Category Archives: Credit Cards
Tips for Paying Off 2012 Holiday Debt
If you didn’t pay cash during the past Christmas season, your credit card bills from the 2012 holiday season have just started hitting your mailboxes. Are you feeling the pinch from buying grandma that must have sweater for Christmas?
According to the National Retail Federation, holiday sales increased by 3.0% to $579.8 billion with the average American consumer’s budget for holiday gifts ringing in at $672, up from $649 in 2011. It will take the average American until May to pay off Christmas bills. That leaves you only 7 months before you begin charging Christmas 2013′s gifts to your cards again.
If you do not want to wait until May to watch those charges drop off your credit cards, begin implementing my post holiday debt reduction plan now!
Closing Credit Cards Can Be Good For Your Credit Score
You’ve already heard everything that there is to know about improving your credit scores. Conventional wisdom says to pay all of your bills on time; don’t have too many cards ; have a good mix of credit types; and never, ever close any credit cards. That last isn’t always true though. I say that closing your credit cards can sometime raise your credit score.
If you use credit like the average American, the time will come when your shopping habits change and you decide to purge your wallet of unused plastic. This most often happens with department store or branded credit cards. Or perhaps you signed up for a card to get a 20% discount and you never use it anymore. You want to close the credit card, but your hands are tied because you don’t want your credit score to suffer a hit. What do you do?
The Benefits of a Balance Transfer: What You Should Know
Do you have outstanding charges on existing store or credit cards? Perhaps you’re struggling to pay your monthly bills? Whatever the case, it might be worth moving all your debt onto a credit card with a lower interest rate. This is known as a balance transfer and could save you a lot of money in the long run – so let’s take a close look at the benefits:
New Infographic Explores Generational Differences When It Comes To Debt
The average American carries almost $80,000 in debt and has a credit score of 751 – a number that falls into the “C” range on VantageScore’s A to F grading scale. While these figures alone paint a general impression of the state of personal debt and credit in the United States today, there are considerable differences among Americans of different statuses and backgrounds. For example, even though income isn’t calculated into your credit score, wealthier Americans generally have a greater capacity to pay off their debt and achieve a high rating.
Zero Percent Balance Transfer Cards Save You Money
Whether we like to admit it or not, credit cards have become a necessity. But all credit cards are not created equally, at least, mine aren’t. Credit cards carrying a high interest rate can drain your pockets and cost you more than you may bargain for, but a zero interest credit card, even if the rate is valid for a short period, can save you hundreds of dollars in interest every single year.
During the whole Great Recession fiasco, interest rates for credit cards shot up. We had become so used to cheap and readily available credit that we were shocked when credit card companies closed our cards or hiked our interest rates up by ten percent.
Banking Debit Card Fees Go Bye-Bye
Just about one month after they announcing a $5 surcharge to use your debit card for purchases, Bank of America is now reportedly looking into new ways for more account holders to avoid the fee and may consider reversing the fee altogether. Showing that voting with your feet and moving your money elsewhere really does work, several banks including Wells Fargo and Chase have now completely dropped their plans to institute these fees altogether after witnessing the backlash and public outcry against debit card fees. Score one for the little guys.
5 Easy Ways to Make Money by Using Your Credit Cards
Now I know most of you guys are thinking the title sounds too good to be true. You might want to read this when you’re alone because nobody wants to share a “money making secret” with their coworkers. This is not a get rich quick scheme or a job replacement, but it can put some extra dollars into your pockets.
Let me start out by saying that I have a large family that loves to travel, so I take advantage, oops, I mean I assist them with their bookings. Now you are probably wondering how does this make me money. One of my credit cards offers 5% cash back on travel purchases and since my family thinks credit cards are a tool from the devil and don’t like using them I save the day. I have booked numerous tickets for them. I collect the cash up front when booking and pay the credit card in full immediately. In 2 weeks I made $50 from booking tickets.
Bill My Parents Prepaid MasterCard Review
I don’t think that I’ve ever endorsed a credit card before, but here’s is my first one! It’s called the Bill My Parents Prepaid Mastercard and I’m in love with both this card and the entire concept. As your kids get ready to go off to college, this might be the best thing invented to teach them financial responsibility, give them extra cash, and monitor their spending habits. So here’s how it works:
Debt Consolidation and Debt Consolidation Companies
Debt consolidation is by no means a big mystery. In fact, it is, at least on paper, an exceedingly simple concept. With the help of a debt consolidation company, the debt consolidation procedure essentially renegotiates and then combines all of your obligations into a lump sum handled by the company. As a result, you will have cleaned up and simplified your obligations and the structure of your debt will most likely have improved – in many cases changing from comparatively high short-term repayments to smaller amounts payable on a more long-term timeline.
