We’re now well into the New Year. With budgeting and financial resolutions, have credit cards taken on a new role in your life? Were you content with your cards and how you used them previously? Or would you still like to make some changes? It’s not too late!

Let’s talk about how the role of credit cards might have changed in your life (or might still), and signs that it’s a good time to alter your credit card habits if you’ve continued on the same path you were on last year.

How the Role Credit Cards Play in Your Life Might Change

These are by no means the only ways the role of credit cards might change for you, but they’ll give you an idea of potential things you can do to improve, or at least change, your financial health.

• You might switch from everyday credit card use to using credit cards only to finance big purchases over time.
• You might give up credit cards completely and switch to using cash and debit cards, never spending more than you actually have.
• You might pay off all existing credit card debt and choose to pay off all future balances in full every month to avoid building new debt. For example, you might do this solely to take advantage of rewards points with cards like the Citibank Platinum Rewards card rather than using your credit cards for financing.

Signs it Might be Time to Change Your Credit Card Habits

If you haven’t changed anything about your credit cards or how you use them that might mean you’ve already found the right balance for you. But if not, here are a couple of signs to look out for — things that might signal it’s time for a change.

• Your total credit card debt is going up instead of down. Having debt isn’t necessarily bad (such as if you are intentionally financing a large purchase). But if that debt keeps growing faster than you can pay existing debt off, you have problems.
• Introductory offers on your credit cards are coming to an end, and the regular terms that will replace them won’t fit with your current credit card usage. For example, if you financed a big purchase because of a 0% purchase offer for a few months and that rate will skyrocket soon, it’s time to change things up. In that case, you might want to consider a balance transfer card like the Aussie credit card. But this time make sure to pay the balance off in full before the offer expires. Continual card-hopping has its own problems (enquiries stay on your credit report for several years, potentially making you look like a bigger credit risk if you constantly seek new sources of credit).

In the end, it comes down to whether or not you’re completely happy with your current credit card situation. If you are, there’s no need to change. If there are concerns — like debt or terms that no longer suit you — don’t wait for the perfect time to fix things. Now is as good a time to make changes as any.