Using Google Calendar and a spreadsheet to remind you of payments

It's very important to make your credit card payments on time or else by most credit card terms, you'll be giving them carte blanche to jack up your APR to a considerable rate (usually above 25%) not to mention the negative effect it can have on your credit. What's also important is paying off your balance before your 0% APR expires at which point, your APR will jump up to the Prime Rate plus a rate (9.99% for many Chase cards) designated by the issuer, which generally means 18% or higher.

I use two tools to make sure that I don't falter on either of these. The first of these is a calendar. Any calendar that is able to provide you with daily reminders would work (including a paper calendar if you look at it every day), but I use Google Calendar.

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For each card I have that has a balance, I add a monthly recurring reminder to make a payment several days before it's due. Since I use Google Calendar for my work, I check it daily to see what's on my agenda for the day. However, if you're not someone who checks their calendar every day, you can tell it to send you either an SMS or e-mail reminder.

Click for largerThe second tool I use is a spreadsheet containing information for all my accounts including the APR, when the promo APR expires, annual fee and roughly what the balance is. I check this spreadsheet every time I make a credit card payment (which, of course I'm reminded of by Google Calendar) so that I know that a 0 APR might be ending soon. This way, I know to transfer money back to my bank account so it's available to pay off an entire balance when it needs to be.