CardRatings.com Monthly Newsletter February 2008
February 1, 2008
Variable Rate Credit Cards Expected to Fall in Light of Recent Fed Rate Cuts The Federal Open Market Committee cut short term interest rates again today by one half of a percentage point to 3.0%. The Fed's rate cut was in response to the economy's current financial state. Read more >>
Chase Will No Longer Increase Rates Based on Credit-Bureau Information Chase earlier this week made a major announcement regarding the credit card interest rates of its customers. Chase, as of March 1, 2008, will no longer increase the rates of cardmembers based on their credit-bureau information. Read more >>
Discover Launches New Credit Score Tracking Service Discover Card is now offering comprehensive credit score tracking to its cardholders. Discover’s Credit ScoreTracker, which costs $7.99 a month, sends out alerts when a member’s score changes. It also provides resources to help members understand their scores and to reach target scores that they set themselves. Read more >>
Capital One Says, “Create Your Own Credit Card” Capital One just came out with Card Lab, a do-it-yourself site, where you can design a credit card that floats your boat. For starters, you have to indicate what your "credit level" is. Then you can pick and choose among basic and additional rewards, interest rates on new purchases and balance transfers, as well as whether or not you want an annual fee. Read more >>
Would You Buy a New TV for $29,811?
Commercial America's version of "Ho, Ho, Ho!" is "No, No, No!" NO waiting—buy now—with NO interest and NO payments until...next year...or maybe the year after...or maybe even four years from now. Many of the largest electronics retailers, as well as furniture stores, car dealers and other merchants who sell pricey items, have teamed up with credit card issuers to provide "buy now, pay later, no interest" loans to cash-poor shoppers. (12/18/07)
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ebaskin, Can you please post your opinion of the TrueEarnings card from American Express? I am considering getting it, as I am a Costco member and already have their Costco card, but it only pays 1% on Costco purchases. This one pays 3% for travel and 2% at restaurants, plus 1% everywhere else - if I read correctly. It also offers good travel protection. I have not found anything that pays 3% for travel/vacation booking and though I travel only for pleasure, we do it usually twice a year and there is 3 of us, so it adds up. And it does not hurt that this is in addition to the rewards I already have. Credit score is not an issue and I pay in full. Did I miss something important in the small print? Thank you for your help. What credit limit should I request, or would I get that choice?
rabbit, Bullwinkle is right, it's only 2% for travel -- the 3% is for dining. I just got this card and I think it will be my favorite for a while -- it is my highest CL to date. I like how it is my Costco membership card as well as a credit card. And it's a very attractive card, too. The cash back is in the form of a yearly coupon that they send you with your February statement that you can redeem at Costco for merchandise or cash. I got it to replace my Amex One -- the One had an AF and was only 1% for everything.
bullet875, Hi all! I just got an email congratulating me on being accepted for a Citi Driver's edge card. I resisted getting this card for a long time as I have the Discover 5%, BP, and 2 Chase Cash rewards cards (both still at 5%). However, I went from a 12 mile each way commute to a 35 mile each way commute so I will probably use the DE card to get the rebates on my mileage. Is there any way to find out what my credit limit is before the card comes? Thanks!
hdporter, With Citi you should be able to simply call and ask.
Visit our active Message Board. Ask a question, give your opinions. Select questions answered by our board monitor. Our board currently has over 30,000 posts (since May 2000) and new posts are added daily. We are seeking new consumers like you to become involved in our board community.
