I have 7 credit cards with me, all of them free for life. Except for the initial experiences, some 6-7 years ago, I have never had a bad experience with them. Here is what I learnt over the years:

1. Never buy something for which you do not have ready cash available. Use credit cards only to earn reward points, defer payment and get some interest on that money for 30-50 days.

2. Schedule your purchases at the beginning of your billing cycle. This allows you full credit free period.

3. Never carry forward your payments. If for some inevitable reason, you have to then do not use that card for fresh purchases till the bill is settled in full. That is the reason to have more than one card (although I have never carried forward any bill so far).

4. Choice of issuing bank is most important. The factor you must see before selecting a bank is its reputation and quality of customer service. Of all the credit cards that I own, I find Citibank the best. It has prompt customer service, disputed charges are reversed in your favour till the issue is settled and the best part that you can report a lost card even on their site. This is a boon for people who travel abroad and may find it very difficult to make calls to India to report a loss and then have to hear music before an executive is free to attend to them. In addition, there are lots of hassles, all of which get avoided by reporting on site.

5. Although easy to obtain, ICICI card is a real headache and avoid it as much as possible. Customer service is poor as is grievance redressal mechanism. I give full credit to Citibank on this count -- their Chief of Customer care called personally from Chennai to apologise to me for some problem and to settle the issue within a week. It was done much earlier!

6. If you have to spend huge amount on your card (air travel, vacations etc), keep your expenditures on each card below Rs 2 lacs per financial year.

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