments, the company may not want to deal with them. It’s not in their best interest to help you pay your debt anyway.”

Similarly, as we’ve seen, most card issuers won’t allow you to pay your bill ahead. If you’re heading off for a summer in Tuscany, you’ll still need to land your monthly payments within the payment window (between statement date and payment due date) or suffer for it. And that window has recently been shrinking from 22 days to 20 days on some cards, further tightening the screws.

“You’re talking about prepaying, you’re not talking about any kind of favor,” says Hillebrand. “I think it’s a policy issue that the issuers should be looking at, especially now because its really important to not miss a minimum payment because the consequences can be so drastic.”

Solution? “Automated payments that pay your minimum every month is the best way to go about that,” says Weston. “Set it up through your credit card because they’re the ones who know the minimums. If you don’t do it that way, you can just look at the balance you typically carry, figure out what your average minimum payment is, double or triple that and make that your automatic payment.”

4. The ghost account

Want to try something really scary? Close a credit card account without looking at the final statement. The small balance left behind — often a dab of interest or occasionally a fee for making your final payment by phone — can grow to a monster in no time once the domino effect of late fees, default APR and interest get rolling.

The most common ghost in a closed account is residual interest; that is, interest that was generated between the time the bill was issued and your payment was received. It can be darn hard to see, but it will haunt you if you ignore it.

“It’s very confusing, when you look at your online statement in particular, to figure out how much you actually owe,” says Hillebrand. “The statement balance will be one thing and the actual balance will be something different. How do I get to zero is really the question that should be easier for the consumer to answer.”

Solution? “The best way to avoid residual interest/finance charges is to make sure the balance is paid in full,” says American Express spokeswoman Mona Hamouly. “Do not stop making payments after the account is canceled. Payments must continue to be made by the payment due date each month until the balance is paid in full.”

Also, to protect your credit score, be sure to request a letter from your card company confirming that the account was closed at your request, not theirs. Hamouly says AmEx mails confirmation letters at their card member’s request within 10-12 days of the closure date.

Weston adds this tip: “Hang onto that last statement so you can prove you paid it off.”

5. Revenge of the sock puppet

There is so much confusion over the impact that closing a credit card will have on one’s credit score that some cardholders simply choose to “sock-drawer” their unused cards — that is, they tuck them in the back of their sock drawer and forget them.“It’s very hard to give any general rules of thumb because it depends in part on how many cards you already have,” says Hillebrand.

“If you have too many cards, closing a unused one can help you. But if your other cards are maxed out or close to maxed out, closing an unused card will up your utilization rate, making it look like you’re using more of your available credit, and that’s going to hurt your credit score.”

The downside to “sock-drawering” is its potential for identity theft. If someone steals or clones your card and has its statements sent to them, they could quickly run it up without your knowledge.

Although “sock-drawering” is one card trick we usually play on ourselves, Weston says card companies are increasingly getting in on this game.

“In this environment where companies are very concerned about profits, they are much more willing to shut down an unused account than they have been in the past,” she says. “I just had one shut down from underneath me that I had for over 10 years; I never used it anymore and boom, they closed it. It didn’t really hurt my credit score, but if you had a marginal score you were trying to improve, that could really hurt.”

Solution? “If you have too many cards and your credit score is good, 750 or above, you can close some of your more recent cards,” says Weston. “Do it slowly over time. You want to keep your oldest and your highest limit cards active.

Charge something small to these accounts, such as newspaper or magazine subscriptions, and have it paid automatically. That will keep them active so they’re still showing on your credit report and are less likely to be closed.”

What should you Watch out when Getting a Credit Card?

Here’s a checklist of some things to look at when you choose a credit card:

Annual Percentage Rate (APR). This is the cost of borrowing on the card, if you don’t pay the whole balance off each month. You can compare the APR for different cards which will help you to choose the cheapest. You should also compare other things about the cards, for example, fees, charges and incentives

Minimum repayment. If you don’t pay off the balance each month, you will be asked to repay a minimum amount. This is typically around 3% of the balance due or £5, whichever is higher

Annual fee. Some cards charge a fee each year for use of the card. The fee is added to the amount due and you will have to pay interest on the fee as well as on your spending, unless you pay it in full

