Mastering Credit Cards: Making Them Work For You

Properly managed credit cards are powerful credit-building tools, but credit card debt is detrimental to credit scores. High debt indicates risk to lenders, affecting 30% of FICO scores through the 'Amounts Owed' category. Revolving utilization ratio, the balance-to-limit percentage, should be low to protect scores. Responsible use, like paying full balances monthly and on time, builds good credit, while overspending can lead to financial disaster.