During this introductory period of 0% APR, your balance doesn't incur interest. Using the card during this time period is the same as using cash, because your payments will equal the amount of the purchases made at this time.
To the naïve college student ready to charge DVDs galore to a new toy, having a line of interest-free credit for the first twelve months sounds great. But new users must learn to mitigate their credit trigger fingers. After the introductory period, your card’s APR can skyrocket to as much as 24 percent, meaning that every dollar that was charged to that card during the initial period is now going to cost you $1.24 to repay.
Not all cards automatically increase their rates the second that the introductory period ends. You can prevent this by taking an elementary but frequently neglected step: Make payments on schedule. This sounds like common sense, but many college students dig themselves into a long-term hole by over charging on their cards. Over-charging does not necessarily consist of exceeding a credit limit; over-charging can also mean charging so much on your card that you’ve pushed your minimum payment into a new bracket of spending and interest that you cannot afford.
Most importantly, students must learn to maintain a good credit score, a figure which is calculated by the timeliness of your monthly payment and the amount you decide to pay each month.
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