Charges. Check in the credit agreement what other charges apply to the card. You will usually be charged for going over your credit limit, for using the card abroad and for late payments

Introductory interest rates. This is where you start off paying a low rate of interest or none at all. The rate then increases after a certain amount of time. For example, it could increase after six months or from a certain date. You’ll often see an introductory rate for balance transfers. If you are comparing cards, look at how long the introductory rate lasts as well as the interest rate it changes to at the end of the introductory period

Loyalty points or rewards. The points add up depending on the amount you spend and you can then use them to buy goods. Sometimes this is in particular shops. Check how and where the rewards can be used and think about how likely you are to use them

Cash back. This is where you get money refunded to your card, depending on how much you spend. Check that you are likely to qualify for the cash back. For example, it may only apply if you pay your balance in full each month. A lower interest rate may be a better deal.

How can a Person Avoid Paying Interest when using a Credit Card?

No matter how high your credit card interest rates rise, you should avoid paying this extra money in interest charges that goes directly onto your lender’s bottom line.

Here are four ways:

1. Use Your Grace Period

This could be the simplest way to avoid paying credit card interest, but a lot of people don’t know about it. Most people think they have only a month to pay off a credit card bill. Your grace period gives you more time, and these extra weeks can help a lot.

Knowing your card’s grace period means you know the exact number of days you have to pay your bill without incurring interest charges on the previous month’s balance.

A typical grace period starts on the last day of your billing cycle and runs through the due date for that cycle. Usually, this means you have about three weeks to pay off purchases after the monthly billing period ends.

To use your grace period, you have to know your card’s billing cycle and its due date. These cycles seldom line up with a calendar month, and they can change by a day or two each month, so you have to pay attention.

For example, a credit card’s billing cycle may start on the 23rd of one month and end on the same day a month later, such as May 23 to June 23. The payment due date for this billing cycle could be July 17. So the interest-free grace period is June 24 to July 17 — about three weeks.

You can optimize your grace period even more by making your biggest new purchases at the beginning of your card’s billing cycle. This gives more time — up to seven weeks — to pay off the purchase without incurring interest charges for those purchases.

Your credit card statement will always lay out the billing cycle dates and the due date. It may not use the term “grace period” to describe this period of time, however.

The best credit cards have mobile apps that clearly show your statement balance and your due date along with your minimum payment. Your minimum payment won’t be enough to pay off your new purchases without interest, but your statement balance will.

2. Pay as You Buy

If you really want to be diligent and avoid any possibility of paying interest charges, you should pay off new purchases on your credit card as you make the purchases. Credit card companies will accept payment any time you want — even multiple times in a month.

Every time you make a purchase with your credit card, you can immediately transfer money —  from your bank account to the credit card company — for the same amount.

This strategy can require some extra work, but it sets you up for healthy spending habits. You’re always aware of your credit card balance. You’ll never make a late payment. Your monthly statement will show no balance.

You could make this part of your daily or weekly routine. Every Saturday morning, for example, you could add up the week’s purchases and send in a corresponding credit card payment.

Now, mobile apps let you see your new purchases and pay them with your connected bank account instantly. Using this strategy means you’ll never have to worry about exceeding your credit limit. Because of your card’s cash back rewards. If your card pays 3% cash back on gas, why not claim the money?

On a $40 tank of gas, you’d get $1.20 cash back. If you buy gas four times a month, you’d get $4.80 cash back which you can apply directly to your statement balance.

Also, since your credit report reflects how much of your credit you actually use, keeping a card with no balance can help your credit score.

3. Get a Balance Transfer Card

This is a one-time move, but if your high credit card balance is piling up a large amount of interest, you could transfer the balance to a 0% intro APR card. A lot of credit cards have introductory offers of no interest for up to 18 months for balance transfers.

By dividing your balance transfer amount into 18 months of payments with no interest, your new card can help you pay off the balance without paying interest along the way.

But this strategy comes with a few big caveats:

• If you don’t pay the balance off during the promotional period, you may be charged interest on the entire amount — even the part of the balance you’ve already paid off.
• Adding new purchases to the new credit card will cause problems. It will increase your monthly payments and jeopardize your goal of paying off the credit card debt with no interest.
• When the introductory period ends, the new card’s ongoing interest rate could be higher than the rate you were paying before your balance transfer. Look beyond the low annual percentage rate promotion on these no APR credit cards unless you know for certain you’ll get the balance paid off in time.

