Long overdue rules go into effect today to eliminate some of the worst credit issuer abuses. We’ll see:
Payments due the same date each month.
No double-billing.
45-day notification of rate or other significant changes.
No interest rate increase for the first 12 months (excluding variable-rate cards, the expiration of teaser rates, and delinquent payments).
But we’ll also see an [...]
Tags: CARD Act · credit cards · interest rate · minimum payment calculation
When I last wrote about our two- or three-year plan to pay off all credit card debt, we were struggling up Mount Savings, frequently buffeted by the winds of unpredictable expenses.
At that time, the goal was a cushion of $5,000 in savings — a base camp, if you will, from which to mount a demolition [...]
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A reader writes:
Like most folks, we have lived on credit and have quite a lot to pay down. But several of these cards have interest rates close to 30% which makes paying them down a multi-year process. Our goal is to totally get off the credit train but keep a couple cards for convenience and [...]
Tags: Credit bureau · Credit card · opt-out letter · rate hike · rate jacking
In dealing with this Wells Fargo letter we received, I decided to get our credit reports from all three credit bureaus, to dispute any application for credit the bank may have made for us, and to otherwise check for any errors.
I went to AnnualCreditReport.com, which all three bureaus direct you to, and which makes it [...]
Tags: credit reports · requesting
If you’ve got a little time, I have seen no better example that encapsulates, in one man’s story, the mania that preceded the housing bubble and its very painful aftermath.
His story is jaw-dropping. A financial correspondent for the NY Times Washington bureau, Edmund L. Andrews’s $120,000 salary was never going to support $4,000 in monthly [...]
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In this story I wrote for CreditCards.com on which cards personal finance experts use themselves, Liz Pulliam Weston, MSN Money columnist, and Ron Lieber, NY Times columnist, are both whip-smart and serious about leveraging their credit cards rewards programs.
In the course of my conversation with Lieber, I asked something about how the card issuers figure [...]
Tags: cash economy · Chris Farrell · creditcards.com · Liz Pulliam Weston · Ron Lieber
Your Money: Guide to New Credit Card Rules, NY Times
President Obama signs the new credit law (Credit Card Accountability Responsibility and Disclosure Act) this weekend, which means that by mid-August consumers will be spared some of the most egregious fee charges and rate hikes. (This article by the Christian Science Monitor breaks it all down [...]
Tags: credit card law · credit card legislation · credit card rules
