Finance
The minimum shrinks as your balance falls, which is why it stretches a debt out for decades. What the payment is actually made of, and why freezing it at today's amount changes the outcome more than any other single decision.
Carrying a balance to build credit, closing old cards to tidy up, avoiding checking your own report. Twelve pieces of folklore that circulate as advice, why each is wrong, and what the mechanism actually is.
The share of your available credit you are using is recalculated every month, which makes it the only major scoring factor you can change quickly. How it is measured, per card and overall, and why the timing of your payment matters.
Only one kind of credit check affects your score, and its effect is smaller and shorter than most people fear. What separates the two, how rate shopping is treated, and when inquiries are genuinely worth avoiding.
Most negative entries fall off after seven years, but the clock starts earlier than people expect and their weight fades long before they disappear. What the limits are, when the countdown begins, and what paying does not change.
Your report is free, checking it cannot hurt your score, and errors on it are common enough to be worth finding. Where to get the real thing, what to read line by line, and how to dispute what is wrong.
Two factors decide most of your score, and one of them can be changed in a single billing cycle. What actually moves the number, in the order worth doing it, and how long each change takes to show up.
Cashback, points and miles are real money, but only for people who pay in full. Here is how to work out what a card is actually worth to you, and the maths that makes rewards a losing game.
Most credit score advice is folklore. Here is what the scoring factors really are, ranked by weight, and the common "tips" that do nothing or actively hurt.
A 0% offer is not free. There is a transfer fee, a deadline, and a rule about new purchases that turns a good deal into an expensive one. The calculation, and the three traps.
Interest is charged daily, not monthly, and carrying any balance quietly switches off the grace period on everything you buy afterwards. The mechanics, and the rule that costs people the most.