Posts Tagged credit card
Steps you can take to build credit, get a card
Posted by Oksana Grebenjuk in Banks, Favourites on Январь 19th, 2010
Gone are the days when credit card companies barraged you like a lovestruck suitor. Today, bruised by economic losses and consumer defaults, many credit card companies are spurning the customers they once wooed.
And if you’ve got a dinged-up credit score or no credit history, getting a new credit card is next to impossible.
We know one young man – a recent college graduate with a decent-paying job and no major credit dings – who’s been turned down for a credit card repeatedly, even from department stores like Macy’s.
«Credit is still tight, so issuers are not approving as many people with no credit or bad credit as they did 18 months ago when the economy was good,» said Bill Hardekopf, founder of LowCards.com. «It is a very big challenge for them.»
Those with bad credit have long had trouble getting credit cards or finding cards with affordable interest rates. Read the rest of this entry »
Look Who’s Peeking at Your Paycheck
Posted by Oksana Grebenjuk in Budget, Favourites on Январь 13th, 2010
You may think your income is private information. But the credit bureaus may have your number.
And starting in February, your income—as estimated by the bureaus—may be used to help determine whether you get a new credit card.
Tuesday, the Federal Reserve issued its final rules related to last year’s Credit Card Act, which, among other things, will require credit-card companies to consider an applicant’s income or assets and current debts before approving credit. To provide flexibility, however, the Fed said that issuers can use «a reasonable estimate» of income or assets based on «statistically sound models.»
In hopes of such a decision, the three big credit bureaus have been updating or rolling out products that seek to estimate consumers’ incomes, based on information in their credit reports, such as the size and age of their mortgages or the size of their credit limits.
The products also are responding to banks’ efforts to tighten credit standards in order to reduce losses and risk. «We look to fill in the blanks where they need the blanks filled in,» says John Cullerton, vice president, product management, for Equifax Inc., an Atlanta-based credit bureau. Read the rest of this entry »
Is Brand Loyalty A Thing of the Past?
Posted by Oksana Grebenjuk in Budget on Сентябрь 25th, 2009
Nearly a year on, the financial crisis has changed the way companies and consumers view the brand names in their wallets.
But is this a temporary change, or will it stick?
Some consumers, including those who have had their credit cards canceled, limits lowered or mortgages left in standstill, all say the same thing: “I’m never doing business with company X ever again.”
But some consultants and financial institutions say they aren’t worried about consumer ire toward brands today. They say that consumers have short-term memories and are fickle. And when the economy turns around, people will drift back to brands that they once dismissed.
Robert Passikoff, founder of Brand Keys, a research consulting firm, disagrees. He says that in the past it was easier for companies to win back consumers, but thanks to the Web, it’s easier for more consumers to get more information about brands before they buy. “This is not going to be a forget-and-forgive society,” he says. Read the rest of this entry »
Can a Credit-Card Company Cancel Your Card and Not Tell You?
Posted by Oksana Grebenjuk in Banks, Favourites on Июль 17th, 2009
In the last few months, we’ve heard from plenty of readers that not only are their cards being canceled, but they’re also finding out the hard way: At the cash register while trying to make a purchase.
Over at Consumerist is the tale of Joey, who saw four (yes, four) of his Chase cards canceled. Plus, his Chase Freedom rewards are no more.
From Joey’s letter:
The rep told me my card had been canceled. Not only my Freedom card, but also my 3 other Chase credit cards (I use them for different rewards). I told him it was outrageous that I hadn’t received any early notification, and all he could say was that I would be getting something in the mail soon. I asked why my cards were canceled, and his response was that I had too many loans out so Chase considered me a risk. For the record, I do have loans that I’m paying off — my student loans and the loan on a recently purchased house. However, I’ve always paid the balance on my Chase credit cards in full every month and rarely ever am I late (the last time was at least 6 months ago). Nothing in my history with them would cause them to think I would not pay my bills. The rep couldn’t do anything for me so I asked to speak to a supervisor. I was told they were busy and that one would call me back. No one has since. Read the rest of this entry »
Is Paying for Your Kid’s Education Still a Top Priority?
Posted by Oksana Grebenjuk in Budget on Июнь 2nd, 2009
In a perfect world, we wouldn’t have to rank one financial priority over another.
But now, more than ever, Americans are faced with many tough financial trade-offs. Paying off debt or saving for retirement? Raiding the 401(k) to pay the bills or putting them on a credit card? Trying to slog it out with a tough mortgage or walking away from a home?
New survey data from Country Financial highlights some of the tension parents are face when it comes to juggling their stressed retirement accounts and the ballooning cost of higher education for their kids.
Forty-seven percent of the 1,241 surveyed said that their children’s college plans are a higher priority than retirement savings, whereas 41% said that retirement savings came first. A majority (61%) said that the recession was not going to impact their plans for their children’s college education. Considering all of the belt-tightening — both from families and financial-aid offices strained by anemic endowments — we’ve heard about in the last few months, this is particularly astonishing. In spite of one of the worst economies in generations, parents say they’re still willing to shell out a lot for college education. Read the rest of this entry »
Dream On, Credit Card Companies!
