Class 2 (using credit cards to get out of credit card debt)

I'm really struggling on how to teach this. I have a few ideas but unfortunately trying to write them down is difficult for me. If you have accidentally found my page because you researched something about credit cards whether it was grace periods questions about  interest or how to get out of debt quicker I'm going to tell you right now you might want to continue reading. I have found so many good uses for credit cards and new ideas are flowing in every day. Yes good uses. I have been to the bottom where there is no hope. Every tax return I get goes straight to credit cards because every year I go deeper in debt. Using this system which I accidentally found due to my wife accidentally canceling my debit card while ordering her a new one has created 3 credit cards with no interest. 2000 dollars a month will not have interest and I will save 40 dollars a month. 600 dollars of credit card debt has been paid off in only 2 months. There is no change in the way I live my life but I have more motivation to change my financial life. Are you ready to take a financial journey with me and start using everything you got to take your financial life back from your credit cards? Let's get started.

In a nutshell the way this works will be described by the next story.

Jake buys furniture on his credit card for 1200 dollars. After making a minimum payment for a year he pays 130 dollars principle and over 200 dollars interest. So after paying 330 dollars his loan is now 1070. After looking at his expenses he realizes has around 2000 dollars he spends every month. 1200 of that can be put on a credit card. It's the first of the month and he has till the 30th to make his next payment. Imediately he pays his credit card 300 dollars and his balance goes down to 770 dollars he then allows himself to use 300 dollars back on his credit card. He pays his phone bill groceries goes to the movies eats out and puts gas in his car. By his next paycheck  (weekly paycheck scenario) on the 8th his credit card is 1065 dollars he pays it 270 dollars adds that to the amount left over which is 5 (1070-1065=5) and he allows himself 280 dollars to put on his credit card. He pays some more bills buys groceries gets sick buys medicine and changes his oil. On the 15th he gets paid again. His cc balance is 1069 dollars. He pays his credit card 250 dollars then again pays his bills again. (Use your own imagination on what he buys)  The next week the 23rd he makes his last payment of the month of 250 dollars he allows himself to use 220 dollars because his normal credit card payment of 30 dollars is coming up so he deducts that from his allowed amount. At the end of the billing cycle Jake has paid to his credit card 1070 dollars he has used his credit card for all of his expenses spent 1040 dollars. His interest is zero. How? He paid his credit card balance in full by the due date. Even though it was in 4 payments. He also earns a 1 % cash back rewards of 10 dollars which he uses for account credit. So instead of paying 30 dollars and having 20 dollars eaten up in interest where his balance would be 1060 dollars he pays the exact same 30 dollars in a different way pays no interest and gets 10 dollars account credit making his new balance 1030 dollars. This works. Don't use your debit card for expenses your credit card can pay for.
Let's continue.
You need to know some things before you get started.
1 You need to know your credit cards due date. Most likely this is a duh answer but take a person who has it set up on auto payments they may not know. This is important to know.

2 You need to know your billing cycle beginning date and your ending date. Sometimes this can be hard to find. It's on the statement. Starts with a few days after your due date and ends usually one day before. For example a beginning date of sept. 20 usually ends on oct. 19th. This is important because after you complete a credit card cycle you don't want to start it over until the beginning of the cycle or else it will not be as effective.

(Billing cycle example)

3 find all expenses that can be put on a credit card. Write on a piece of paper what expenses can an cannot be put on credit cards. Go through your last statements and find how much you've spent and what of those expenses could of been put on a credit card.

4. Write EVERYTHING DOWN!! This by far is my most important rule.  You need to write everything down. Everything needs to be tracked so you know exactly where you are. At first I used a pen paper and envelope. That became annoying so I'm so glad xcel has finally produced a free smart phone version.

Unlimited access to your card will help. Smart phone laptop even a phone can have some access to your account.

In the next segment I will talk more on opening and closing statement dates as well as interest and cash back. I've decided to keep these short on certain points because I'm finding it hard to focus on it as an entire subject for just a few blogs. There's many parts to it and if I don't go in depth on every part I may not get to important keys of how to make this successful. More to come.