Do Credit Cards Engage In Deceptive Advertising?
An article from Reuters questions some of the Tricks of the credit card trade – namely, all those offers to give you a rate as low as 8.99%.
It’s the “as low as” that’s the kicker. Your actual rate could be much higher, but you won’t know until you provide them with specifics about your finances and your social security number. It’s only after you apply that you’ll learn your rate and who much you’ll be approved for. Continue reading »
Credit Card Debt Reduction Strategies (Part 2)
From everything I’ve read, there are two general strategies for paying off debt.
- pay off the credit cards with the lowest balance first
- pay off the credit cards with the highest interest rate first
Credit Card Debt Reduction Strategies (Part 1)
As mentioned in a previous post, I’m drastically trying to eliminate my credit card debt. I’m about half way to my goal, and plan to have all credit cards paid off in about 6 months. Here are some tips I’ve been using: Continue reading »
State of My Finances and The Benefits of Credit Cards
There are a lot of strategies for reducing debt. My goal, which I hope to achieve in the next 6 months, is to have paid off all my credit card outstanding balances. Once that is paid off, I will start working on paying off my small mortgage of undergrad and grad student loans. Continue reading »
Citibank and Privacy
Did you know that credit cards can randomly change your plan because their marketing department decides you’re a good candidate for their new card?
Well, apparently, it’s true. I went online Friday to make an online payment to my account and received an error message saying I’d have to call a number. So I called, hoping that it was just a technical glitch… Continue reading »
Time To Buy A Shredder (And For Cheap!)
After reading how tearing up credit card applications is not enough, I was motivated to go buy a cross-cut paper shredder. (Cross cut means the paper ends up as confetti rather than strips.) So today I headed into Staples to find my new machine. Continue reading »
Debit Cards Freeze Up Funds In Your Bank Account
According to MSN Money, if you fill up your gas tank and pay with your debit card, the bank may freeze up to $75 in your account for up to 72 hours.
Because only PIN-based transactions are processed immediately, transactions where you don’t enter you PIN are batch processed sometime later. Continue reading »
Tearing Up Credit Card Applications Is Not Enough
This is terrifying. MSN is reporting the story of Rob Cockerham, a man with a website and a mission – to see just how seriously credit card companies take identity theft precautions.
Frustrated with all those credit card apps he got in the mail, he decided to see just how desperate credit card companies – in this case, JP Morgan Chase & Co. – are for new card holders. Continue reading »
Credit Agencies Introduce New Scoring System
If, like me, you’ve ever struggled to understand why your credit score is different depending on which credit agency you pick (Equifax, Experian and TransUnion), you’ll be interested in this news.
The big three firms have banned together to create a simpler, more consistant score. According to MarketWatch.com, experts disagree on what causes the discrepencies in the current scores – from bad data to different risk models. The new scoring system is supposed to eliminate that. Continue reading »