Prime Rate Credit

Archive for February, 2007:

Credit Card Misuse : Eduction is Key

Written on February 28th, 2007 by CleanedUpCreditno shouts

There is a lot of awareness out there, especially for college students with credit cards, that the likelihood of every one of us, especially thos more in financial need, such as college students, are bound to misuse credit cards, or over-use them, at some point in our life. Heck, there is increasing awareness and pushes for anti-credit card education, or at least “smart credit card use” education for many college students who have at one time gotten in over their head with credit cards and found that the cycle of revolving debt is not so fun once you’ve spent the money and the bills start pouring in, and keep on pouring in for months after that money has been spent.

Because of the potential dangers of college student credit card use, senate hearings have determined that the best place to start and prevent this type of abuse, and what some say is the financial industry’s fault for preying on the financially needy when they are simply still too naive to understand the repercussions, is to start the education in the schools themselves, of how to stay out of the revolving credit card debt doors as best you can, and work with what you have, or try to secure lower interest, non-revolving loans elsewhere instead of relying on the plastic monster all the time.

I learned the hard way, as a college student, I thought, oh wow, how cool is this? I have this piece of plastic and I can go out and buy all my food, gas, a new stereo system – heck, whatever I want, and all I have to pay is the minimum payment every month, which I can definitely swing! And then reality set in. Not only did I charge several cards past their maximum limit, but I then found that I had maxed out cards and nothing tangible to show for it! I’m glad that college students will now at least have the opportunity to be educated in an open forum about the dangers of credit card overuse in college, I sure wish I had someone who sat me down and talked to me about it at that age!

Full Story » Filed under Credit Cards Tags:

Gasoline Surcharges Still Around?

Written on February 25th, 2007 by CleanedUpCreditno shouts

We’ve all seen that (thankfully), gas prices have continued on their much-welcomed downward spiral since the end of the summer time, but why are we still seeing them rebound into dangerous almost-three dollar a gallon territory once in a while now, after the supposed shortage and scares are over? Well, there are these nasty little things called “surcharges” that are the domino effect of high gas prices, which ultimately trickle down to the consumer paying more out of pocket for services and goods related in even seemingly remote ways to the costs of commercial gasoline.

Consumers have seen increases in airline tickets, consumer goods they buy at almost any store, where the owners or corporations that own them must pay hefty gasoline bills to be able to transport goods in and out of the store and do other business, and other travel related costs where a business incurs any type of costs related to transportation and gasoline prices.

Although the fuel prices in many sectors has gone down, the effects of the higher prices are still being absorbed by businesses big and small, and yes, that increased cost is being passed onto you and I, the consumer my friend! Just another reason why you have to care about the cost of fuel. The effects are far more reaching than one would suspect at first glance.

Full Story » Filed under Financial News Tags:

The New “Good Credit Card Debt”

Written on February 22nd, 2007 by CleanedUpCreditno shouts

This is an interesting spin on credit card debt. Some people are taking their high interest debt, in the form of high interest mortgages or ARM’s, which are Adjustable Rate Mortgages, which tend to be adjusted to the detriment of the home owner when the financing interest rates are going up in general.

Some people are taking their home equity loans and transferring them to low APR credit cards or special credit balance transfer card offers so they can both save money on their interest rate (if that’s the case, it’s not always the case for every mortgage loan necessarily).

This type of practice may become more common as the prime rate for mortgages shifts and banks and mortgage lenders are forced to increase the rates, especially on adjustable rate mortgages. Heck, if you have an offer for a low apr balance transfer credit card, and you’re looking at a low apr versus paying thousands of dollars in interest, then I can’t blame you for picking the card over the equity loan!

Full Story » Filed under Mortgages, Special Credit Offers Tags:

Advantages of Direct Deposit

Written on February 19th, 2007 by CleanedUpCreditno shouts

In this day and age of simplified automation and pure laziness – well, maybe lack of time is how we’ll put it, automated banking and savings services have really burned a pioneering path in to the new age of financial ease in savings, deposits, investments and more. Automated deposits into most kinds of accounts helps people to keep track of their finances better, and many times is a cheaper way than manually depositing checks and other deposits, since some banks actually will charge you to walk in and use a teller rather than use some automated option.

