Credit Card ’s Talk

When shopping around and comparing potential credit card accounts, rewards should not be the only criteria you use to select a credit card. You need to read the credit card contract (cardholder agreement) before applying for a credit card to discover traps that often negate any potential benefits from rewards programs. These traps are usually hidden in the small print, but their impact on your finances can be huge.

Universal Default

Over 40% of credit card banks use ?Universal Default? to increase the interest rate of their cardholders. Basically, if you are late paying any credit account, the credit card issuer uses this ding on your credit report to justify raising your interest rate ? even if you were never late paying the credit card bill. A typical Universal Default APR is 27.9% or higher. You should not apply for a credit card that includes a Universal Default clause ? no matter how nice of a rewards program they offer.

Two-Cycle Billing

Credit card companies are starting to charge interest on balances in groups of two-months. So, if you have a $500 balance one month and pay it off the next month, the credit card issuer will still charge you interest during the month you had no balance because you had a balance the previous month. You should avoid any credit card with two-cycle billing.

Musical Due Dates

You should look into or ask the credit card issuer about their due date policies. Sometimes, credit card issuers will shave a few days off a due date after you are a customer for a while. They send a ?terms update notification? (which most cardholders do not read because it comes in the mail and may look like another credit card solicitation). What this does is lure cardholders into paying by a certain date, and then change the terms so the payment is due a few days earlier ? which usually results in the cardholder unwittingly paying late. The reason for this is once a payment is late, the card company raises the cardholder?s interest rate to the ?default? APR and charges a late fee. A typical default APR is 29.9% or higher and a typical late fee can be as high as $39. Other due-date tricks include setting due dates on weekends or requiring payment before noon on the due date, which essentially pushed the due date back one day.

Vanishing Grace Periods

Traditionally, a balance will only incur a finance charge if the cardholder carries a balance past the due date of their billing period. However, some card issuers are completely erasing their grace periods. This means that interest charges start the second a purchase is made on the card. Avoid cards with no grace period.

Holding Payment and Musical Payment Addresses

Some credit card companies will hold your payment for up-to 5 days if you pay by check and fail to use their envelope or write any requested information in the memo section of your check. They do this to make payments late, and then change APRs to their default APR (29.9% or higher). Some card issuers will even change the address they want you to send your payment in an effort to delay your payment (and causing a ?late payment? default and APR increase).

So, when you apply for a credit card, please keep all these factors in mind and be sure to read the credit card contract before applying. Be sure to shop around and compare credit card offers before applying. Several websites, such as creditcards.com, cardratings.com, cardweb.com and bankrate.com offer comparison charts from which you can compare different credit card offers. If you are set on getting an awards card, shopping.yahoo.com has a credit card section that list different types of rewards cards for you to compare.

John Janney is a financial literacy writer and president of the National Financial Awareness Network, a Dallas-based financial literacy company focused on bringing an independent voice to financial literacy.

Keeping your credit card debts in check should be your sole aim in life if you want to live a financially viable life, because if you don?t the fall out of having a lot of debt on your credit cards can start to affect other parts of your life.

As much as credit cards are a handy spending tool, they are double the trouble if they are not taken care of and can give you problems that you could never have imagined when you first applied for the card.

Though credit cards are becoming a must have tool to have in this day and age, to book things such as concert tickets and theatre tickets over the phone or to buy goods at cheaper prices on the Internet, what you have top remember is that a credit card has a higher than normal APR attached to it, than other debt such as Personal Loans and Mortgages.

There are though a few simple and common sense practices that you can apply to your credit card and the way that you spend on it.

Firstly you can try and be a little choosier on the purchases that you make, we all know how handy the credit card is to use on purchases that you don?t have the ready cash for, but to buy goods that your income can simply support is a bad practice, as it will only lead you in to debt interest charges being added to the already obscene cost of the item and by the time that you have eventually paid it off, there?s a new model out and the one you have costs less than half the price new. Lesson: Avoid temptation.

This first practice could then lead to you only being able to afford to pay the minimum payments to your credit card, this has to be avoided also as it will leave you paying off debt for many a year and for goods again that are either past there sell by date or already in the back of your council refuge truck. Lesson: Pay more than the Minimum Payment.

