All of our banner ads support non-profits at no cost (to these organizations)!
http://www.cardratings.com/ • July 2003
CardRatings.com Credit Card News from CardRatings.com
Hot Links
Low Rate Reports   Top 10 Classic Cards
Top 10 Platinum Cards   Calculators
Top 10 Gold Cards   Consumer Reviews

Looking for an attractive cash back credit card? You're in luck. There are currently several cash back credit card offers featured in our Reward Cards Reports. Earn up to 11% cash back on every day purchases. Some cards even feature online application approval in less than 2 minutes (to qualified applicants)!

Welcome to our award winning site newsletter! We have educated consumers about credit cards since 1998 and have been mentioned by The Early Show on CBS, USA Today, PBS, CNN Money, MSNBC, Smart Money Magazine, etc. Thank you for helping us become one of the best sources for objective, free consumer information.

Recent Articles

$800 Million Overseas Credit Card Fee Judgement
A California judge has ordered Visa and MasterCard to refund $800 million in currency conversion fees (overseas credit card fees). What does this mean to you and are you elgible for a refund? (6/19/03)

Hot Topics...Need advice to transfer large balance

"After a wedding and honeymoon, I find myself with $32K of debt on my FirstUSA United card. I need out from under the APR and want to transfer. Please provide your best recommendations for a new card with a 0% APR for transfers, for as long as possible and as much as possible; or any other credit advice is welcome."

More topics...

Member, lholton2, asks "Can you obtain a credit card if someone you know with really good credit is willing to cosign?"

Guest, George, asks "If I have had one card since March of 2001 (Citibank) and another since September of 2002 (Bank One), how does the longevity difference look to the credit bureaus, in terms of "age" of the accounts?"

Member, Snoopycat, writes "Hi....I'm new here. I joined to see if anyone here might know how a U.S. citizen/resident might go about getting a foreign credit card. I will be travelling to Cuba in the fall, where credit cards issued by American banks are not accepted. I have excellent credit, but I just need to find a foreign bank that would accept my application. I visited a few websites (Barclays, etc.), but they only issue cards to UK residents. Any help on this would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!"

Visit our active MESSAGE BOARD! Ask a question, give your opinions. Select questions answered by our board monitor. Our board currently has over 11,500 posts (since May 2000) and new posts are added daily! We are seeking new consumers like you to become involved in our board community.

Cardholder Reviews

Recent Credit Card Reviews by Consumers Like You!

Following is a very small sample of the newest cardholder reviews that can be found by clicking the "Consumer Reviews" link above. We take pride in the quantity (our site offers 11,500 + reviews of 700 different credit cards) and quality of the consumer reviews that can be find on our site. The cards are rated on a scale from 1 to 5, with 5 being the highest recommended.


Credit Card: Spiegel Charge
Provided by: First Consumers National Bank
Total Posts: 75
Average Rating: 1.94
Category: Retail

Review: My bills have always been paid on time. Well just this month I get a late notice from Spiegel Charge on my FCNB balance. My bill was received and paid to FCNB (on time).I never received anything from Spiegel Charge until this notice. If anyone has this same problem send Spiegel Charge and your attorney general's a letter just make sure you get a receipt from post office. If enough of us do this they will investigate this company. We don't deserve this treatment they are just rip-off artists without the mask!!!!!!!!!!!
Best Feature: none
Worst Feature: rip-off artists
Overall Rating: 1
Benefit Rating: 1
Service Rating: 1
Recommend: No


Credit Card: Orchard Bank MasterCard® Classic
Provided by: Household Bank
Total Posts: 132
Average Rating: 3.03
Category: Poor Credit

Review: I've been with Orchard for almost 4 years. I've never paid late or gone over my limit. My credit report has drastically improved since I first got this card...I now hold a citibank platinum visa with no annual fee. So this year, when I was charged the $69 annual fee by Orchard I decided to just do away with the card. I called to cancel and when asked why, I told them that I didn't need a card with an annual fee. After checking my record of excellent pay with them, they removed the fee. I didn't ask...they just offered. Now they're keeping me as a cardholder...at least for another year! Good job Orchard!
Best Feature: relatively low apr
Worst Feature: annual fee
Overall Rating: 4
Benefit Rating: 1
Service Rating: 5
Recommend: Yes


Credit Card: Sears Card
Provided by: Sears
Total Posts: 108
Average Rating: 2.20
Category: Retail

Review: I closed my Sears account in 1999 because of the outrageous interest rates and because I found out that when my payment was credited 2 days after the due date I received a negative credit rating for being 30 days late. I paid off the balance in 2000. I was horrified to find that on a recent credit report the card was listed with the 30 day late item noted, and the last date of activity showing as May, 2003! Upon contacting them they indicated they have no record of my request in 1999 so I will now have this negative credit rating for another five years. DON'T EVER LET THESE PEOPLE RUIN YOUR CREDIT. Get ANY other card in the universe.
Best Feature: None
Worst Feature: Horrible interest rates; immovable
Overall Rating: 1
Benefit Rating: 1
Service Rating: 1
Recommend: No


USAA MasterCard®
Provided by: USAA
Total Posts: 39
Average Rating: 4.76
Category: Regular

Review: My husband and I went through at tough time recently, he was severly injured and just a short time later my company down sized and I lost my job. USAA worked with us and never pressured us at all. We worked hard and managed to get all our creditors paid off, but trying to regain any credit was very difficult. We called USAA and talked to them about the situation. We asked them to reissue us a credit card with a very low credit limit just so that we could begin rebuilding our credit rating. They were willing to do this and worked with us along the way. Today we are back in pretty good shape and have had our balance raised several times! We feel a strong allegiance to USAA because of this and thanks to them we are well on our way to economic recovery.
Best Feature: Customer Service
Worst Feature: interest rate
Overall Rating: 4.5
Benefit Rating: 3
Service Rating: 5
Recommend: Yes


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.




We ValueYour Feedback!
We would like to know what you think about our newsletter. Any constructive criticism or praise is appreciated! You can send us your feedback by e-mail or by posting on our message board.
 

  • Help us Spread the Word!
    Please forward this free CardRatings.com newsletter to others who may be interested. Because of the grassroots nature of our organization, we rely heavily on "word of mouth" advertising from consumers like you.

  • Subscriber Info.
    Add a new email address. (Information for unsubscribing is automatically included with each message.)
  • About Us
    Interested in learning more about our organization? Click here.


  • Please note that we do not allow pop-under ads on our site. Also, all of the banners ads in our newsletter support various non-profit organizations at no cost to these organizations.