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Posted by admin, and filed under Credit Card Interest
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Sometimes it becomes a nuisance when you return home and go to check your mail box and find it full of trash such as credit card offers from different companies. It happens on a regular basis and at times you wonder the purpose behind sending a request again and again. You are disappointed to see the wastage of paper and wonder if you can discourage such companies from mailing you credit card offers week after week. This happens when you have never phoned any of the companies asking them for a credit card.
It is the Fair Credit Reporting Act that is actually responsible for us getting inundated with credit card offers every week. This act gave the credit bureaus permission to sell credit history of any person to the credit card companies. It implies that if your record is clean and good, the companies will target you with their offers in anticipation. It is really amazing for the companies to flood you with offers when you have not evinced interest in any of their schemes. What is more, many of these mails contain pre approved card offers which implies that they do not even deem fit to do any investigation about you before handing out a credit card to you.
If you are not distracted by such offers, it all right as you can easily throw them as trash. But if you feel disturbed, there are ways through which you can stop credit card companies from sending you their offers week after week. What people do not know is that these companies do not have to pay the postage for sending you the offers. It is only when you reply to any of the offers that they need to dole out the postage. What you can do is to stuff the return envelope with all the junk and post it back to the company. They will soon stop sending you offer as they will realize you don’t want them. It hurts when they have to pay for what you have returned.
There is a toll free number on the mail you receive, which you can use to tell that you do not wish to receive such offers. Once you do it, the companies will stop sending you the credit card offers. Alternatively, there is a site, http://www.optoutprescreen.com, which you can visit to stop receiving these offers.
Thirdly, you can call all the four bureaus to tell that you don wish to receive the offers, and they will stop it instantly.
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2nd Aug 2010
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Tags: Credit Card, offers of credit card
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Posted by admin, and filed under Credit Card Interest
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If you have multiple credit cards, keeping one of those unused may be a good idea for some unforeseen emergency that you have not planned for. That card may come in handy when it may be difficult for you to arrange the cash. So, if that card is not causing you any legit problems, keeping it safe for an emergency is really prudent. But he credit card companies have become smart today. They either start to charge you inactivity fee or they would ask you to close it down, as any account that is open yet inactive causes the card company to lose money. A recent survey done of the credit card companies show that these companies are more than willing to close accounts where the card has been inactive for a long time. They do so to stop incurring expenses on that unused card.
The closure of the account can lower your credit score, which is bad for you especially if you were to apply for a loan in the near future. What happens is that you lose out on the credit limit of that card and this gets reflected in your credit score. This can be easily understood in a practical manner. If you had four cards with a limit of $1000 each, and you have a debt burden of $2000, if you happen to lose one of the cards because of inactivity, you are now using 66.66% of the total available limit, whereas you were previously you were using 50% of your limit. This makes the banks wary of you as you are now much closer to using your limit, as opposed to earlier when you were using 50% of the credit limit available to you.
If you are clever, keep on using that card very occasionally to avoid its closure by the company is a good idea. Paying a small amount monthly such as your mobile bill will save your card from being closed by the bank. So instead of not using the credit card at all is not such a good idea after all, and you must use it occasionally to prevent it from being cancelled by the company. If you are not interested in applying for a loan in the time to come, you can certainly do it. But for a person who wishes to avail a loan shortly, lowering of credit score spells doom as the banks avoid such a person.
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2nd Aug 2010
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Tags: Credit Cards, Unused credit cards
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Posted by ariyes, and filed under Credit Card Interest, Credit Card Offers
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With the global economy coming down to the freezing point, so many of us have found ourselves in a situation with horrible credit card debt. But you can always resolve the problem if you act smart.
The very first thing you need to do is, call up your credit card company. Let them know about your situation and tell them you cannot meet their demands but are eager to pay out all the interests. Ask them to let go of your fines and other late fees and stuff. Ask them if it is possible for them to lower the interest rate. If the customer service representative fails to help you, talk to the manager, they might be able to help you out.
Once you are done speaking with the company, make a plan about what are the things you are going to buy. At the beginning of the month, you should know how much you are going to spend and how much interest you will have to pay. See what are the expenses that you can cut and make some savings. You might consider, eating out for a lesser number of times every month for a few months.
Be smart in paying off your debts. Pay off the debts with higher interest rate first and go down the list gradually. This will help you to save a lot of money.
Make it a habit, and lock your credit card in a drawer and keep the keys in a safe. Use cash money to do shopping. Use the credit card only if it is dead serious.
If you can make all these happen, you are likely to set yourself free from all the credit card debts before you can realize it.
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3rd Jan 2010
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Posted by admin, and filed under Credit Card Interest
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If you think carrying large balances on your credit card gives you the title “rich guy,” then you are definitely making a “fool” of yourself.
Large amount of balance on your credit card can cause a negative effect on your credit score. It does not only make you to spend more, on unwanted items may be, in a limited time frame. Also, the larger the amount balance on your card, the more the interest you have to pay.
The most sparkling highlight of large credit balances on your card – if you are late in paying payments, your penalty will be added to how much you owe the card company.
Card companies does make their living by the fees and interests you are paying to them, but they also nip a great bite of profit by penalizing you in various forms. Penalties are well written in fine lines in the Terms and Conditions of holding a credit card, thus you cannot disobey the policy, and it is a must to pay them what they owe. Penalties can be severe if you do not compensate for it soon. For example, a $35 late fee per $1,000 might change up to $45 late fee per $1,000 if not paid with in the time frame of the cards policy.
Penalty means penalty, it is no talked out business. Even if you are one day late in paying your fees, you are in trouble and have to pay for the penalty. If you think the policy is harsh, then you are right.
Why are credit card agencies strict when it comes to fees and penalties?
Mortgage crisis is to blame when answering the question. With the ever increasing bad debts being written off by home buyers, and filling up bankruptcy in the state, card agencies are facing record breaking losses each year. Card companies are trying to compensate for their losses, fees and penalties are fastest way they can recoup their loss.
What can be done to protect you from these penalties?
You need do some research on terms and customize a comparison shop for all credit card offers at your reach. You can also use your internet search engine to aid you get your best-suited credit card. Consider a 0% interest balance transfer card if you think you will have a card with high balance amount that you can pay off in six or twelve months. This way you can turn all your money towards the principal balance for the first six months. However, when considering any 0% interest card offers, you should keep in mind that these companies will stat acquiring interest at a later date.
You can also have a small conversation with the satisfied customers of a credit card, that may be your friends, family or internet bloggers, talk to them about their experience of the credit card services, polices and their penalty charges. You should learn to negotiate terms with card companies.
If you are armed with the right knowledge, you can make intelligent choices of which card best suits you, and avoid any unknown penalties that might come at your way.
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21st Feb 2009
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