Posted by Oksana Grebenjuk in Banks, Favourites on Май 20th, 2009
Charging your best customers just won’t work
I’m a credit card deadbeat, and I’m proud of it. And if credit card companies think they’re going to start making any more money off me, then they’d better think again — and they better make sure that every single card issuer sticks with the party line.
Credit card companies have taken it on the chin lately. Many of the banks that issue credit cards have already gotten hurt with bad mortgages and other toxic assets. Four card issuers — American Express (NYSE: AXP), Citigroup (NYSE: C), Bank of America (NYSE: BAC), and Wells Fargo (NYSE: WFC) — saw card charge-offs jump over the 10% level in April. Delinquencies are also up, and Washington will likely pass new restrictions on practices like increasing interest rates on existing balances without notice and charging over-limit fees.
But recently, some have talked about trying to get those with good credit to contribute more to credit card company profits. While it’s easy to understand why card companies would like to find any way they can to earn profits, there’s a simple reason why imposing fees on the customers they call «deadbeats» won’t work: Unlike balance-carrying, interest-paying borrowers, we actually have a choice — and we’ll vote with our feet, happily leaving the credit card industry with even less revenue. Read the rest of this entry »
5 Things That Should Not Be In Your Wallet
Posted by Oksana Grebenjuk in Budget, Favourites on Апрель 27th, 2009
What would you do if your wallet was lost or stolen? Although a lost wallet is a hassle, as long as you have taken the proper precautions it won’t be a disaster. If you only carry what you absolutely need then a lost wallet will only merit a couple phone calls to close some accounts and a trip to get a new ID card. If, on the other hand, you carry absolutely everything that you can cram into your wallet then losing your wallet can cause a lot more problems, some of which that will be devastating to your personal finances.
Don’t carry these things in your wallet unless you absolutely need to:
PIN: You should memorize your personal identification number instead of writing it down. If you have a little note in your wallet with your PIN, especially if it is attached to your debit card, you’ve just given someone else everything they need to know to know in order to pull money from your bank account. Don’t try to mask your PIN number by hiding it on a note in your wallet and trying to disguise the PIN as something else; professional thieves will know what to look for and will automatically understand that it’s your PIN.
Social Security Card: Your Social Security card should be locked up somewhere securely in your house so you can access it when you need to prove that you can work within the United States or for whatever other reason you need it for. Don’t carry it around in your card unless you need to, because it is all someone needs to steal your identity.
Spare key: Some people like to stick a spare house key within the folds of a wallet in case they lose their main keys. The problem with this is if your wallet gets lost then the person who finds the wallet has your key and probably has your home address from your driver’s license. Do you really want to give a stranger full access to your home? Read the rest of this entry »
New Rules of Credit Card Debt
Posted by Oksana Grebenjuk in Banks, Favourites on Апрель 16th, 2009
Personal finance gurus usually treat credit card debt as the plague and urge consumers to pay it off. But this week, Queen of Personal Finance Suze Orman announced on The Oprah Winfrey Show that the old advice is wrong. The recession has made job loss so prevalent, she says, that consumers now need to make creating an emergency fund with eight months worth of expenses their top priority.
«If you have an unpaid credit card balance [and] not much saved up in emergency savings, I need you to listen up. My advice has changed. I want you to only pay the minimum due on your credit card balance, and instead, make it your top priority to build as much of an emergency cash fund as you can,» Orman said on the program.
Telling her fans not to prioritize paying off credit card debt is quite a shocker since her focus has long been about getting out of debt. In her latest book, 2009 Action Plan: Keeping Your Money Safe & Sound, she dedicates an entire chapter on the subject. But Orman says that now, with the number of unemployed Americans rising, having an emergency savings fund is even more important than being debt-free.
«The sad reality is that the credit card industry is taking actions to protect themselves with no regard to your needs or how good you have been in paying your bills on time,» she said, referring to the fact that credit card companies have been lowering credit limits, increasing interest rates, and revoking credit cards altogether. Read the rest of this entry »
Four Things Your Credit Card Gives You
Posted by Oksana Grebenjuk in Banks, Favourites on Апрель 14th, 2009
When people go shopping for a credit card, most will compare the various card features and benefits and use that information to make their decision as to which credit card to apply for.
People use credit cards primarily because they give them away to purchase an item and pay for them a little at a time, instead of coming up with the cash all at once — but that same buy now, worry-about-paying-later mentality has gotten a number of people into financial troubles.
If you use a credit card correctly though, they actually give you a little something back. You probably chose your credit card because of some of these features — but chances are you haven’t used them because you forgot all about them once you started using your card!
Here are four things your credit cards give you that you probably forgot about — and that you should look into in order to benefit the most from your credit card use: Read the rest of this entry »
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