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This is a guest post from Debt Lead, who has a debt consolidation website by Kimberly Credit Counseling.

Debt is a challenge we all face and we will let it ruin us if we aren’t careful. Here are a few minor details about credit cards and credit that we should watch out for.

Balance Transfers
Transferring the balances of your high interest cards to lower interest rate credit cards may seem like an effective way to reduce your debt, but the easy way out is sometimes a good idea gone wrong. Transferring a balance onto a credit card with a low introductory interest rate can potentially save you money on interest only if you STOP using it and focus on paying off the balance before that introductory rate expires! If you are like most people who continue to charge on the new credit card, you are just digging yourself into a financial hole with more debt once the lower interest rate is over. One thing to look into is that new purchases may pull an altogether different interest rate than the introductory rate so read the fine print very carefully.

Why Check Your Credit Report
You should pull your credit report at least once (if not twice) a year and make sure it has no errors on it. Taking off these errors can be crucial for getting better interest rates and even stopping identity theft from ruining your credit rating. Your credit report also affects your credit score, which determines how high your interest rates will be on future loans that you may need, like a mortgage or car loan. The Fair Credit Reporting Act allows for the correction or deletion of inaccurate, outdated or unverifiable information, provided that a reinvestigation into the disputed data sides in your favor. Unfortunately, negative but truthful data must stay put. A Chapter 7 bankruptcy filing, for instance, will remain on your credit report for 10 years, a Chapter 13, seven.

Charging Instead of Using Cash
Have you ever charged for services or merchandise when you had the money to pay with cash or debit? Purchases of $20 and $30 made several times a week over and over can add up quickly. Balances you can’t pay off each month mean paying interest charges and, subsequently, more money for items you could have bought outright, interest free.

Debt is everywhere so look and be alert about it! I hope that you learned or was reminded of what to watch out for in this article!