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 →]

Looking for good deals in credit cards despite the credit crunch? So are my friends.

They’ve been asking me if there are any good deals on credit cards, and for some info on how the economic crisis is affecting the credit card business. So I’ll give you the inside scoop I’ve been sharing with them.

[Read more →]

You type in: “application credit card promotions” to find a good offer, but do you really know what you’re getting when the results pop up? And what about after you apply for a credit card? Do you know, for instance, what the quality of credit card service you’ll get from the company managing your new credit card account will be?

Probably not.

Yet quality of service will make a big difference in how high your stress level goes, especially when it comes time to straighten out a problem with your account that will cost you money, time, and aggravation until you do. 

So do you think it would it be helpful for you to have some guidelines so you know what to look for, and so that credit card promotion you think will help you get out of debt doesn’t just make life more difficult and aggravating? [Read more →]

Credit card debt is just the latest scheme for getting people to “buy now and pay later.”

But when you buy with credit card revolving credit, the slogan should really be “buy now and pay for it the rest of your life.”

Here’s a newspaper ad dated March 24,1903  published in The Bourbon News, a Paris, Kentucky newspaper.

A. F. Wheeler advertised that you could get “Credit on FURNITURE, Credit on CARPETS, Credit on RUGS, Credit on MATTINGS, Credit on DRAPERIES, Credit on LAMPS, Credit on PICTURES, and Credit on RANGES (stoves.)

I’ve highlighted “Credit On” every place it appears by putting a transparent red rectangle over it in Photoshop. You can see the original ad on the bottom right of the page here:

The message of this ad from 1903 was wake up to the fact that you need credit and you can trust us. (For a history of the credit card, itself, visit History of The Credit Card. [Read more →]

If you are juggling funds and it would help you to skip a credit card cycle, you might see if you can take advantage of a glitch that sometimes happens with some credit card company software.

This glitch can occur when you update your personal information on a credit card account.  When it does occur, the update messes  up your credit card billing cycle and creates a credit card billing problem.

If you update your address on your credit card, including changing your zip code, the agent will probably warn you that this may cause a small change to your statement and due date (less than three days difference earlier or later.)

What he doesn’t tell you is that the software being used can  cause an account to completely lose a billing cycle. This can mean, for example, that in the month following the “update” there will be no billing. Whatever you owe for that month will just get added on to the next cycle. Everyone in the business knows that this happens, but I’ve never heard an explanation as to what causes it. [Read more →]

There is generally not much that represents a consistent criterion for granting customers credit limit increases. Yet the public is led to believe that patterns of good credit card behavior, combined with satisfactory credit scores, will get them more credit.

In fact, this frequently doesn’t happen and customers are denied increases for really no good reason. Yet the only way you can really determine if you are perceived as eligible for more credit is to threaten to close your credit card account!

So if you want a credit limit increase, you’ve asked for a credit limit increase, but that request has been denied, try this: [Read more →]

What do I mean by bad credit cards? There are a number of criteria you can use to judge a credit card company and whether or not you are doing business with a bad credit card company.

One criteria is communication quality.

Bad credit card cards are issued by bad credit card companies that do a lousy job at communicating with their customers. The worst ones do not provide a live agent.

Yet some credit card companies that provide live agents still don’t provide good service. Look out for these signs that you may have a bad credit card with a bad credit card company:   

• Your call was “dropped” before you were serviced. 
• You were transferred more than once during a service call. 
• Your call took 30 minutes or more to service.
• You had difficulty understanding the agent.
• Your name is misspelled on your credit card.
• You weren’t provided with a copy of your terms.
• You ordered a year-end-summary, but did not receive it.
• You received your year-end-summary, but it was inaccurate.
• Checks sent to you are not clearly labeled. You can’t tell whether they will be drawn against the purchase, balance transfer or cash advance portion of your account, or what interest rate is attached to any specific check.

These are just some of the clues. [Read more →]

Someone I know  – who I call “Agent 0016″ to protect his identity – works inside the credit card industry.

He started telling me some of what goes on in the industry and how it works. The more he told me, the angrier I got. And then I said: ”If only people knew what you know! They could save a lot of money, couldn’t they?”

“Oh, yes,” he said.

That’s when a lightbulb went on in my head.

“How about we try to tell them?”

“Oh, I don’t know,” he said, then added:

“I couldn’t say any of this stuff in public. I’d lose my job.”

“What if we published it all under my name?” I asked. [Read more →]