The cool thing is, that now, even if your employer does not currently offer a direct deposit option for your paychecks, many times you can authorize a bank of credit union to automatically debit and credit your account for you. Look at how easy it is to sign up for services like Key Bill Pay, which is Key Banks bill payment offer, where the bank sets it up so you do not have to even think about paying your bills, because the bank knows your due dates, and does it automatically for you.

These types of automated and direct deposits and debits have helped thousands of people manage their accounts more effectively and accurately, and not to mention may have even saved them late fees they may have incurred if they were left to figure out their bills themselves every month and may have missed a deadline or two along the way. Haven’t we all done that before? Also, you save money on stamps, and save yourself from having to trudge to the post office or out to your mailbox in the dead cold of winter! Sounds like a win/win to me!

Full Story » Filed under Checking and Savings Accounts Tags:

Arguing Credit Card Late Fees

Written on February 16th, 2007 by CleanedUpCreditno shouts

Late fees. Everyone hates them, and even the most conscientious bill payers has to foot them once in a while because of a mistake, an oversight or just plain old bad timing for the bills. I’ve had to deal with late fees on my favorite credit cards before, and almost every time I’ve successfully asked to have them removed from my statement.

Credit card late fees are very high, in my opinion too high. I do understand that they want to successfully deter people from even thinking about making a late payment, but the $35-$39 late fee just seems like it’s a bit excessive – although I will say, once you see one of those babies, boy are your careful about your payment timing from that point on!

If you make a careful plea to your credit card company who has charged you this high fee, and you’ve been a good customer of theirs for a few years with a solid payment record and no delinquencies, most credit card companies will try to work with you and take the late fee off. Same goes for over the limit fees, which often range in the high amounts as well unfortunately. I’ve had this removed once or twice, because I was honest and advised that I really did not know I had busted through the limit. I also sugar coated it by asking for a limit increase, so I think they knew I had good intentions to pay whatever limit off they gave me.

Full Story » Filed under Credit Cards, Ways to Save Tags:

Credit Card Intro Offers

Written on February 13th, 2007 by CleanedUpCreditno shouts

I recently got a credit card offer in the mail for a credit card with a credit line of up to $20,000, a 0% APR for the first year if I used a balance transfer, and no annual fee. This sounds pretty good doesn’t it? I think it does, especially if I had balances I wanted to transfer, in which case I’d be allover the offer faster than you can say “Prime Rate Credit”. There can be so many benefits to balance transfer credit cards, if you’re in the financial boat that meets their criteria!

But, the truth is, I just don’t want to deal with transferring over the one active card I have at this point. I mean, for the most part, I pay my balances on this one active card off every month, and do not really need a new card that has zero percent. Now, would this be a great potential deal if I needed a very low apr credit card right now? Absolutely!

The thing is though, I will probably get a ton more of these offers in the mail, and can probably look up new credit card offers online any time and be able to get a pretty decent deal as long as my credit report came back decent enough. You want to be careful not to jump in to signing up for too many credit cards, just because they sound like a good deal at the time, because they can really come back to bite you if you start using them and do not budget properly to pay them down significantly every month and avoid those mountains of finance charges that we have all become so familiar with at one point or another in our life!

Full Story » Filed under Credit Cards Tags:

Fee Based Credit Cards

Written on February 10th, 2007 by CleanedUpCreditno shouts

Everyone tends to run for the hills when they see a fee attached in any way to signing up for a credit card. And rightfully so, especially if that credit card is not one of the best airline credit cards,or something that offers a point system toward purchases that isn’t essentially paying the consumer back through other values. Not to mention, why would you EVER pay a credit card fee when there are so many other credit card offers out there that offer you low APR’s with no strings attached, as in no fees? But are there some fee based credit cards that may actually benefit certain consumers more than others?

Basically, there are only a few select times that you would want to opt for paying a fee for your credit card priveledges, and they all have to do with the level of rewards you would be getting in return, and whether those rewards calculated throughout the year will end up more than paying for your yearly credit card fee. Like I said, for me personally, I pay a $30 annual fee for my airline miles credit card, but that is more than worth it for me. The rewards definitely overshadow that annual fee, because I will most likely be earning myself a free airline ticket to anywhere in the continental US once a year or more, which is several hundred dollars. This is much more than that $30 fee, so I’m paying it off and then some, you dig?

