CardRatings.com Monthly Newsletter September 2002

September 1, 2002

Recent Articles

Credit Card Terms
Must-know credit card information, terms. Discusses credit card APR (annual percentage rate), balance transfers, preapproved credit card application offers (aka as guaranteed approval credit cards), cash advance, finance charges, etc. (9/6/02)

Debt Consolidation Relief
Helpful suggestions by Don Taylor, Ph.D., CFA, regarding credit card debt consolidation. Includes comparison of credit card interest rates and fixed mortgage interest rates. Review this information before you apply online or offline for credit card consolidation services. (9/3/02)

Credit Repair FAQs
Credit repair FAQs. Includes suggestions on dealing with inaccurate credit card information, tips on lowering the interest rate on your credit cards, help with credit card debt, and advice on keeping low credit card balances. (8/27/02)

Visit our active message board containing 9,100 posts to see what everyone is talking about! Anonymous posts are welcome.

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 9,025+ reviews of 601 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: Capital One Classic
Provided by: Capital One
Total Posts: 341
Average Rating: 2.81
Category: Regular

Review: Great Card for Someone Establishing Their Credit. This is a great starter card for those wishing to establish their credit.

Best Feature: Excellent customer service
Worst Feature: Low credit limit to start
Overall Rating: 4.5
Benefit Rating: 4.5
Service Rating: 4.5
Recommend: Yes

Credit Card: Capital One Classic
Provided by: Capital One
Total Posts: 341
Average Rating: 2.81
Category: Regular


Review: They have very high over the limit fees and they do charge you a monthly fee just to have the credit card, whether it is used or not. They also have telemarketers that call you ALL the time.

Best Feature: Good customer service
Worst Feature: Monthly fee
Overall Rating: 3
Benefit Rating: 1
Service Rating: 4
Recommend: No

Credit Card: Fleet Titanium Smart Visa® Card
Provided by: Fleet Bank
Total Posts: 13
Average Rating: 2.38
Category: Regular


Review: Get this card!!! This card has it all. Great reward programs, great rate, excellent online account management, and great customer service; what else can you ask for?

Best Feature: 0% APR for six months
Worst Feature: 11.9% APR after promotion
Overall Rating: 5
Benefit Rating: 5
Service Rating: 5
Recommend: Yes

Credit Card: Verizon Visa® Card
Provided by: Citibank
Total Posts: 38
Average Rating: 1.68
Category: Student


Review: I was a card holder for 3 years. I always made my payments. One time they held a patment that I had mailed 3 weeks before it posted. It showed up the day after the due date. In April of 2001 I hit a rough patch financially that was not my fault.The collections dept of ANB called my mother and told her everything about my account. I am a grown woman. I was not informed that there was a hardship department until after I was sent to collections. The collection agency called and harassed me everyday. Even when I could scroung up money to send them they would then call and yell at me. Can you believe that? She actually yelled at me. After I was treated so disrespectfully I decided that they were not the Credit Card people for me. No matter what, they never have the right to yell or disrespect you.

Best Feature: Calling card
Worst Feature: Everything else
Overall Rating: 1
Benefit Rating: 3
Service Rating: 1.5
Recommend: No

Credit Card: Bank One Prime Platinum Visa® Card
Provided by: First USA
Total Posts: 15
Average Rating: 3.13
Category: Reward - Regular


Review: I received a "pre-selected" invitation in the mail by them.I looked at the back of the invitation and it said pre-selected based on information contained in my credit report. And i was shocked when I got such an offer on excellent terms and with my kind of credit, bunch of credit inquiries,and a lot of other accounts. But i got approved online instantly!! I have the card now and it has a $5000 limit and I transfered all my other high apr cards to this one with the 0.00 intro apr is good and then after just 5%, this is the best apr I've ever seen.I would tell anyone to get one of these!!

Best Feature: High credit limit and low Apr
Worst Feature: Not having one in your wallet
Overall Rating: 5
Benefit Rating: 5
Service Rating: 5
Recommend: Yes

Credit Card: Providian Visa® Platinum
Provided by: Providian
Total Posts: 77
Average Rating: 2.99
Category: Regular


Review: My account with Providian was sold to Chase. I was assured by Providian that any balance transferred to Chase would remain at my fixed rate of 5.99% HOWEVER, Chase has increased my rate to 12.74%. Neither bank will help resove this issue. This is not good customer service. If I had known that my interest rate would increase, I would have found another card to transfer my balance to at a lower rate..

Best Feature: Fixed rate at 5.99%
Worst Feature: My account was sold to Chase.
Overall Rating: 1
Benefit Rating: 1
Service Rating: 1
Recommend: No

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.



http://www.cardratings.com/forum/viewforum.php?f=24&sid=0acf60faf10d43574e1384bd492812f0" target="_blank">Consumer Reviews

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