18 Credit Cards And Not A Single Late Payment: A Guide To Efficient Credit Card Management #2

A quick introduction to those who are new to this blog. In part #1 of the series “18 Credit Cards And Not A Single Late Payment: A Guide To Efficient Credit Card Management #1“, I wrote on how to streamline your credit card accounts for better management. The inherent assumption in part #1 was that you do not use account aggregation services like Yodlee, MS Money, and Quicken.

In this part I will write about how Yodlee can help you to keep track of all your credit card transactions, balances, and bills. I have been using Yodlee for some months now, and managing 18 credit cards has become a cake-walk for me since then.

In the following, I will use some screen shots to make that point (click on the screen shots to enlarge them). Some time in the future, I will compare services offered by Yodlee with those offered by MS Money and Quicken, but right now, let me just stick to Yodlee for three simple reasons: Yodlee is free, it does not require any software installation, and it provides excellent customer service through Yodlee Forum! Also, I will try and restrict myself to things concerned with credit card management, although there is a lot more you can get out of it.

Basics:
Here, we are concerned only with the MoneyCenter module for our personal finance purposes (there are other things Yodlee offers, but they are not relevant here). Register for Yodlee to start using the service. Read this article to find out how to register for Yodlee. To begin using Yodlee for your credit cards, you register your credit cards and the corresponding websites’ login/password information on Yodlee MoneyCenter. This should be really easy and you should be ready to use the service within a few minutes.

Credit Card Management Made Really Easy:
Here is a snapshot of what you will see after you login and have your credit cards registered:

The “dashboard” you see in this screen shot is my favorite place to be everyday. The smudge marks are to protect my identity so that I can be “Golbguru” forever. [notice the error for the Bank of America credit card...those BoA guys really messed up most online activity after the merger with MBNA]
You can configure the dashboard to view all your credit card accounts at once. It shows you the balance on each credit card and the total amount on all cards. You can also have it display all the credit card transactions that you have done in the past few weeks. It’s a very handy way to stay on top of the credit card usage situation. It also allows you to track all your rewards (Citi Thankyou points, Upromise cash back..etc.)
Yodlee remembers credit cards’ login/password information by default. This feature enables something called as “auto-login”. When you click on auto-login, Yodlee sends your login information across and you automatically login to the credit card’s website. This means you don’t have to remember all those unique passwords and usernames :).

Use Spending Reports To Master Your Credit Card Expenses:
In the above screen shot, there is a link named “Spending Reports”. If you use that feature, you will be able to see how much you have been spending on certain items. A typical MoneyCenter spending report looks like this:

Use this to single out your “expensive” items and try to spend less on them (I know spending less is the difficult part here…) but the report can make you feel guilty about certain items very soon :); that may teach you to be more discreet in future.
You can also track your credit card usage in terms you how close you are to your credit limits and set and track budget goals, both very valuable features. This screen shot shows other options available in the “Spending Reports” module:

Streamline Using the Yodlee Financial Calendar:
In this feature you can see all your bills on a calendar and figure out when you need to start moving your money in order to pay those bills on time. In my opinion it gives a better perspective to the time-factor in managing your credit cards.

Pay All Your Bills Online:
Use the “Bill Pay” feature to pay all your credit card bills. This thing is a lot simpler than logging on to every credit card website and putting your bank’s checking account information on each of them for online payments. Here you just do it once, and you are ready to pay online! Here is a screen shot of all the “Bill Pay” features available:

The Best Part: Fraud Alerts and Bill Reminders:
You can set up your own alert-limits, suspected fraud notification limits on all cards that you register on Yodlee. For example, if you set a fraud alert limit of $200, anytime your card is charged for $200 or more, Yodlee will send you an email alerting about the charge. This is simply priceless….especially to those who are prone to identity theft. You can set up alerts to make Yodlee notify you if you are approaching your credit limit, or when a new bill is ready to be viewed, and whether a payment is due…and some more. Typical alerts look like this:

Yodlee’s Security:
Many people have concerns about how securely Yodlee handles all the personal information. For more information on this, read this post I wrote sometime back: How Secure Is Your Information On Yodlee?

Once you start using Yodlee…you are really going to get hooked on it…and then you will understand why I could write so much about it :). I have mentioned it before..I am addicted to this Yodlee stuff !