You have to kind of figure in your head whether the benefits outweigh the costs. If they do, snatch that card up, and ignore the fact that you paid a fee, because in the end, you’re going to win out.

Full Story » Filed under Credit Cards Tags:

Mortgage and Home Buying Costs You Don’t Consider

Written on February 8th, 2007 by CleanedUpCreditno shouts

I am going through a possible home buying process right now. In other words, I’ve applied for a mortgage. It’s the first time I’ve done so, and I’m finding that it is very wise that we saved up a decent nest egg before we plunged into this process, since there are several hidden fees that you don’t even think about and to go in to the buying process, or even the mortgage loan process without having a couple thousand dollars (at least) at your disposal could leave you poor for a few months!

There is the loan application fee – ours was $275. I wouldn’t have thought of that one at all, but that’s an extra fee I guess for the costs of the mortgage lender processing your loan, which I have to say does require a decent amount of paperword on both ends. Then there are the closing costs. I think this one may depend on the cost of the loan you are applying for. Ours happens to be in the coupld grand department, and that was just another cost I had heard about, but didn’t necessarily think about in my head as an extra expense to save up for (Thank God I did though).

Then there are the home inspection fees and appraisal fees. You’re looking at another couple hundred dollars for each of these. See how much this home buying process can drain your account quicker than you can say “bureaucracy”? It’s best to go into it financially prepared, and I feel very blessed that we have been able to do it the right way as first time home buyers.

Full Story » Filed under Mortgages Tags:

Congress to Crack Down on Credit Card Companies?

Written on February 6th, 2007 by CleanedUpCreditno shouts

Well, anything is possible I suppose, with the Democrats taking control of the congress. But I guess regardless of the political part in control of congress, we cannot be sure of who is giving significant campaign contributions to a political party and large credit card subsidiaries and conglomerates.

Here are some of the things that anti credit card lobbyists are pushing congress to in turn push credit card companies to do. They would like to see some sort of warning system or disclosure in place about minimum monthly payments.

Since we all know making minimum payments if what the credit card industry wants us to do, so that in the end they get more interest money from us, the anti-credit lobbyists don’t want to see the credit card companies get too much money from consumers.

Full Story » Filed under Credit Cards Tags:

Why You Might Not Want to Play the Lottery

Written on February 4th, 2007 by CleanedUpCreditno shouts

I have a lot of acquaintences and family members who religiously play the state sponsored lottery. They play either all the time, or they play only when the super lotto jackpot is high enough to justify wasting a few bucks on a ticket that is one out of millions or billions of tickets, and its likelihood of matching as a winner are about the same – in other words, you have pretty lousy odds of becoming the next lottery winner. On the other hand, what could you do with that money that you worked so hard to earn that would otherwise most likely be tossed down the drain to the hope that you may be one of the few fortunate to strike it big at this game of pure chance?

Well, take the person who spends $100 or more on the lottery every week. If they put that same money into a money market, they may be looking at a nice little nest egg when they retire. Or even better, up the amount they put in their 401k or other matching retirement program at work, and they could be looking at a better company match, and way more money in their pot when they retire! Any way you slice it, playing the lottery seems like a very high risk, low return investment to me.

Not only that, look at the amount of people who have won the lottery and only unhappiness has ensued. Many people who win the lottery end up overspending, and end up in the poor house if they are not properly counseled how to spend and invest their new found fortune. Also, there is what has been called the lottery winner curse, where people have loved ones threatened and kidnapped, struggle with family problems and other things like that which are not pleasant at all. All in all, winning the lottery seems to have a lot of empty promises….

Full Story » Filed under General Rants Tags:

Interest Rates, Financial News, Credit Tips

Archive for February, 2007:

Credit Card Misuse : Eduction is Key

Gasoline Surcharges Still Around?

The New “Good Credit Card Debt”

Advantages of Direct Deposit

Arguing Credit Card Late Fees

Credit Card Intro Offers

Fee Based Credit Cards

Mortgage and Home Buying Costs You Don’t Consider

Congress to Crack Down on Credit Card Companies?

Why You Might Not Want to Play the Lottery

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