You’d need to get a card designed for balance transfers. A lot of low or no APR intro credit card offers exclude balance transfers and cash advances.

4. Pay The Full Balance Each Month

Cardholders who want a simple way to avoid high interest all know about this strategy: paying off the card’s full balance each month.

This is a simple solution which requires less nuance than using your grace period, but it requires discipline. You’d have to make sure you never spent more in a month than you could afford to pay off at the end of the billing cycle.

If you use your credit card only at the grocery store or only on gasoline, paying off your entire outstanding balance shouldn’t be all that difficult. It’ll likely fall within your monthly budget anyway.

But if you make extra credit card purchases and you can’t afford to pay off the full balance at the end of the month, you’d be setting yourself up for a lot of finance charges the next month and beyond.

This method has a bonus effect: Paying your large, outstanding balance on time each month will improve your credit score. A higher credit score could give you access to lower interest rates on other kinds of borrowing such as auto loans or personal loans.

How do you Trick a Credit Card Company?

Credit card companies really want you to use their cards. So, if you know how to beat the credit card companies at their own game you can earn rewards, get fees waived, and more.

Like most casinos, credit card issuers are always very profitable. But unlike visitors to a casino, it’s always possible to “beat the house” when you use your credit card the right way. Some of the tricks are fairly simple, or obvious, while others take a certain amount of clever planning.

Here are seven ways that you can beat the credit card companies at their own game.

1. Avoid interest charges by paying your statement balances in full

One of the big ways that credit card issuers make money is through interest payments. Furthermore, about half of all American credit card users report carrying a balance on their credit cards all or part of the year. But, when you pay your statement balance in full each month, you can always avoid interest charges. There’s even a credit card industry term for those who don’t pay interest. They call us “deadbeats.”

2. Maximize your grace period

A credit card’s grace period is the time between when your statement closes and when your payment is due—typically 21 to 25 days. When you pay your balance in full before your due date, then you can avoid interest charges. This grace period can amount to a free loan from the credit card issuers, and you’ll want to make the most of it.

For example, if you make a large purchase at the beginning of your statement period, then you’ll have 51 to 55 days before the payment is due. This can equate to a free loan for nearly two months.

As long as you’re aware of how this works, and when your card’s statement period ends, you can postpone a large charge until the next statement period to have the longest possible time to pay off your charges without incurring interest.

3. Get great sign-up bonuses

The credit card industry is so incredibly competitive that they’re actually willing to pay you just to give their products a try. Nearly all card issuers will offer new applicants generous sign-up bonuses in the form of points, miles or cash back.

These offers can be incredibly generous, and there’s no reason why you can’t take advantage of them as often as you want, although some card issuers restrict the number of times you can sign up for their cards. Just make sure that you can manage all of your cards responsibly, and don’t use them to go into debt.

You’ll also want to make sure you can comfortably reach the minimum spending requirements, without making any unnecessary purchases.

4. Get your fees waived

One of the ways that credit card issuers make money is by charging you fees. These fees can include annual fees, late fees, foreign transaction fees and others. However, because the industry is so competitive, it’s very common for card issuers to waive fees upon request.

So, if you happen to accidentally incur a late fee, or if you just don’t feel like paying an annual fee, contact your card issuer and ask to have it waived. Also, it might help to let them know that you are considering closing your account because of the fee.

5. Ask for special offers

If you have a rewards card, every now and then you’ll probably receive an offer to receive additional rewards for using your card a bit more. But what few people realize is that you can call your card issuers and simply ask to have a promotional offer applied to your account.

It won’t always work, but it never hurts to ask. Sometimes, a card issuer might have multiple offers available, and let you choose.

6. Use all of their benefits

Many premium travel reward cards come with an extensive list of travel insurance and purchase protection benefits. Some of them, like accidental death insurance, are ones that you never hope to use, while others can be quite valuable. If you take a few minutes to read through your card’s guide to benefits, you’ll certainly find some that you can use.

For example, accidental damage and theft protection is great for purchasing fragile electronics, or perhaps a new drone that might crash. Price protection policies can offer you a refund when an item goes on sale, or even if you just find it for a lower price elsewhere. And your card’s travel protections can cover you when your luggage is lost or delayed, or even when your flight is cancelled due to weather, and you need to spend extra on a hotel and food.

