There are a wide variety of credit cards for choosing on the market today. You can find interest free credit cards and prepaid credit cards, but reward cards are a type of card you can actually earn money, or other privileges, if you have adequate financial information. You can find credit cards that reward you [...]
Although the days of cheap credit and simply available are far behind us and probably never return, there are signs of life began to appear in the market for credit cards. Considering a large number of cards have been withdrawn in recent years as banks scrambled to rebalance their accounts, some issuers are beginning to [...]
A popular brand in the credit sector is Chase credit cards. This company is a part global JP Morgan Chase, which lead in this industry very long. Now company has its filial branches in many countries. Chase cards are accepted everywhere in the world, and supply a number of different consumer’s necessities. Most of them [...]
Now everybody has one or more credit cards. But not everybody really understand how to use them. Some credit card holders only know how to spend on their credit cards before the credit limit. Users put in practice credit cards only for purchases and bill payments. You can find all functions at the online chase [...]
House Rules Committee Chairman Louise M. Slaughter is reportedly working on legislation that would cap credit card interest rates at 16 percent.
While 16 percent certainly isn’t low, it’s markedly better than the 30 percent interest rates tied to many credit cards these days.
The bill, which is expected to be introduced after the Thanksgiving holiday, is essentially a response to credit card issuers raising rates to offset the effects of the Credit Cardholders’ Bill of Rights.
Those changes, which include the elimination of arbitrary interest rate increases, two-cycle billing, and negative payment hierarchy, are slated to be implemented in February.
But with every new regulation thrown the credit card issuers’ way comes a fresh strategy to make profit some other way, e.g. higher
Have you ever waded through pages and pages of credit card contracts in an attempt to figure out what your interest rate will be? Have you overdrawn your account by a few cents, only to get slammed with a disproportionate fee? Would you be upset if you purchased holiday gifts only to find your credit limit slashed and your interest rates dramatically increased?
Tomorrow night, tune in to Frontline on your local PBS channel to see “The Card Game,” and learn more about the sneaky ways that credit card companies and banks are taking advantage of consumers and preventing reform. According to Frontline, consumers use plastic for more than 100,000 purchases a minute; at that rate, we deserve to know that we’re going to be protected from tricks and traps, but this show will illustrate just how far we are from that goal.
This show is in collaboration with a New York Times series with the same title, which we’ve blogged about many times in recent months. Tomorrow’s show provides another way to absorb the massive amount of information out there regarding the need for financial reform. You can watch a preview of the show below.
If you’re angry once you’ve seen the show, head over to our Action Center and tell your elected officials what you think!
Credit cards for college students are wonderful tools for building early credit history. As a student, this is your only chance to get approved for an unsecured credit card without credit history. However, building solid credit will largely depend on how you utilize your college credit card.
If you can keep up with your repayment obligations, then you should be able to maintain good credit standing. On the other hand, if you are often late in making payments or if you usually exceed your credit limit, you may end up with bad credit.
Listed below are smart tips on how you can spend with your student credit card while avoiding bad debt.
Pay your monthly bills in full. Paying off your monthly balance in full is the best way to be free from the interest rates and additional charges. Avoid charging expenses to your card that will be difficult for you to back at once.
How can a company find customers willing to pay almost $400 in fees for a credit card that will only finance 30% of purchases from a single catalog? It’s hard to imagine, but the FTC seems to have caught one dead in its tracks.
According to a press release issued on November 3rd, a formal complaint was issued in federal court alleging that Low Pay, Inc. used deceptive mailers to market its card to consumers with credit problems, charging them hundreds of dollars in up-front fees and often reneging on its refund policy. In response, Low Pay has apparently agreed to pull the plug on its questionable practices while they battle it out with the FTC.
The actual complaint explains in more detail how the FTC believes Low Pay pulled this whole thing off. H
Some well-intentioned lawmakers want to hasten implementation of a new federal credit card reform law, but this is mere feel-good legislation — a distraction at a time when more serious issues demand our attention.
Signed into law in May, the Credit Card Accountability, Responsibility, and Disclosure (Credit CARD) Act bans card issuers from deceptive and unfair practices. The most substantive provisions take effect February 22, 2010, including a rule prohibiting credit card companies from arbitrarily raising rates on existing accounts.
Credit Card Rates Going Up
Not surprisingly, some card issuers have raised rates in the lag time between the law’s passage and its scheduled implementation. Consumer advocates cried foul, and Congress responded. The
Business credit card issuer Advanta Corp. filed for bankruptcy protection on Sunday, according to a report in Reuters.
The company, which used to offer business credit cards with 0% APR for as long as 16 months (bad idea when the economy is going into a tailspan), saw its capital ratio fall below regulatory minimums as more Americans fell behind on credit card payments.
The filing excludes the company’s Advanta Bank Corp. u
Our friends at Americans for Financial Reform shared this video with us, and we thought you’d enjoy it, too. This short cartoon by Mark Fiore highlights the absurdity of the ways credit card companies are trying to get around the upcoming reforms.
Photo by HikingArtist.com