CREDIT CARD CONFIDENTIAL - An Insider Reveals How To Avoid Heartbreak, Wasted Fees & Identity Theft

This is the third of three posts on how to avoid balance transfer disasters. Balance transfer disasters occur because of  miscommunications, between customers and credit card agents, in regard to terms. The reasons why these communication mistakes occur were discussed in post number two. 

So, how can you avoid the kind of calamitous miscommunication that makes a balance transfer pointless or, worse, damaging to your finances? [Read more →]

Part 2 of a 3-part post. Most credit card balance transfer disasters can be traced to a problem with terms. The customer thinks he has agreed to one set of terms when he has actually agreed to a different set.

Such miscommunication occurs, primarily, when customers are speaking with overseas credit card agents. Yet, why exactly does this  miscommunication occur? [Read more →]

In our current economic climate credit card customers are seeking out low-interest promotional balance transfers as a way to help them manage their debt and, in some cases, escape bankruptcy.

However, before looking to transact a balance transfer on a new card, be aware that unpleasant consequences can impact your finances should a miscommunication occur between you and the credit card agent who is facilitating your transaction.

In my article Credit Card Balance Transfers - 6 Disasters To Avoid, I detail six financial disasters that can and do occur. This 3-part article discusses how to avoid such balance transfer mishaps.

The Cause of Balance Transfer Disasters

The problems discussed in Credit Card Balance Transfers - 6 Disasters To Avoid all revolve around a customer believing he is getting one set of terms when, in reality, he is agreeing to a different set of terms which can render the balance transfer pointless or, worse, financially damaging.

Unfortunately, once funds are transferred, there is no “going back.” The terms in place on the account cannot be changed. So it’s important for every credit cardholder to try and understand the causes behind these communication mishaps in order to avoid them.

Some of the errors can be caused by technological glitches, or caused by the errors of English-speaking North American agents who should know better.

Yet, in the great majority of cases, these problems are caused by overseas agents who simply make “communication errors” and/or omit some information that the customer should have been told.

Next Post - Part 2: Why These Communication Errors Happen 

  I’m delighted to report that I’ve had my first article     published in EzineArticles.com. About  balance transfer   problems, it’s reproduced below. Plus I get to display their   cool logo.

Credit Card Balance Transfers - 6 Disasters To Avoid

Before looking to transact a balance transfer on a new credit card, be aware that a number of unpleasant consequences can occur to your finances should a miscommunication occur between you and the credit card agent who is facilitating the transaction. This article discusses six balance transfer disasters to avoid.

[Read more →]

Anyone who has worked in the credit card business for any length of time has seen periods like this one, in which masses of credit cardholders are hit with significant changes in the terms of their credit card accounts.  

We, who are not the CEO’s making these decisions, recognize that these changes are an integral part of profit making and the profit-taking cycle that credit card companies engineer, and that they seldom have anything to do with any current economic conditions.  

As far as I can tell, the company for which I work has billions in assets and is in no economic danger.  

So it seems, to me, that right now is a bad time for lenders to be aggressively pursuing this profit making strategy when it is at the expense of people who are already struggling.  

A lot of customers agree. And they are fighting back. [Read more →]

  Tens of millions of credit cardholders have   received notices that their interest rates are   being raised. Depending upon the company   and the account, credit cardholders are being   given between 15 and 90 days warning of pending interest rate increases. 

My last post discussed the option that credit cardholders have to exercise an ”opt out” provision.

Once chosen, the opt out provision freezes the account at the rate in place at the time of the opt out, and closes the account for all other purposes except repayment. (Note that the opt out provision must be chosen BEFORE the date on which the increase in interest rates takes effect.)

In this post I want to clarify and emphasize that there is a BIG difference between exercising the opt out provision (which freezes the rate and closes the account for everything but repayment) and simply choosing to close the account and then pay off the balance.

The first option will freeze your interest rates. The second option won’t. [Read more →]

February has been a month of change, yet not the type that the average credit cardholder needs. Credit card lenders have spent the month advising tens of millions of customers across the U.S. that their credit card interest rates are about to change. 

EXPECT DEFAULT INTEREST RATE INCREASES BY MID-MAY

Across-the-board increases in interest rates are occurring and may prove to be a death blow to the finances of those Americans who are in debt and have lost their jobs.

The good news - if there is any - is that not all of the increases are effective immediately. [Read more →]

WHY CARDHOLDERS WANT LONGER GRACE PERIODS

I understand why credit cardholders need and want longer grace periods when they get their bills through the mail and then pay them through the mail. It’s too easy for payments to arrive late.

However, credit card account “revolvers” who carry a credit card balance from month to month are throwing away money when they rely on the mail system and wait until the due date to make a payment. [Read more →]

For those people who are credit card account “revolvers” (in that they carry a credit card balance from month to month) waiting to make a payment until the due date is just throwing good money after bad.

Yet a longer “grace period” encourages cardholders to do just that, which is why I hoped The Globe and Mail would print my letter to the editor in which I pointed out the benefit of credit cardholders making payments as early as possible when carrying a balance.  [Read more →]

WHEN A WORN-OUT CREDIT CARD DOESN’T WORK

It happens. You use your credit card so frequently that the magnetic stripe wears out and the card no longer works.

Once you find out, you will telephone your credit card company and ask the agent to have another card mailed out to you. That’s no problem, and the agent will, likely, tell you that your replacement credit card will arrive in seven to ten days.

Yet, what if it is your only card (or the card with the lowest interest rate) and you want to continue using it until the new one arrives?  [Read more →]