7. Get a new card, without applying for a new account

If you’re not happy with the card you have, you don’t have to cancel your account. What you can often do is request a product change to a different card, without filling out a new application.

This allows you to keep your account open and its history remains on your credit report, but you won’t receive a sign-up bonus.

Can you just Stop Using a Credit Card?

Credit cards offer convenience, security, and rewards. Overspend with a credit card, however, and the interest and fees can bury you. Credit card companies just love credit card users like this. They pay interest and late fees. They spend more on their credit cards, too.

This means credit card companies can charge merchants for more transactions. Altogether, these credit card users are the ones who are putting food on the table.

And putting more money in the pockets of credit card issuers means you’re putting less money in your own pocket. So the goal should be to stop these bad credit card habits. Instead, work to get to a place where you can use credit responsibly. This means taking advantage of rewards programs but never paying interest or fees.

Here are 10 tips to stop using credit cards.

1. Look at your spending carefully

Deep down, maybe you know your credit card habits have come about because you’re spending more than you earn. And this is a self-perpetuating issue. Once you get stuck in the cycle of paying interest and fees, it becomes harder and harder to get back to spending less than you earn.

So your first step is to track your spending faithfully. You can do this on a pen and paper. Or an Excel spreadsheet. Or you can use a program like Mint.com that will automatically import your transactions.

The key here is to total up all of your spending from all sources–credit cards, checking account, savings, and cash. Keep this up for at least a month, and you’ll see where you’re spending money you shouldn’t spend. Keep it up for multiple months in a row, and you’re likely to find that you automatically reduce your spending.

2. Create a new budget

Once you’ve tracked your budget for a month or two, you can see what you are spending versus what you should be spending. Now it’s time to actually create a new budget. This budget should be based on the money you actually make each month.

Again, you can do this in different ways. You can stick to cash-only spending. Or you can use a program like as Personal Capital or Money Patrol to track where you stand in various budget categories. Either way, you’ll need to use discipline to make sure you stick to your budget. The best way to do this is to cut back on spending slowly, particularly in essential areas like groceries.

Try to take your grocery spending from $500 per month to $200 per month overnight, and you’ll probably fail. But you can succeed by cutting just $20 per week from your spending. Keep doing this until you reach a comfortable, but frugal, level of grocery spending.

You can do this with other areas of your budget, too. The key is simply to budget for what you need and then stick to the budget. This will be more possible if you consistently check in on your spending. Make this a habit, and you’ll find you’re more likely to stick to your budget.

3. Build an emergency fund

This step can take some time, especially if you’re in the habit of overspending rather than saving. But find places where you can stash back even $10 per week. Over time, you’ll build up a pad of savings that can help you in an emergency.

Start by opening a high-yield savings account. Then, begin with the first goal of putting about $1,000 into the emergency fund. Sure, you’ll eventually want to save three to six months’ worth of expenses. But this can take a really long time. Starting with this smaller goal lets you be prepared for minor emergencies, which can help you cut back on credit card spending.

Remember: an emergency fund is to be used in true emergencies only. This doesn’t take the place of your credit card. The purpose of the emergency fund is to remain untouched for regular expenses but accesible when major spending is required. Some examples might be the loss of a job or a significant medical expense.

4. Stop using your credit cards

Building up an emergency fund is essential for this step to start working. If you’ve consistently used your credit card for minor emergencies, you’re relying on it too much. When you have a bit of money in savings, you can reduce your credit card dependency. And this can let you stop using your credit cards.

Now that you’re living on a budget, you should not need to rely on your credit cards anymore. Instead, you should only be spending the money that actually comes into your bank account each month.

So stop using your credit cards. You might want to take baby steps here. Start by simply leaving the cards at home all the time. Then remove them from your PayPal account and other automatic online payment options. Then, start shredding them, which will lead you to the next step.

5. Destroy your credit cards except for one or two

You can play this one of two ways. If you’re disciplined enough, you can simply destroy the physical credit cards and remove them from your online accounts. This means you’ll stop spending on the cards but won’t actually close the accounts. This is because closing old credit card accounts can actually damage your credit score.

