beginner

Credit cards without the trap doors

A card is a short free loan with trap doors: the minimum due, cash withdrawals and no-cost EMIs each cost far more than the sticker suggests.

3 lessons · about 16 minutes · written for reading age 13 · last checked 2026-08-11

The interest-free window
Between a purchase and its due date sits a free loan of up to 50 days. One condition holds it free, and most of this course follows from that.
5 min
The minimum-due trap
Paying 5% feels responsible and quietly costs about 51% a year. GST is charged on the interest too, and new spending stops being free the same day.
6 min
EMIs, rewards, and when a card is worth it
No-cost EMIs hide their price in the sticker, rewards lose to interest about three to one, and the same card can build your record or bleed it.
5 min
Check yourself
3 questions at the end. Every wrong answer explains itself.

Tools for this

Credit Card Minimum Due Calculator
How long a balance takes to clear if you pay only the minimum, and what that costs in interest and GST.

What changed recently

Dated commentary on this topic — a Budget change, a new rule, a scam pattern.

2026-07-03 · 7 min read
Snowball or avalanche: which debt goes first
Highest rate first is cheaper. Smallest balance first finishes something early. Here is the same money run both ways, and how small the gap actually is.

Sources

Reserve Bank of India — Master Direction on Credit Card and Debit Card Issuance and Conduct — Reserve Bank of India · checked 2026-08-11
Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs — GST rates on services — Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs · checked 2026-08-11

What this unlocks

Next: Credit and debt

Education loans, eyes open

Who has to pledge collateral, why interest runs quietly all through the moratorium, and how the 80E clock starts years before your first EMI does.

15 min

Every course → · More on credit and debt →