Credit is tight for everyone. Gone are the days when you received 3 new offers in the mail everyday offering you a new card or 0% interest on balance transfers. Banks are also cutting their grace periods for paying your balance in full from 30 days to as short as 9 days.( I received my bill from Sears on 7/14 and it is due 7/23). They are hiring consulting firms (As reported in USA Today last week) to try to figure the best way to get more extra fees out of you. Remember, while banks will give you 2% interest on your money for an entire year, they charge you 2% a month to borrow from them on credit cards.

But you can still leverage your credit cards for extra cash flow in your business by following these guidelines which I have used over the years to finance my businesses:

1. Know the exact statement dates of all your credit cards. If  you know the date that each of them closes, you can plan to charge to your credit cards large transactions on the first day of the new statement cycle. For example, let’s say that the credit card statement is from June 15 to July 14, and then that statement is due for payment on August 15. If you charge a large transaction on July 15, you will have a full 60 days (until Sept 15) to pay for that charge. Alternately, if you would have charged it on July 14 (one day earlier), you will only have 31 days (until July 15) to pay f or that charge. 30 days of cash in this environment can mean alot. I only charge large purchases to my cards at certain times during the month if I have a choice.

2. Use 0% Balance Transfers with Care. Many of these offers look too good to be true. They can work if you use them correctly. Most of them have a 3% transaction fee so if the offer is only good for 6 months, this is an annual percentage rage of 6% (not bad). Only use these types of offers if a) you can pay the balance at the end of the free period because then it usually goes to 24% or more and b) you can make your payments on time. Miss a payment and the 0% promotional rate stops and you will need to pay the penalty of having interest from day 1. The deals from consumer electronic companies work the same way.You need to know when the offer ends as well. Setting up an automatic payment each month will make sure this bill gets paid on time.

3. Pay your bills electronically. When you get the notification that your bill is due, go online and set up an automatic payment on the day it is due. Alternately, just set up on the web to make the minimum payment every month regardless. Mail in any additional payments to reduce the balance. This will maximize that the cash stays in your account as long as possible.

4. Pay off the balance in full. This is ideal. You have truly had the money then you actually were able to use OPM (Other People Money) to finance your activities (Except your annual one of $50-$100)

Banks count on the fact that you will slip up. I have. They make billions this way.

What credit card techniques have you used successfully?