Whether you had trouble using your credit card during Nintendo firmware troubles earlier this year or just want to have better control over your credit, there’s an app for that. Nowadays, legitimate credit card apps serve as secure and highly convenient ways for people to monitor and optimise the way they use credit cards.
If you’re still not convinced, here are five more reasons to get that app you’ve been considering downloading for the last couple of months.
1- Contactless Payments
Considering the fact that the world still hasn’t rid itself of COVID-19, there’s still a need for constant social distancing in order to stay safe. And the more you can pay for your transactions through contactless means, the better you can avoid contact with people who might be carrying the disease. This is why contactless payments soared across the globe this year. It’s simply the safest way to do transactions right now.
2- Credit Insights
If you want to reach and/or maintain a high credit score, many credit card apps offer credit score insights that can help you do just that. This includes your credit history as well as your credit utilisation ratio (CUR), a crucial aspect in calculating your overall score.
In a nutshell, your CUR reflects the percentage of available credit you’ve already used. Keeping it under 30% tells credit bureaus that you’re not a credit hungry user, and that you’re consistently able to pay off your balances – which brings us to our next point.
3- Automated Payments
One of the most common features across different types of credit card apps is the ability to set up automated payments. This makes sure you don’t miss any payments and helps keep your credit history clean, which is crucial to slowly building your credit score. This is why, a post on how to improve your credit score by Petal Card outlines how automatic payments is considered one of the keys to improving credit.
Automating payments also allows you to not have to constantly worry about manually doing this task every month or so. Ideally, if you’re a frequent credit user, you should be setting up balance payments at least twice a month. And you can set up virtually any credit card app to do just that.
4- Multiple Account Management
If your app isn’t dedicated to a specific card or credit provider, you might be able to use it to manage different credit cards. CRED is one such app, and it allows you to manage multiple accounts, as well as analyse your overall credit score based on your account history. Having multiple credit cards can allow you to keep your credit limit – along with your CUR – at reasonable levels. And with an app to manage the balances on those cards, you can be sure not to miss any payments.
5- Rewards
Apps like CRED are actually designed for rewarding customers who pay their balances on time. The rewards systems of credit card apps typically include prizes from clothing retailers, restaurants, and even Airbnb stays. Apps dedicated to certain credit providers also make it easier to view and assess the provider’s rewards ladder through dedicated sections on the app.
And as an incentive to use the apps, unique rewards may also be given out exclusively to cardholders who are also app users. If you’re going to use a credit card anyway, using the corresponding app can allow you to maximise any type of credit rewards system.
Choosing the right credit card app helps you to optimise the way you use your credit. If you’ve always wanted a perfect credit score of 900, there’s an app that can help you work your way there, too.
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