Things I wish I knew about (U.S.) credit cards slightly earlier

Before we get to that, here are some things I already knew about credit cards but feel it would be kind of irresponsible not to mention I'm not your financial advisor I only know about U.S. credit cards, sorry. And, based on five minutes of research, the U.S. credit card ecosystem is a weird outlier globally. I imagine that if you're not from here, you'll be horrified at this Kafkaesque labyrinth of percentages and points and credits and exorbitant interest rates that we've imprisoned ourselves in. Speaking of which, credit card interest is absurdly high, and not paying your credit card off is terrible for your credit score. Therefore, it's higher priority than anything below to pay off your credit card in full every month. If you don't or can't do that, the rest of this post probably won't be helpful. Though: if you've been paying off your credit card promptly for years, and then forget once, you might want to try asking your bank nicely to waive the interest and fees, as well as to…