Building good credit and keeping it

 When first starting your credit history you are going to need a few things to start off with. One of the easiest ways to start a credit line is by getting a credit card. Although this is a good  way to start your credit history this is also a good way to get into debt. When choosing your first credit card there are a few things you really have to look for and pay attention to. Those things include APR, Credit limit, and monthly fees.
APR
The APR is the Annual Percentage Rate.  When choosing a card you want the APR to be low if a card has an outstanding credit limit of $50,000 but the APR is 20%  your not really getting a good deal at all. The equation for an APR is : R(rate  for a payment period) x P(number of payment periods in a year).
Credit limit
Although a high credit limit of $50,000 seem like a great idea it is really unwise to have a credit limit that high if it is not really something you can afford. When first applying for credit cards you are going to get offered pretty high credit limits because you have no credit history to go by but if you end up getting one of those high dollar credit lines and you end up maxing it out you will be in debt for a very, very, very long time. My own mother for instance decided to start a home business and was able to get a credit limit of $45,000 and within the first 2 month of having the card it was maxed out by little items like supplies, desk, but very little of the actual product that she was selling. Its very easy to get carried away whit just the little things but they add up so you have to make sure you get a credit limit that you can afford. While building your credit history you also have to build will power.
Monthly fees 
Some credit cards use to have service charges that had to be paid once a month, this is now slowly becoming a thing of the past, many major cards are eliminating these monthly charges to attempt to get more people to apply for their credit cards but the major cards do not always except every applicant so some lesser known cards do still have these monthly charges. The amount of each charge really just depends on the card company, one may charge $6 per month and others may charge $20 per month. Reading the fine print on cards is extremely important. All the information that is in large letters is only there to sucker you in and grab your attention and the information that is going to force you to keep paying and force you to stay a customer is almost always at the bottom on the page in very tiny letters, and although its going to strain your eyes to read it is well worth it.

After finding the card that is right for you that has a low APR, credit limit that fits you budget and little or no extra monthly charges its time to make sure that you stay on top of payments. If the only payments you have to make a month are your credit card then you should have no problem, but if you have things like cell phone, car payments or even payments for school or books, you might become tempted to use your card to pay some of these other regular monthly expenses  but make sure to not make it a routine, because its not free money that your using. By using your card to  pay off other debts your really just doing your own form of consolidation  but the debt is still there.
If you stay in control of your payments and don’t charge too much you should be in the clear to build/establish great credit. Credit cards are not the only way to establish good credit, you have to make sure that all you monthly bills and expenses are paid on time. If money starts to get tight remember that its always best to pay a little bit, rather then nothing at all. If you don’t make an attempt to pay it doesn’t look
good on your record.
 Another way to stay out of trouble with credit cards is by not getting several cards. When you have more then one card its very easy forget how much is owned on which cards and how much of your credit limit your already used on each card. If you have to have multiple cards make sure to keep your statements in a book or find some way to keep a record of where you are at with each card and remember not to over spend on any of them because most card companies will charge you extra for going over your limit.
I hope this has been helpful for those of you building your credit up for the first time or for those of you whom are attempting to repair your damaged or bruised credit just always remember to find the card that is right for you that you wont be able to put yourself into too much debt with and make sure to try to make at least the minimum payments.