Free Credit Card Tips by Credit Federal. Avoid extra fees and high interest rates:

Keep Interest Rates Down: Credit card issuers used a system called "Universal Default" or; more recently, a "Change of Terms" clause. This means, even if you pay your credit card bills on time, your insterest rate can be increased if you are late paying another bill, such as your electrical bill.

Convenience Checks: Never use those "Convenience Checks" your card issuer sends to you. The fee may be 3% of the amount, and the interest is typically much higher than the rate you'd pay for normal card charges. To avoid temptation, tell your card issuer to stop sending those convenience checks to you.

No-Swipe Cards: Those "Tap-and-Go", no swipe, no signature cards may pose a threat to your card's security. Although issuers claim that the radio frequency codes in the no-swipe cards are secure, tests by the University of Massachusetts revealed that the frequency can be intercepted and can give hackers your card information.

Pay Credit Card Bills Ontime - Avoid Phone Payments: If your card payment is about to be late and you are trying to avoid the late fee by paying by phone, be forewarned. Some credit card issuers charge a fee for paying credit card bills over the phone, up to $10 or $15 per occurrence. Why do they charge this fee? Because if they didn't, they know many cardholders would wait until the last second every month to pay their bills. Some would say card companies charge the phone payment fee to encourage you to send in your payment late and get charged with the higher late fee than the phone fee.