As much as credit cards are a handy spending tool, they are double the trouble if they are not taken care of and can give you problems that you could never have imagined when you first applied for the card.

Though credit cards are becoming a must have tool to have in this day and age, to book things such as concert tickets and theatre tickets over the phone or to buy goods at cheaper prices on the Internet, what you have top remember is that a credit card has a higher than normal APR attached to it, than other debt such as Personal Loans and Mortgages.

There are though a few simple and common sense practices that you can apply to your credit card and the way that you spend on it.

Firstly you can try and be a little choosier on the purchases that you make, we all know how handy the credit card is to use on purchases that you don?t have the ready cash for, but to buy goods that your income can simply support is a bad practice, as it will only lead you in to debt interest charges being added to the already obscene cost of the item and by the time that you have eventually paid it off, there?s a new model out and the one you have costs less than half the price new. Lesson: Avoid temptation.

This first practice could then lead to you only being able to afford to pay the minimum payments to your credit card, this has to be avoided also as it will leave you paying off debt for many a year and for goods again that are either past there sell by date or already in the back of your council refuge truck. Lesson: Pay more than the Minimum Payment.

Always check your credit card statement for any phantom payments taken from your card, though not a regular occurrence, mistakes can happen and it will also let you catch any fraud being applied to your credit card account. Lesson: Don?t pay for something you haven?t bought.

There are few things that the credit card issuer will also change about your card and they can do so when they please, one is to raise your APR, if they do so be prepare to move to a credit card issuer who can offer you a better deal. Lesson: Switch to save.

Another is the raising of your credit limit, again when you are checking your statement check this as well, as the hope of the credit card company is that you get the false security of being better off than you are and that if the credit card issuer says I can have it, then I must be able to afford to spend it. Lesson: Stay within your means.

Keep on top of your credit card and don?t let it get on top of you, by doing this you will master the card, rather than the MasterCard getting the better of you.