Always check your credit card statement for any phantom payments taken from your card, though not a regular occurrence, mistakes can happen and it will also let you catch any fraud being applied to your credit card account. Lesson: Don?t pay for something you haven?t bought.

There are few things that the credit card issuer will also change about your card and they can do so when they please, one is to raise your APR, if they do so be prepare to move to a credit card issuer who can offer you a better deal. Lesson: Switch to save.

Another is the raising of your credit limit, again when you are checking your statement check this as well, as the hope of the credit card company is that you get the false security of being better off than you are and that if the credit card issuer says I can have it, then I must be able to afford to spend it. Lesson: Stay within your means.

Keep on top of your credit card and don?t let it get on top of you, by doing this you will master the card, rather than the MasterCard getting the better of you.

Peter Kenny is a writer for creditcards-gb For additional articles and an extensive resource for everything about credit cards, please visit us at http://www.creditcards-gb.co.uk and http://www.creditcards2go4.com

It is one of the joys of the credit industry that prices of credit, and in particular of credit cards, have continued to fall over the past number of years. Today you can get zero per cent on balance transfers, and even zero per cent on purchases, offers that were simply unimaginable just a couple of years ago. This is all the result of increasing competition in the market place from alternative lenders and banks from abroad, particularly US banks. However, there are still many charges out there and it takes some care and consideration to make sure that you don?t end up paying far more than you should for your credit cards.

The main charge associated with credit cards continues to be interest charged on outstanding balances. This is traditionally how credit card providers have managed to rake in the massive profits that they have become associated with. It doesn?t take much research to discover that the interest rates on credit cards are among the highest on the market. While mortgage rates and personal loan rates can easily be as low five or six per cent, credit cards rates are easily over twenty five per cent. This is due mainly to the convenience and flexibility of credit cards as a source of needed money. If you find that you are carrying over large credit card balances from one month to the next, you are probably paying far more than you need to for your credit. The best way to remedy such a situation is to consolidate this credit.

Debt consolidation loans, typically secured over your home, offer far lower rates of interest. You can then reduce your outgoings to a single monthly figure that allows you to pay off the debt at a reasonable rate.

Another way to avoid credit card interest rates is to take advantage of zero per cent balance transfers. These can be great opportunities and are offered by credit card providers who are ever more eager to increase their market share and add you as a customer. You will benefit from low or zero per cent rates on any balances that you transfer over to the new card from other credit cards. A word of advice however is to make sure you close the original account. This avoids the temptation of racking up further spending and improves your credit rating by reducing the over all amount of credit available to you.

Other charges such as subscription fees are by and large a thing of the past. Some credit cards still charge annual fees on the basis that they offer other rewards or are more exclusive cards but the general advice these days is that you can get just as good results on cards that do not charge these fees so if you are paying a fee, perhaps you will want to switch to a card that is free in this sense.

Late payment fees and other penalties are incurred if you fail to keep up with your repayment obligations and you should make every effort to avoid these as they are completely unnecessary.

Joseph Kenny writes http://www.CardGuide.co.uk, which offers some of the best credit cards in the UK. Also included in the site are more credit card articles.

The simple fact of life today is that in many situations credit cards are vital. It is extremely difficult to rent a car for instance if you do not have access to a credit card in your own name. Also, shopping on line is not very easy at all if you do not have a credit card. While many websites will accept debit cards, if you are trying to book a hotel abroad or buy from any website based abroad, it can be next to impossible to find a payment method other than credit card. This is why more and more people are seeking to get credit cards, even when they have poor credit histories.

Guaranteed Acceptance Credit Cards

There are now a number of credit cards available that do not rely on a good credit history. The lenders are willing to provide these cards to absolutely everyone no matter what their credit rating may show. This is very good news for people who have bad credit ratings but still need access to a credit card. There are some important differences between these credit cards and regular cards however, so it is a good idea to be aware of the features that are different.

What?s the Catch?

