Prime Rate Credit

In an interesting display of trying to win back my using of their credit card, my Bank of America credit card recently sent me a notice that they would dramatically increase my credit limit, enticing me (and yes, it did entice me, but I haven’t used it yet) to start spending on the card that I stopped using more than a year ago. This must be a campaign by the credit card company to get customers to start spending using the card again, who haven’t used the card in a while, but also haven’t cancelled the card yet.

I have heard of some credit card lenders who will actually cancel the card for you if you haven’t used it in too long a time. I’m not sure what the purpose of this is, nor whether it supposedly will hurt your credit as it would if you’d requested the cancel yourself, but I think it actually happened to me before, as well as to my boyfriend. This may be the credit card company’s way of cutting their losses or a tax reason or something like that, but I am unsure as to exactly how this would benefit them.

With the Bank of America credit card that I had stopped using, which was a great low fixed apr credit card when I got, and I believe I also used it for several balance transfers, I honestly can say I had a great experience with them. Whenever I had an issue, their customer service team would solve it quickly and efficiently, and their online billing was totally convenient.

They also had an excellent security system in place where you had to have a key word to get in, in addition to your username and password, and since I actually have had an account hacked before online, this made me feel more at ease about paying my credit card bills with them online, as well as conducting a lot of my business online with them.

Since I switched all of my business expenses over to my business credit card though, I found that it was simpler if I cut out the other credit cards since I make most of my purchases with my debit card now anyways. Also, since my business credit card is one of the best airline miles credit cards where I get United Airlines points every time I use it, and I love to travel, I found no reason to keep using other cards.

Amazon has gotten into the credit card game I noticed today when I purchased a vaccum cleaner from the online retail giant. It’s called Amazon Prime,and it offers a pretty decent interest rate, and the incentive to sign up for the card is a clever one, I must admit. When you go to sign out for your purchase and check out, it offers very prominently, to take $30 off your purchase, with your new purchase price bolded, if you sign up for the credit card.

But hold up, make sure you could benefit before you go jumping into getting a new credit card just to save thirty bucks, right? I remember when I was younger, in my early twenties, and I would get sucked in by these incentives almost all the time. Of course, back then, my credit sort of was terrible, so many times the poor salesperson would have to tell me I was declined for the application to get the percentage off my order, or that I had been approved, but with a pathetically low line of credit.

Now, I admit, that Amazon offer to take thirty whole dollars off my order was tempting, but I didn’t need the credit card for anything, and couldn’t justify getting another line of credit for virtually no reason other than to save a few bucks off a purchase. Although I must admit, thirty bucks is quite a generous offering for just signing up for a new credit card.

If you shop a lot on Amazon, this card may be a good deal, as it does offer a good interest rate, and it may even offer some additional benefits for regular Amazon shoppers. I was in too much of a hurry to read the fine print on this credit card offer, so unfortunately I don’t know any more, but if you can, go to Amazon and read about it more if you’re interested.

You know when that time comes. When you receive a credit card statement and your heart drops when you see the amount of interest you’ve been charged for one month has gone up considerably, even though your charges haven’t. That’s when you know, it’s time to start comparison shopping for some new credit cards that won’t puncture a hole in your wallet simply by using them for the necessities, and times when you may be financially strapped and need to borrow a little money from yourself, so to speak.

I reached that point, a couple of times in my earlier days of playing the credit card game. A statement would come in the mail, I’d be pretty mad about how much interest I was being charged, and the fact that I knew they had just consistently jacked it my whole stay with them, simply because they knew they could probably get away with it.

Let’s face it, I didn’t have the best credit, and I was kind of a captive audience to some of my credit cards because there was simply no other way to survive without them. I had to pay the outrageous APR’s, because no other credit card companies would give me good intro offers at that time. Now, things have a changed a little.

Even with questionable credit, you have the power of the internet at your fingertips, so you can search hundreds of credit card offers that are all battling for your business, and so will offer you the most competitive APR’s and overall interest rates or rewards to get and maintain your business. It is truly a buyer’s market out there for credit card deals, but you have to know what a good deal and bad deal is when it comes to the credit card game.

My boyfriend has been a Discover credit card holder for quite some time now, and actually he is the most happy with this card out of all of his cards (he has a Mastercard, Visa and American Express also).

He likes the Discover card because of the cash back rewards program that it has, but he noticed that a few months ago his interest rate went up. He called the company to see if there was anything they’d be willing to do to keep him as a happy customer.

They responded with a new credit card offer for a 1.9% introductory rate on all purchases and balance transfers up until June of 2007, which was actually far beyond his expectations. Needless to say, he is still a very happy customer of Discover, and will continue to use their credit card for a lot of his new purchases.

Oh, I did make him check to see what the rate would go up to after the intro period, and he said that it was in writing that it would only go up to the whatever the prime interest rate for credit cards is at the time the intro period is over.

I’d say this is quite a nice deal, and I’d recommend the Discover card to others as a fair and honest credit card company. I just wish they would accept them absolutely everywhere, or maybe they do now, I just haven’t noticed because I do not yet have one (I’m actually seriously considering getting a Discover card now though).

Too many people, including myself, tend to go a little crazy when holiday shopping comes around. How can you avoid spending too much, and getting yourself into more and more revolving debt.

