The CardBuzz blog
Card-by-card write-ups from our team, features, fees, lounge access and who each card actually suits. For the numbers after every cap and exclusion, head to the card pages.
5279 posts · Page 189 of 440 · View the full archive
How-To GuidesBuilding credit with irregular freelance income
Freelancers live with a cash-flow shape that traditional underwriting distrusts: income arrives in lumps, months vary wildly, and there is no employer confirming next month's salary. Card issuers' models were built for s
How-To GuidesBuilding credit as a student: options that actually exist
Students face a paradox: the best time to start building credit is years before you need it, but the tools for building it are designed for earners. No salary, no income tax returns, often no credit file — the standard u
How-To GuidesFirst-card mistakes that haunt your file for years
First cards are forgiving products attached to an unforgiving record. The card itself — its limit, its rewards, its fee — matters far less than the file it creates, and the file remembers. A missed payment in your first
How-To GuidesCredit utilisation for beginners: the ratio that shapes your score
Of everything that shapes your credit score, utilisation is the lever you control most directly and most often. It is a simple ratio: the balance reported on your cards divided by your total credit limit, expressed as a
How-To GuidesThe thin-file ladder: from first card to premium cards
Nobody's first credit card is a premium card. The journey from a thin file — a bureau record with little or no history — to the top-tier cards with their lounge networks and generous reward rates is a ladder, and each ru
How-To GuidesSecured vs unsecured starter cards: picking your first rung
When you have no credit history, issuers face a simple problem: they cannot tell whether you will repay. Secured and unsecured starter cards are the two answers the market offers to that problem. A secured card answers i
How-To GuidesNew to credit? the first 12 months that build your file
The first year of your credit life is the only part that writes itself onto a blank page. Before your first card, the credit bureaus — CIBIL, Experian, Equifax, CRIF High Mark — hold no record of you, and every lender th
How-To GuidesStanding instructions and mandate management: taming recurring payments
Recurring payments are the quiet plumbing of modern financial life: card bills on autopay, subscriptions debiting monthly, EMIs pulling on fixed dates, insurance premiums renewing annually. Each one runs on a mandate — a
How-To GuidesChoosing a bill-payment stack: what matters and what is noise
Ask ten credit card users how they pay their bills and you will hear ten different setups: the issuer's app for one card, a rewards app for another, UPI for a third, and a spreadsheet holding the whole thing together. So
How-To GuidesPayment app security: keeping your card details safe
Your credit card details now live in more places than ever: the issuer's app, one or two bill-payment apps, a wallet or two, and the browser autofill you set up years ago and forgot about. Each of those is a door, and yo
How-To GuidesFailed and delayed bill payments: the escalation ladder
Sooner or later, a credit card payment will go wrong. The app will show "success" while the issuer shows nothing. A debit will leave your account but never reach the card. A payment made on the due date will credit two d
How-To GuidesEarly payments and part-payments: does timing help your credit score
Among credit card users, few topics generate more folklore than payment timing. Pay twice a month to boost your score. Never pay before the statement generates. Always pay the day before the due date. Some of this advice