The most obvious feature that people come across, and one that can surprise customers the most, is the existence of a subscription or set up fee for the card. This may be just as little as five pounds a month but can be substantially higher. There are also cards that charge an annual fee and these may prove to be better value if you plan on keeping the card for more than a few months. While customers have become accustomed to not having to pay for their credit cards, these fees are in many situations more than worth the expense given the convenience that the card will bring.

Don?t Abuse These Cards!

Another feature of these cards is that the interest rates and penalty charges for late payment are often very high. Interest rates can easily be as much as twenty five or even thirty per cent so you probably do not want to rack up too much debt on these cards. Also, if you miss payments there may be provisions for very high penalty fees and even for your interest rate to be increased. So if you are planning on getting a credit card targeted for those with bad credit, then make sure it is not something that is going to get out of hand and that you will be able to control your expenditure on it. Also, you should probably only take one out if it is for a specific necessary purpose, and not simply for occasional shopping.

Joseph Kenny writes http://www.CardGuide.co.uk, which offers some of the best credit cards in the UK.

If you use your credit card on a regular basis and are looking for a way to save money then it might be a good idea to look at some of the great deals that you can get on low interest credit cards. This might sound like an obvious solution, but most people do not look for the best deal when they are applying for a new credit card and many just go for the one their bank offers them or that is from a brand name financial company that they recognize. But this is not always where the best deals are to be had and a bit of research can save you a great deal of money on your credit card interest.

Make sure that you go for a low interest credit card that allows you an interest free time after you have made your purchases so that if you have the money you could pay off the balance and not incur any interest. Many cards that want to encourage you to switch to them will offer you an interest free deal on any of your purchases for up to the first year. However, be careful to check that all of your purchases are included in the deal and that there are not any clauses that can cause a certain purchase to be excluded. Of course after the deal has expired there is no reason that cannot just apply for another card with a similar offer.

Many cards will also give you cash back for using their card. In fact, some companies will give you up to 5% on anything that you buy with their cards. A lot of bills can be paid by credit card, so this could make you quite a bit of extra cash. It is also important to check that there is no annual fee on these cards before you apply or it could negate any of the other benefits that are associated with the credit card. Many of these cards also offer other benefits so be sure to check and see exactly what every benefit is for each credit card before you decide which one to apply for.

Although it sounds like a good idea to apply for low interest credit cards it is worth bearing in mind that the companies can be very choosy about who they give these cards to because it is only worth giving them to those that have a very good credit history. If you are thinking of applying for one then it is a good idea to make sure that you credit score is good and to find out if there is anything that you can do to improve it before you apply.

Timothy Gorman is a successful Webmaster and publisher of BestOnlineCreditCardOffers.com He provides more credit card facts, tips and advice on finding the best low interest credit card online, that you can research in your pajamas on his website.

Statistics show that the average American family owes over $8,000 in credit card debt. This is a large amount of money, especially when you consider the fact that most Americans make about $33,000 per year. The costs involved with using credit cards can be very large if you’re not responsible when using them. In this article I will discuss steps you can take in order to reduce the costs of your credit cards.

Keep The Credit Card APR Low

The interest on credit cards tend to increase at a rate which is difficult for minimum payment amounts to reduce. In the last decade many people have begun using credit cards to make large purchases and because of this the credit card industry is making billions of dollars a year, and will continue to do so in the future due to the residual income they will receive from payments made by their customers. Since the typical American only makes about $33,000 per year, it is not easy to pay off $10,000, especially when the interest continues to accrue. This puts many people into debt which make take years to pay off.

If you have an interest rate on your credit card which is higher than 19%, you will have an extremely difficult time paying it off. Because of this it is wise to avoid using credit cards which have high interest rates. If you should become late on your bills, call the company and ask if the fee can be reversed. They should reverse this charge if it is your first time being late.

Federal Bankruptcy Law

The government has also recently passed a Federal Bankruptcy law which will make it harder for people to file bankruptcy once they get in debt. If you have good credit, you can easily get a credit card which has a interest rate which is less than 10%. All you have to do is make payments on time and there shouldn’t be any problems. The problems generally start when people fail to make their payments on time. The late fees on credit cards can be as high as 30 dollars. Not making your payments on time can also cause the credit card company to raise the interest rates.

