Credit Card Daily Periodic Rate Calculator

Ever wonder how much interest you would be racking up for each day that you are late in paying your credit card bills? Well, wonder no more. This calculator will help shed the light on the matter.

I punched in the figures for my outstanding bill amount (and yes, I was late paying my credit card bill this month) and after punching in the figures, and seeing how much I owed the bank with each day that I am late, I was motivated to get out there as soon as possible to pay the bill! Why let the bank make money out of me (with an 18% interest rate slapped on credit card debt, banks are getting a return that is way higher than what they can get in the stock market!).

Anyway, I just found this calculator to be a nifty tool to get me motivated to not be late in paying my credit card bills.

Make your Credit Card Work for YOU!

Credit cards are not bad things if you use them wisely. I pay mine in full each month as I see no reason why I should let them charge me interest for my purchases. I make sure that I have the money to pay for whatever I buy each month which means that every purchase needs to be thought of in advanced, in short, planned.

Let me tell you this: I didn't start out this way. I have had my fair share of credit card debt in the past which I worked very hard to pay down and off. I put a running tally of my credit card balance on my fridge. It gave me a constant reminder of why I should control my spending and at the end of each month, I would happily extract the amount that I paid and watch the outstanding balance reduce. For me, that was motivating.

Well, all that, I am proud to say, is in the past. Now, I make my credit cards work for me. I'm currently using my Maybank Amex a lot as each ringgit that I charge earns 5 treats points. I also pay my bills using my Maybank Amex whenever possible such as my Streamyx, phone and DBKL bills. In addition, I make sure that I pay my bills and make purchases over the weekends so that I get to enjoy the 5% cash back rewards. The cash back is capped up to RM50 a month and that adds up to a savings of RM600 a year!

The 5 treats points given for every ringgit spent adds up pretty quickly too and with 2000 treat points, you can redeem a RM10 voucher from one of the retailers participating in the treats points program. So yeah, if you're like me, you'll be saving a huge amount of money if you make your credit cards work for you instead of what most people out there do, work hard to pay off their credit cards.

In case you belong to the latter group, you might want to think about going on a shopping diet and concentrating on paying off your credit card debt instead. You'll be surprised to see how paying twice the minimum payment is going to cut down not only on the length of time that it'll take you to finish paying your debt but also how much less interest you'd be paying the credit card company. There are many calculators out there to help you figure out how long it'll take you to pay off your debt. Click here for one such credit card calculator.

Another way you can save on paying interest on your credit cards is if you use the zero% balance transfer programmes that banks offer from time to time. You've got to be very disciplined though. No going out on ANOTHER shopping spree just because credit card A's balance is zero now. Remember, if you use your credit cards, make sure that you have the means to pay them off NOW. Don't think about paying for purchases that you make now with future income because what that's going to mean is that you'd have even less to spend when the future comes because you have to pay for a purchase that you made months ago. Wouldn't that be such a drag?

Use your credit cards wisely. Make them work for you. Don't work for them! 

Free Annual Fee Credit Cards

Remember my earlier post about the Maybankard 2 credit cards (click on the link if you haven't read it --- What do you mean you haven't read it yet??? Just kidding!) which are free from annual fees and which, at the moment, are offering the lowest APR (annual percentage rate --- fancy term for what is otherwise known as yearly interest rate)? Well, I just received a phone call yesterday afternoon informing me that my credit cards are ready for collection.

Now I'm going to cancel my annual fee card credit card and that saves me RM180 a year (yes, that's the insane amount of money I have been paying my bank for generating business for them by using my credit card!!!).

What have you done to reduce your expenses?

the best credit card deal in town at the moment

I've got a Maybank credit card account that charges me a annual fee which I'm not too happy about. Although I've got nothing on it, i don't want to close the account.  However, I'd rather not pay the annual fee charges (it's bad enough that we have to pay the RM50 service tax on each of our credit cards as required by the goverment).

I've been doing some research on credit card deals and found that the Maybankard 2 cards gives you the best deal at the moment.

These cards come in platinum as well as gold. You get two cards when you sign up : an American Express and a choice of a Mastercard or Visa.

These are offer a lifetime free waiver of annual fees and the current finance charge is only 8.88% per annum which is the lowest finance charged offered in the current market.

You pay only RM50 service tax for BOTH cards instead of RM50 for each card.

On top of that, you get 5% cash back when use your American Express card during the weekends.  There is a limit to the cash back that you can earn though --- it's only up to RM50, but still, it is still savings and it all adds up.

If you're into point collecting, the Maybankard 2 American Express card rewards you with 5X the retail purchase amount spent on the card.

I'm all for saving money and if i can get the same services from the same bank for less money, why not?

I'm kissing my annual fee credit card goodbye and hello, Maybankard 2 cards!!!