Archive for the ‘Credit Cards’ Category:

Avoid Common Credit Card Pitfalls

Written on January 16th, 2012 by Samanthano shouts

Credit cards have been a staple in American homes for quite some time. The current great recession has forced many to utilize credit cards to make ends meet. This is completely understandable and necessary for those that have adopted this practice. However, there are pitfalls that should be avoided at all cost. Activity that can affect your credit score can be detrimental to your ability to access much needed cash later on. Here are a few tips on how to stay on top of what matters most.

Limits

Some credit card users may believe that having a lower monetary limit on his or her credit cards is a good thing. This is certainly not so. Having a lower limit will probably result in you maxing out that credit card much sooner that a credit card with a much higher limit attached to it. This can be interpreted as an undesirable quality in the way you handle your financial responsibilities. Having a balance of $500 dollars on a card with a $500 dollar limit is far worse than having that same balance amount on a credit card with a $1,500 dollar limit.

This issue is compounded if credit card users with very low limits have several low monetary limit credit cards. Having several cards that are maxed to the limit can be quite damaging to a credit rating.

These types of cards are more typical of store credit cards than bank credit cards.

Credit card users should look to use only about 30 percent of his or her total monetary credit card limit. The more you have to use, the better—this will likely result in a much more favorable credit rating score.

Interest Rates

Credit card interest rates can be quite daunting. Typical rates are currently at 18%-25%.  That is extremely higher than most people can afford. What a lot of credit card users don’t know is that it is possible for these rates to be lowered—or switch to another card that does not have such a high rate. Some consumers have been able to reduce rates to 7%-8%. Contact your credit card company to find out how you may be able to get a lower rate.

Be Alert

Making payments to your credit card company is very important. However, most modern people are continuously multitasking and completely busy—this may leave very little time for managing payments, even when you do have the money to pay.

Most credit card companies have some sort of payment reminder alert system that you can utilize to make sure that you make your payments on time. Go to your credit card company’s website and sign into your account.  Within your account you should find options that allow you to set up a payment reminder alert that will be sent to you on a timely basis. This can be sent to your email address or directly to your mobile phone. The choice is yours.

Keeping these few tips in mind while handling your credit card management can be quite helpful and save you a lot of money and headaches in the long run.

 

 

Resources:

Financially Fit: http://www.finance.yahoo.com

Main St.: http://www.finance.yahoo.com

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What to do when you can’t Pay your Bills

Written on September 13th, 2011 by credit2meno shouts

Avoiding collection calls won’t get them off your back. You have to take action when you can’t pay your bills. Too often, the lenders are seen as the enemy but they are really just trying to get what is due to them. Of course they should be treating you with respect when you talk to them on the phone. Being late on bills isn’t just cause for them to harass you.

If you can’t pay your bills on time, contact who you owe and let them know. They may be able to have you pay an interest only payment for a few months. You won’t pay anything on principal. Then they will tack those payments on to the very end of your loan. They may be able to reduce your payment as well into smaller amounts, but you will have to pay for it over a longer period of time.
Still, being able to get your debts reduced can ease the monthly burden of what you have to pay out. As your circumstances improve, you can start to pay more to the lenders once again. If you owe a large amount of money, you may be able to get a lump sum settlement. This will pay off what you owe and then you can be free and clear from it.

When you accept such a settlement, make sure you get something in writing that verifies what the agreement will be. That way you have some proof should the attempt to come after you again in the future for the remaining balance.

You want to do all you can to avoid your bills going to collection agencies. When that happens you may have to pay legal fees and fines on top of what you already owe. This will only compound the problems that you have. When creditors don’t hear from you, they will assume that you don’t care. They may freeze your bank account or they can garnish your wages to get what you owe to them.

There are plenty of debt consolidation companies out there, but you do have to be careful. Many of them charge high fees and that is money that could be going to pay down your debt. They can negotiate balances, but you should be able to do that on your own with many creditors.

You may find that consolidating your debt though is a good idea. You will want to carefully evaluate the overall cost of it. If the rate of interest will be low enough, it could save you a large sum of money. You may find that getting a home equity loan can help you to pay off your debts. Then you can start over with a clean slate and have peace of mind. You don’t want to worry every time your phone rings that it is someone trying to get you to pay a bill.

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Welcome to www.bestmoney.us

Written on August 17th, 2011 by richmanno shouts

Welcome to www.bestmoney.us

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