| Recent Credit Card Reviews by Consumers Like You |
Following is a sampling of the latest consumer reviews that can be found by clicking the "Cardholder Reviews" link above. We take pride in the quantity (our site offers approximately 19,000 reviews of 956 different credit cards) and quality of the consumer reviews that can be find on our site. New reviews are added on a daily basis. The cards are rated on a scale from 1 to 5, with 5 being the highest recommended. Credit Card: Best Buy Card Review: Best Buy and HSBC use tactics to add charges to your statement. I signed up for the no interest for 18 months Best Buy charge card. The sales rep said I needed to sign twice on the application to get it approved. He did not inform me whatsoever about the "Debt Cancellation" program. This is a scam so they can get more money from you. Something needs to be done about this because it is wrong! I will never do business with Best Buy or HSBC again. Best Feature: 18 months "No Interest" Benefit Rating: 1 Service Rating: 1 Recommend: No Credit Card: American Express® Platinum Card Review: Generally speaking, the Platinum card is only useful if you travel a great deal or require the conceirge service. However, where they really excel is in their ability to stop fraud in it's tracks. Twice - once for me, once for my husband - we have had fraudulent charges made on our cards and both times Amex called immediately and alerted us. With no hassle, they eliminated the charges - no paperwork to fill out, no need to justify the other charges made - and overnighted us new cards. Remarkably, I had a receipt stolen from a cash register in a store at the World Trade Center in Manhattan; the thief went to Brooklyn and made three purchases at Rite Aid. Amex immediately knew that the purchases weren't mine. Ditto with international travel. I have never had my card declined overseas but a fraudulent overseas charge was flagged immediately. You may not need help having 1200 thread count sheets delivered to the Amazon by tomorrow morning, but you should want this kind of help when protecting your credit record. Best Feature: Fraud protection Overall Rating: 5 Credit Card: Delta SkyMiles® Platinum Credit Card Review: We had the Delta Gold for years with both personal and business use. We decided to up our "privledges" by upgrading to Platinum. We never have recieved the companion ticket - 2 years in a row. Miles tickets take double the points than the Gold tickets did. They also keep changing the credit limits. First up, which was good. Then they kept chopping large chunks off the credit limit, sometimes $500, sometimes $5,000 - the new privledge for paying on time, paying more than the minimum and in general using the credit responsibly. My advice, if you have and like the Gold, don't switch. If you don't travel weekly use a discount internet site for your tickets, they are frequently at the same or better price. Best Feature: website access to nearly everything, higher than averge limits, slightly lower interest Overall Rating: 3.5 Credit Card: Merrick Bank MasterCard® Review: I have had a Merrick card since my BK discharge 2 years ago. I pay on time every month and my credit limit has doubled. I have spoken with customer service twice -- once when I locked myself out of my online account and once when they were concerned with some charges on my account. They have been polite and helpful both times. They have been a gateway to rebuilding my credit and getting higher limit cards from other companies. Best Feature: Credit Limit Increases Overall Rating: 4.5 Credit Card: Target® Guest Card Review: I applied for this account back in 2004 when my credit score was in the low 500's and was denied. I am an authorized user on my hubby's account (which was recently upgraded to the target visa) but decided I wanted my own account. I was approved for the standard $200. The limit is not a big deal. Target increased my husband's limit after 2 months. I'll make sure I use it and pay in full and hopefully I will see a fast increase. It feels good to see the words approved! Best Feature: Rewards Overall Rating: 4.5 Credit Card: Washington Mutual Bank Card Review: I love this card if only for the free monthly peek at my Trans Union Fico Score! I only use this specific card for PAYPAL Purchases and make sure to pay my balance off montly so I don't have to pay finance charges. Other than that, I probably wouldn't care much for it. I have no issues with it because my APR does not affect me as I pay it off before I have to pay them extra money. I never use this card for anything else, though. Best Feature: Fico Scores Available Online! Overall Rating: 3 Credit Card: Bank of America WorldPoints™ Platinum Plus™ MasterCard® Credit Cardl Review: After spending $10K on this card (and never paying Finance Fees) I just received $80.00! I think that's pretty good...free money. Let me put a caveat out there though - you must be diligent in paying off your balance before a finance charge acrues if you're going to use this card for the Cash Back Benefit. I'd like to research more about cashback offers, but since I have been debt free since May 2006, I use this card to up my points value and make sure I never carry a balance. I pay it off every month and don't spend more than I can afford. I'm not a fan of Bank Of America, so I like getting their free money without them taking more of my money. Just know to play this game, you have to be on top of yours! Good luck! Best Feature: Rewards Program (Cash Back specifically!) & Low APR! Overall Rating: 3.5 Credit Card: AirTran Airways A-Plus Signature Visa® Card Review: I found this card was not beneficial to me because everytime I turned around points were expiring with no warning. It would have been nice had the statements provided a heads up. You have to call customer service and have the points converted to a voucher which expires in one year. Who can remember to do that with all the other things in life you have to worry about! Not worth the trouble. I have shredded the card and I am paying off the balance now. Best Feature: The ability to earn credits if you spend enough. Overall Rating: 3 Credit Card: Disney Visa® Card Review: I have to tell you -- whether it's the card or the company behind the card, this is a good one to have. Not so much for the Disney name, but for the sense of security one gets behind it. I rarely use the card personally, unless we're at Disney World -- and somehow, that ended up being a good thing. I got a call earlier this week from their fraud department - two charges for overseas purchases. Well, needless to say, they weren't for me - but then again, Chase already suspected that or they wouldn't have initiated the call. It's nice to know someone is on your side during these times of credit card and identity theft! Chase definitely is. They are an excellent company and I'd recommend any of their cards. Best Feature: Fraud alerts Overall Rating: 4.5 The Cardholder Review section is a unique feature of our site and, to the best of our knowledge, there is no other organization or company that offers more consumer reviews of credit cards. It's all about consumers helping other consumers. As your might expect, this section of our site has been one of the most popular sections of our site since it was introduced in the summer of 2000. New reviews are posted on a daily basis. We hope that you will find this section of our site useful and that you will visit it on a regular basis. |
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