What’s the Difference Between a “Charge Card” and a “Credit Card?”
CHARGE CARDS AND CREDIT CARDS ARE NOT THE SAME THING (even though they look the same). The main difference between the two is that charge cards require that the user to make a purchase pay what is owed within a pre-established time, usually 30 days. However, credit cards, which nowadays more people are familiar with [...]
What’s The Difference Between a Credit Card and Debit Card?
CREDIT CARDS AND DEBIT CARDS LOOK THE SAME, BUT THEIR “DIFFERENCES” ARE MORE IMPORTANT. In real simple terms, when you buy anything with a credit card, you are using money you don’t have. When you buy anything with a debit card, you are using your money. In fact, your money is removed from your bank [...]
Credit Card Companies Increasing Their Fees For You and Me
TIRED OF CREDIT CARD FEES? Well, look out, because more are coming your way. USA Today reports a variety of ways that credit card companies are attempting to quietly integrate more fees for you and I to pay all for the privilege of using “their” credit cards. “Annual Fees” are making a comeback. If you travel [...]
Is There Really A PrePaid “Credit” Card?
YOU MAY SEE ADVERTISING FOR PREPAID CREDIT CARDS, BUT THERE IS NO SUCH THING. In simple terms, a prepaid credit card is “not” a credit card at all, since the most elemental aspect of the card does not exist: “Credit!” More directly, there is NO credit offered by the issuer of the card. The card [...]
Credit Card Issuers are Saying One Thing and Doing Another
THE WALL STREET JOURNAL BLOG REPORTED TODAY that “Card issuers are saying one thing and doing another” in response to the credit-card industry reforms that will take effect in February 2010. The post is based upon a Credit Card Study by Bankrate, which looks at the details of 20 card issuers. One thing that will [...]
Credit Card Companies Will Continue to Take Advantage of Consumers
REUTERS REPORTS THAT CREDIT CARD COMPANIES WILL CONTINUE TO MAKE “LUCRATIVE” RETURNS. Just in case you were worried that the new rules of the Obama administration might harm the credit card companies by limiting their ability to rake consumers over the coals, today Reuters reported that: “The credit card industry will continue to provide one [...]
The Secret History of the Credit Card
Credit card companies increase their revenue at the expensive of consumers. PBS FRONTLINE and The New York Times join forces to investigate an industry few Americans fully understand: The Secret History of the Credit Card. In this one-hour online video, correspondent, Lowell Bergman, uncovers the techniques used by the credit card industry to earn record [...]
INTEREST RATES AND YOUR CREDIT CARD DEBT
I would strongly suggest watching the PBS Special Report, THE SECRET HISTORY OF THE CREDIT CARD to get a very good understanding of how the credit card industry and how they are really out for themselves. I’ve had people call me and tell me that they had been with a bank for 25 years and [...]
PAY CUTS AND YOUR CREDIT CARD DEBT
OUR ECONOMIC HOUSE OF CARDS is showing it does not have a very strong foundation as our economy spins into the ground. This tailspin highlights that credit can be bad if you are not using debt to make more money. For instance, if a business is suddenly in a state of emergency, the first thing [...]
READING YOUR CREDIT CARD STATEMENT
Want to see something really scary? Are you really ready for this? I mean, you have to have slept well and eaten enough before you see this so you are really prepared. CREDIT CARD STATEMENT Here it is – read your credit card statement! Most people just look at the amount they owe for the [...]
DEBT AND THAT DARN CREDIT CARD CONTRACT!
I highly recommend going to this web site and watching this PBS Frontline Special Report, THE SECRET HISTORY OF THE CREDIT CARD http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/credit/.. It is a hard hitting, Emmy Award winning investigative documentary about credit cards. It’s in this show that the issue of the Credit Card contract comes up. Guess what, a Harvard Law [...]
HOW MUCH DO YOU REALLY PAY BACK ON YOUR CREDIT CARDS?
The USA Today newspaper does an investigation into credit card debt every couple of years. They take a credit card that has $1500 on it at 18% interest and figure out how long it will take to pay it off if you just made the minimum payments. Now, remember, when the balance of the credit [...]