CardRatings.com Monthly Newsletter April 2004
April 1, 2004
Cashback vs. Airline Reward Credit Cards
Cashback credit cards are the most popular rebate credit cards, but travel reward credit cards have appeal to many consumers as well. This article discusses some of the advantages and disadvantages of both types of reward cards.
Saving for Your Child’s Education with a Credit Card
Can using a credit card today help you to avoid debt in the future? Get the inside scoop on the new 529 rebate credit cards.
Are No Fee Reward Credit Cards Really Free?
No annual fee reward credit cards are everywhere these days. But, as is often the case with the card industry, there are some "strings attached". These tips can help you learn how to play the reward credit card game and win.
Free Credit Related Articles:
You are welcome to print a copy of any of the articles listed below and distribute them freely. We only ask that you reference our website (as being the source for the articles) when you distribute the articles. If you are a webmaster, you are also welcome to post any of the articles listed below on your site provided that you include a link to our site between the title and the body of the article (stating that CardRatings.com produced the article). If you would prefer to have the articles in MS Word format, then please contact us and we will e-mail you any article that you are interested in as an attachment.
Dealing with Christmas Credit Card Debt
America's Love Affair with Card Rewards/ Rebates
Don't Let "Spring Break" Expenditures "Break" You!
Is it Wise to Make Your Tax Payment with a Credit Card?
Fixed Rate vs. Variable Rate Cards
Demystifying the Credit Scoring/ Rating Process
Credit Card Cash Advance Pitfalls
Teens and Credit - A Recipe for Disaster?
Credit Lessons for Retirees
Debit or Credit? Which do you Vote for?
Card Registration Services
Credit Insurance
Disposable Credit Card Numbers
California Legislation Helps Curb Card Fraud
Credit Cards can Help Reduce your Rental Car Bill
Credit Cards for the Rich and Famous
The New Travelocity Credit Card
Cashback vs. Airline Reward Credit Cards
Saving for Your Child’s Education with a Credit Card
More topics...
Guest, Marie, asks, "MBNA sent me pre-approved offer with 5.9% fixed APR( Not an intro offer) on purchases and World Ponits rewards. Will it be worth to accept that offer? I have too many new accounts already and I am not sure is this card right for me. Thank you"
Senior Member, Eugene, replies, "Too little information to answer. How do you use your cards? Do you carry a balance? What other cards do you have, and with what terms? Tell us your life's story, and then we will be able to give you an educated answer. If you want just a short answer, then I'll say this: if you don't know IF you need a card and WHY, then you DON'T need it"
Guest, outofgum, writes, "I got an offer in the mail for the discover card with a 0% apr on balance transfers for life. The catch is that you have to make at least 2 purchases a month. Since any money paid goes to the lowest apr debt first, you pay debt on the purchases you make until you pay off the entire amount. For my question: Is there a minimum purchase amount? I read through the fine print carefully, but there's a chance that I missed something. It would be great if I could buy say... 2 packs of gum a month. I'd be paying ~$1.50 a year in interest... I could handle that. Any responses or advice would be appreciated. Thanks!"
Reply from guest, mouse, "$1.00 or $2.00 min interest? Compounded with no payments against it At like 14%"
Reply from Board Monitor, Curtis Arnold, "Didn't know they were still sending this offers out! This has been going on for a year or so. Anyway, many consumers have used the strategy you are suggesting effectively. If you are transferring a rather large balance, your interest savings could be considerable. Let us know how it turns out."
Guest, irwinp29, asks, "Does anyone know of any air miles credit cards that charge no annual fee"
mouse replies, "YES but you only get 1 mile for every $2 spent: UNITED VISA & AMEX DELTA. You save $55 or $60 or $85 DELTA/UNITED and LOSE 10,000 or 15,000 miles"
Eugene answers, "The bank where I have my primary checking account offers an airline card with no annual fee and overall rather amazing terms, but it is offered by invitation only, only if and at the time when you open a deposit account with them, and only to seriously qualified customers. What that means exactly I do not know, even after calling them and trying to find out. It's a very strange business model, but they admit they generally do not specialize in loans, so they feel they can cherry-pick whoever they like while doing their main business of deposit accounts."
