Personal Finance

How Credit Cards Work: A Beginner’s Guide

When you’re in debt, it can feel like you’re fighting an uphill battle. You need to manage your money so that you always have enough to make your payments on time. You need to decide which debts you should prioritize. And every month, interest charges cut into any progress you’ve made.

Getting out of this situation requires that you understand how to pay off debt in the most efficient way possible. To help with that, we’re going to cover all the tools and strategies you can use to both get rid of debt and prevent it going forward.

What is debt?

Debt is something that one party, known as the debtor, owes to another party, known as the creditor. In most cases, the debtor owes money to the creditor and must pay it back over time.

There are many forms of debt. If you purchase more on your credit card than you can pay back, then you’ll have credit card debt. If you purchase a home with a mortgage, then you’ll have mortgage debt.