Step One To Lower Credit Card Costs

The first thing you want to do to lower the cost of your credit cards is to find a credit card company which offers the lowest interest rate. You don’t want to pay more in interest than you have to. You also want to make sure you make your payments on time. Setting up automatic debits from your bank account or using the internet to make payments is a great way to insure that your bills get paid on time. If you are making payments with checks, you should stop. They have a tendency to get lost in the mail.

Transfer Those High Balances

You will also want to move your balances from high interest credit cards to lower interest accounts. Many credit card companies offer promotions, and this is a great time to get lower interest rates. You should also use cash as much as possible. Only use your credit cards when it is absolutely necessary. You also want to pay the full amounts of your balances each month if you can. This will keep interest from getting out of hand. It would also be a good idea to avoid cash advances as much as possible.

Keeping a Clean Credit History

Doing these things will allow you to greatly reduce the cost of your credit cards. Being in debt, which you can’t get out of could almost be compared to slavery in some ways. It is ultimately the consumer who puts themselves in debt. Understanding credit cards and being responsible with them is one of the most important factors in getting good credit. Your employment and other factors may depend on your credit rating. Credit is an important part of our society, and it is critical that you understand how to manage it.

Joe Kenny writes for the credit card information site http://www.cardguide.co.uk, visit them today for more credit card articles.

Mutual funds are a collection of stocks and/or bonds invested in different securities, which include fixed market securities and money market instrumentals. It facilitates investors to put their money under an efficient investment management. There are three types of mutual funds namely, income funds, growth funds, and balanced funds.

The basic principle underlying mutual funds is to pool in money with other people to convert it into funds. Mutual funds generally buy shares in stocks wherein an experienced fund manager performs the task of selecting, purchasing and selling off the stocks himself. Certificates are then issued to the shareholders as a testimony of proof of their partnership and participation in the emoluments of funds.

There are particularly three ways in which you can make money from a mutual fund. They are:

1. Benefits can be earned from the commission on stocks, and interests on bonds. All the income received all round the year is paid by the funds in the form of a distribution.
2. The fund will have an outstanding benefit provided the funds sell high priced securities. Most of the profits are given back to the investors in a distribution.
3. The value of the fund?s share automatically increases with an increase in the value of unsold high priced fund holdings. Accordingly, you can always sell shares of your mutual fund for profits.

Many people find investing in mutual funds an attractive option to that of dealing directly with the stock market because it is comparatively safe. In fact, these days, mutual funds have become the first preference of many investors. Mutual funds provide a balanced and better approach compared to conventional stock market alternatives. It has an added advantage of investing in several distinct sectors and firms, so, if one company suffers losses, the others may be rising. Investing in mutual funds, therefore, minimizes the loss-bearing risk of monetary assets.

In a nutshell, here are the salient points of the advantages of mutual funds:

1. Cost-effectiveness of investing in mutual funds: The main advantage of investing in mutual funds is the efficient management of your finances. Investors buy funds because they lack the competence and time to manage their own portfolio. It is a cost effective method, especially for a small investor because it is expensive to get a manager to manage individual investments.

2. Diversification: Compared to individual stocks or bonds, mutual funds diversify the risk of bearing loss. The basic intention being to invest in a diverse number of assets in order to overcome the negatives of loss making stocks or bonds by the profits reaped by others.

3. Economy of Scale: The transaction expenses are relatively low as a mutual fund is bought and sold in large amounts of credits.

4. Liquidity: Mutual funds provide the opportunity of converting shares into cash at any point of time.

5. Simplicity: It is easy to buy a mutual fund. Most companies have their own automatic purchase plans, and the minimum investment rates are very small.

Therefore, investing in mutual funds is certainly a secure investment as the chance of loss is spread out, and the opportunity for gains are numerous. At the same time, it is both cost-effective and an investment that gives great future returns.

The days of depending on government largesse in meeting old age financial requirements are growing dimmer by the day. Hence, investing in mutual funds can be a wise choice, especially for those who plan for an early retirement and hope to enjoy a secure senior citizenship.

Joe Kenny writes for the UK Loans Store offering UK secured loans and offer more information on UK bad credit loans and other loan topics available on site.
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