But if you have a serious problem, this may not be enough to stop your overspending. Instead, you may need to go as far as actually closing your credit card accounts. Overspending, after all, is a larger issue than getting a better rate on your next mortgage. So if you want to really take away your ability to overspend on credit, you can close the accounts.

However, you’ll only be able to close accounts that have no outstanding balance. You may want to skip to step seven if all of your cards have an outstanding balance.

6. Lock away your remaining credit card

Now that you have one credit card left, realize that you will not be using this card for everyday spending; for now, cash is king. Put your remaining credit card out of sight. Lock it away. We have even heard of some people who put their credit card into a cup of water in the freezer. The extra step of breaking a block of ice to get to your credit may be an extra demotivator.

Why keep a credit card at all? You may need it in a real emergency before you emergency fund is fully built up. But making it difficult to access will mean you’re less likely to use it for non-emergencies.

7. Consolidate your balances onto one or two cards

Gather the latest statements for the cards containing balances. Choose one or two with the lowest interest rates, and consolidate your balances onto these cards. By calling the credit card company, you can provide the information for your other cards with balances.

Then they will initiate a balance transfer. Ask for a transfer fee waiver. If they aren’t willing to waive the balance transfer fee, consider using a different card to consolidate your balance or apply for a great balance transfer credit card.

Another option is to look at an unsecured personal loan to consolidate your balances. This type of loan can get you into a lower interest rate and help you pay off your credit card debt more quickly. Plus, once you’ve consolidated debt off of some of your cards, you can then close those zero-balance accounts.

What if you don’t have good enough credit or enough available credit to consolidate your debt? In this case, you’ll need to skip to steps eight and nine. You can make this work without consolidation. Consolidation can just make it easier.

8. Enact a cash-only policy

Once you’ve lived without your credit cards on hand for a couple of months, your budget should be in a good place. Now you know what you can and need to spend each month. So now you can enact a cash-only policy.

This doesn’t necessarily mean you have to spend physical cash. But that can be a good idea. Spending cash actually helps you spend less money. But spending cash can also be unwieldy at times. So another option is to keep cash on-hand for certain expenses, such as groceries, but to use your debit card for other expenses.

The key is that you have to actually have the money in hand–either physically or in your bank account–to spend it. Getting into the swing of this can be difficult. But, trust me, it’s worth the learning curve. Once you start spending only what’s coming in, you can turn your attention to spending less than what you make. And this is how you’ll really start to make financial progress.

9. Pay down your balances

Now it’s time to start reversing the damage you’ve done with your bad credit card habits. You’ll likely need to pay more than the minimum payments on your accounts to start getting out of debt. So use that money that you’ve suddenly found in your now-strict budget to get this done.

There are a couple of different ways to pay down your balances. And, really, either one is sufficient, as long as you keep on keeping on. One option is the Debt Snowball method popularized by Dave Ramsey. This has you start paying off your smallest balance first. Once that balance is paid off, apply its minimum payment and any extra money to the next-smallest balance.

The advantage of the Debt Snowball is that you get some quick wins upfront. This can help you stay on track as you work towards paying off larger and larger balances.

The other option is the Debt Avalanche. This has you start with the highest-interest account first. Then pay off lower-interest cards as you move through your debts. The advantage of this approach is that you wind up paying less interest over time.

Read Also: Best Low-interest Credit Cards

The Debt Avalanche is the most logical way to pay off your debts. But it doesn’t make a huge difference unless you’re in a lot of debt or have a big differential between your interest rates.

You can check out a more in-depth discussion of these two options here. But, really, the main issue is that you start paying off your debts and keep on with it until your credit cards are paid off.

10. Check your progress each month

Paying off debt takes time and dedication. You’ll need to keep moving forward towards your goals, even when things get tough. One way to keep making progress is to see how far you’ve come.

The best option is to come up with a way to consistently track your balances each month. You’re already checking in on your spending frequently, right? Well, make a chart where you keep track of your credit card balances month after month, and watch as they disappear.

You can do this with some budget-tracking softwares. Or you can create your own spreadsheet for tracking your credit card balances. Either way, be sure you’re checking in at least once a month to keep track of your progress. Seeing how far you’ve come will help you keep moving forward until you finally break your bad credit card habits and reverse the damage they’ve done.