Visit our active MESSAGE BOARD! Ask a question, give your opinions. Select questions answered by our board monitor. Our board currently has over 13,500 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 15,000 reviews of 859 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: Canadian Options MasterCard® Review: I think that offering your customers a way to save money and earn on most of their purchases, either online or in store is awesome. I think that the company should invest more time in developing a working website for best customer service and convenience. Best Feature: I earn canadian tire money Credit Card: Plains Commerce Bank Total Visa® Card Review: first off...did anyone know this is really a secured card in disguise? the initial $250 in fees for whatever is junk. $250 goes into an account to secure your card incase of non payment, $6 month is ok i mean they do the work, annual fee ok, but seriously, $194 setup fee, $56 dollar yearly fee.. its all just a disguise for a secured card with higher fees than any other secured card, at least with a true secured card, your credit limit equals your deposit.. you arent limited to $250 of credit** for 3 months.. basically you pay $6 a month to use your money that is already there, only benefit, they report good payment to credit bureau's.. then again a secured card does that too.. so the choice is yours.. spend 250 + $6 a month +56 a year, or spend maybe 40 a year plus a deposit.. its up to you, but other than that im happy with mine. Shell Credit Card Review: I've had a Shell card since 1981...23 years! In all that time, I've been in good standing with my Shell card. In the past couple of years, I've gone to electronic banking. Last year, I paid my Shell card a few days late. My fault, I just forgot to do the electonic payment. So I have this spotless credit record, when I try to refinance my mortage, except for Shell's entry. I could not qualify for the best rate thanks to Shell reporting me as delinquent. The card was paid...never got 30 days late..I'm talking 4-5 days. For that, I'll never forgive Shell..and there are plenty of other cards out there. Credit Card: Chase Classic Visa®/MasterCard® Review: I applied for a bank loan, and my credit report indicated I'd been 3 months behind (0r 90 days delinquent) with Chase. After I presented cancelled checks, for an 8 month period, the bank officer helped me dispute this. Chase did submit changes, but only after being threatened with legal action. This has been 10 years ago. Two weeks ago, Chase called my wife, harassing her for late payment. My wife has NEVER..EVER had a CHASE card in any form, nor a card in her name..or was listed as an additional cardholder. We later found out, Chase had us confused with another cardholder. Same name, but different address, city, ss number. In short, CHASE doesn't seem to have a clue what they are doing...10 years ago..or today. Credit Card: American Express® Card Review: I use my AMEX for internet purchases, and have for years. I can get the balance up some months, but I normally pay it down (online) during the billing period. I did so this past time, had less than $300 on my card (down from a $1000). I charged a purchase from Amazon on my AMEX, and AMEX declined it. No reason given. I called and got this ridicolous story about they were concerned about excessive usuage. Excessive? Are you kidding me! First off, I was within my usual spending limits, buying from the usual merchants, and I had kept the card paid down. They said it was for my protection against fraud. Like someone would still my card, and then pay down the balance. Or even though I look at my balance online every day...AMEX thinks I'm too stupid to see unauthorized charges. AMEX could have at least called me, if they had any questions. Well, since I've already paid for my membership, I'll keep it a few more months..but then it's gone. Credit Card: Capital One Classic Review: I had this credit card since May of 2002 Basically 2 years.Since I had it not much has changed with it.First it was a BMG Visa card but then they did away with that card and they changed my account number and gave me a high Apr Capitalone Classic Visa Card which is the green marble colored card. My APR on this card is a little on the high side 19.05% fixed.This is what I don't understand.I have one of those high school cards also with them with a limit of $200.00 and they lowered my APR and waived the annual fee on it but on this other classic visa they say they can't. When this card was a BMG Visa I got credit limit increases every six months but now since the change they won't even give me a raise. They seemed to have "Turned off" the request feature for this account on the automated phone system which angers me as I have always paid on time and NEVER once exceeded my $900 limit and never got close to it so I don't understand it at all.My credit is not top notch but it isn't bad either good enough where I receive a few gold and platinum card offers a week and autoloans and mortgage loan offers?So I don't get it,they have seriously changed over the past year severely.They have hired all the customer servive reps who can't hardly speak english which they are very nice but I find it very hard to understand them. I only had 1 very rude woman who I had her extension number and I got her turned in and she got fired according to a supervisor of her. I plan on keeping this card along with my highschool visa card from them hoping for a upgrade sometime or another. I can't recommend this card since they no longer offer it to apply online anymore. I think they just decided to change their market area from sub-prime to prime and stick us people who have been loyal customers and not reward us at all anymore for on time payments. Credit Card: Fleet Titanium Visa® Card Review: I have been a fleet credit & checking/savings customer for over 12 years. I have had my titanium account 4 years. Today I have received a notice from Fleet that soon my account would be transfered to Bank of America due to a recent merger, that they would like to appologize. I currently have a Bank of America card with a 6.9 fixed APR which I have carried since 1997, and a 7.9% fixed on my fleet account since about 3 years ago. Due to the lower rate on my BofA account I decided to close the fleet card. Its a nice card, great customer service, and APR but I never carry balances nor have a reason for two accounts at the same bank. No offense Fleet. Credit Card: USA Platinum Card Review: After my divorce I need to establish credit. I have a great job but have never had to pay much attention to the details of my credit because my ex-husband had great credit and when we married I was listed as an additional card holder. This provided some credit history but did not directly apply to me as the primary responsible party for the credit card debt. This card offers a high limit but forces you to be able to pay for a certain percentage of the cost. I can see why this would disappoint people but the purpose is to rebuild or build credit not provide another opportunity to get in debt. By preventing people from spending excessively you gain a high available credit and low balance report on your credit history. People need to understand that builds your score by indicating financial restraint. Many important details are inthe fine print and if you do not read carefully will be a surprise. But if credit is what you need this is an option. As for the introductory price, I was sent a coupon to reimburse the cost when I had that amount charged to the card so I got my money back. 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. |
Important Note! The information in this article is believed to be accurate as of the date it was written. Please keep in mind that credit card offers change frequently. Therefore, we can not guarantee the accuracy of the information in this article. Please verify all terms and conditions of any credit card prior to applying.
You are welcome to print a copy of any of our articles and distribute them for educational purposes. If you are a webmaster, you can post any of our articles on your site provided that you include a link to our site. Please click here for more information about free credit card articles.
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