Revolving debt is basically any credit card you have unfortunately. It means that unless you have a zero percent APR credit card, you will be paying interest on your purchases, as well as on the interest on your purchases, on a monthly basis.

This is why credit card debt is hard to manage for many people. You may want to look into getting a 0% APR credit card before you do your major holiday shopping, at least this way you will not be paying interest for the few months introductory period!

What are the best credit card options to get for a kid in college? Are there any that fit this bill? Well, obviously we all know that credit card companies can really charge a huge interest tab to “high risk” college students who may not have necessarity built the greatest credit record for themselves, or simply do not have enough credit card history to justify a low rate credit card.

It is estimated that over 3/4 of all active college students actually have a credit card. A credit card for college students is a college necessity, like food and water. College kids practically live on credit cards many times (unfortunately), and it’s important to find one they will not be paying on for an eternity due to high interest rates that never seem to go away, and make for one awfully LOOOONG payoff period.

Financial experts say that although college kids often times do not have adequate credit history due to their age, they are still entitled to receiving a decent interest rate. By decent, I mean one in the mid teens, which is the “accepted” standard in credit card interest for not getting completely ripped off.

Also they should look for a credit card with no annual fees and a grace period on late payments. This way, they will not end up incurring late fees over and over for only being a few days late if they run into trouble, another road block to getting high interest credit card debt paid off in any reasonable amount of time.

Chase Platinum, which is almost akin to a “Gold” status credit card, which just means you are eligible for better interests rates because you are a better credit risk for credit card companies, is offering a Platinum Low Interest Credit Card Special. Here are the details of this special credit offer that I saw :

You get 0% annual percentage rate on any qualifying purchases (be careful to read what “qualifying is - although this one looks fairly straightforward), and also 0% APR on any credit card balance transfers (balances from other higher interest cards that you may want to transfer over to take advantage of the interest savings, at least, while they last) for a full year.

The Chase Platinum would then boost you up to a perfectly respectable interest rate of 14.24% annual percentage rate after the one year intro period. Speaking from experience, one year is a pretty nice intro period to take advantage of.

Catches : They do warn that the year intro period is subject to a review of your credit history, so not “everyone” qualifies for the special rate and intro period. As long as your credit is ok, I would think you would be fine. It really depends on this particular cards stringency in guidelines for credit risks.

I am actually a Key Bank customer, and noticed the other day when checking my account information online that they are offering a new lower APR credit card with a 5% cash back bonus. So I read on, of course. It’s called the “Platinum” credit card, and it’s a Mastercard.

The Platinum Key Bank credit card offers the following deal:

0% APR on balance transfers for 12 months with the Platinum Card. After the introductory zero percent period, it does advise that you will then be charged the going prime rate, or actually the standard variable APR on the card, which isn’t too bad actually. The catch is, you may not qualify for the Platinum (probably based on your credit history and debt to income ratio), so you may be bumped down to a Gold card of some sort and not get as good benefits.

5% cash back on purchases for the first 3 months : This of course has some guidelines as well. I believe it says after three months introductory special, you get 1% cash back on qualifying purchases. Still not bad though.

No annual fee - I never pay a fee for a credit card, unless it provides exceptional benefits, like frequent flyer miles or something.

Well, I know I’ve gotten some really good deals on some zero - 3% APR credit cards recently in the mail. Some of the credit card companies I’ve gotten them from are Chase, Bank of America and Capital One. I already have an active Chase card, as a matter of fact, that is the only card I even use any more.

My other cards I still have, but they have a zero balance on them (remember we talked about NOT cancelling your cards when you’ve paid them off, just keep them open with a zero balance - it’s better for your FICO credit score).

I’ve found that with Capital One, although they have all those funny TV commercials about getting “robbed” on your credit cards APR offers and monthly interest fees that kill you, seem to be one of the worst offenders when it comes to getting you in at a lower APR, then jacking you up for random reasons.

This happened to me and my boyfriend with Capital One actually. I’m not sure why, and I’m not sure if this is their regular practice, but we both had to pay them off and stop using them because the APR had become too high and the credit card was just not worth keeping open.

Why Choose a Low APR Credit Card?

The difference between credit cards with lower APR’s and other regular credit cards can mean hundreds, if not thousands of dollars in savings for you when it’s all said and done. Especially if you plan on using it for large purchases, or you keep the credit card open for a long period of time.

Lower APR credit cards really help any consumer out by giving them a little leeway to pay off balances with little penalty and little interest being built up, instead of an endless cycle of revolving debt that so many of us have found ourselves stuck in at one time or another (or currently). Shopping around for these lower rates is really going to be key to keeping your financial health - and sanity.

Did you know that one of the biggest overall indicators of financial hard times here in the US is an increasing trend in late credit card payments? It’s pretty easy to guess why. If your budgest is squeezed between getting enough gas in the car to get to work to buy your family food and keep them warm, the last thing on your mind is going to be getting those credit card bills paid on time!

Another sign of bad economic times, as I indicated in one of my previous posts, is the fact that nonprofit consumer credit management agencies are getting record amounts of calls for help. People are drowning in their debt, especially credit card debt, and other priorities are taking precedence over these revolving debts. Can you blame them?