CardRatings.com Monthly Newsletter September 2005 - No 2
September 15, 2005
Nonprofit Credit Counseling Agencies- Think Twice Before You Leap (Two-Part Article Series)
Consumer credit counseling agencies can be a lifesaver for consumers burdened by heavy debt loads, but credit counseling isn't for everybody. Furthermore, not all credit counseling services have your best interest at heart. (9/27/05)
How to Get out of Credit Card Debt Using Self-Help Techniques (Two-Part Article Series)
Running up credit card debt is so easy to do in our society. Getting out of debt, on the other hand, is far from easy. This two-part article series provides consumers with various self-help methods that can make getting out of debt achievable. (9/21/05)
How to Save 1000s of $$$ with Low Rate Credit Cards
According to Consumer Action, a non-profit consumer advocacy organization, a March 2004 survey revealed that only 39% of the people said they pay their credit card balance in full each month. So if you are like 61% of everyone surveyed and carry a balance from month to month, then your number one priority for a credit card should be a low interest rate. (8/22/05)
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TripRewards Credit Card Members Can Earn Extra Reward Points With New TripRewards Program Cardholders of the TripRewards Platinum Plus MasterCard from MBNA America can now earn extra reward points with no annual fee. Members simply use their TripRewards Platinum Plus MasterCard to pay for hotel stays at affiliated hotels and earn three points per dollar in addition to the ten points per. Read more >>
Growing Credit Card Debt and Increased Gas Prices- A Disturbing Trend Though there has been some minor relief at the gas pump lately, CNN reported that in August 2005 convenience store fuel charges paid by credit card increased 16%. This seemingly innocent fact translates into a rather alarming trend since convenient stores account for 75%. Read more >>
Comprehending Credit Card Interest Rates- A Lesson in Futility? Credit card interest rates can be "downright confusing". Therefore, a little education goes a long way when it comes to comprehending card rates. Most of the low rate credit cards offered today are variable rate cards. Read more >>
College Students Learn How to Use Credit Cards Wisely by Using Industry's First Virtual Online Reality Game Over half of high school graduates in the U.S. have little or no knowledge of banking basics, budgeting money, using credit wisely or investing their money according to The Jump$tart Coalition for Personal Financial Literacy. 70% of these same young adults play video games. Read more >>
Free Annual Credit Report Law Spawns Imposter Web Sites that Could Lead to Identity Theft Two years ago, Congress mandated that consumers can request one free credit report annually from each of the three major credit reporting agencies. This program is designed to reduce identity theft by allowing consumers to check their credit histories. Read more >>
Chase Credit Cards First to Offer New "Blink" Technology to Cardmembers Chase Bank U.S.A., N.A., a division of JPMorgan Chase & Co., recently issued over 200,000 United Mileage Plus Visa credit cards featuring a contactless technology called "blink" to cardmembers in Colorado, a United Airlines hub location. Read more >>
Forum topics...
funkywrites, I'm filling out a credit card application. Under where it says "household income", what should I put in for that? I have roomates and we live in a house, but I am not related to any of them.
guessindigo , Credit Expert, responds, HH income is a grey area. Technically, it is ALL people residing in your home, so you are free to include their income. Now, whether you want to include roomates, friends, non family, that is an individual choice you have to make. But, the credit card apps do ask for HH income and do not specify they have to be family or otherwise. One can assume of course.
lauren75 , I learned on these boards that Discover card has a cashback bonus of 5%through November 2005 for $ spent at restaurants. Does anybody know of other credit cards that offer such higher incentives at restaurants. It would be nice to have a card to use side by side with the Citi Rewards.
hesiden answers, There is a Discover Restraunt card that gives 5% back at restruants all the time. That and my Citi Dividend are my main purchase cards.
maverick answers, I believe that Diner's Club has a benefit of getting 20% off at some restaurants. Given that this card is now a MasterCard, it has more acceptance than Discover. But you might want to check out the list of restaurants that are in this program. Also, there is the annual fees.
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 17,250 reviews of 928 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: Citi® Platinum Select® Card Review: "thank you" points You have to have above average credit to get this card. "Citi lady said so". I like this card for the "thank you" points you can get. In order to get "thank you" points you have to call the number and the back of your card and Ask for it. Other wise your card is just a Platinum Select Card. The thank you rewards program is absolutely free. Every dollar is a point. I love getting Target gift cards. 5,000 points gets you a 50 dollar one. If you dont like target (who dosen't) you can get just about anything except cash. that's a full one percent!! Plus!!! If you have a Citi Checking account which is free. You can get 300 "thank you' points automatically every month. That is 3600 points a year for doing nothing. Your debit card gets you points too, but it's only 1 point for every 2 dollars spent. It's acually one of the best debit rewards programs out there. There's no fees. Plus you could combine all your points form diffrent citi accounts. Best Feature: Having 0% apr and you can sign up for "thank you" points. Credit Card: Valero Gas Card Review: Enticing Offer, but Beware Got an offer, took it to get the 5cent rebate, but guess what, their pump price is higher than most local gas stations (rebate advantage is wiped out) and billing is inconsistent. Missed a due date because I never got my bill, and that happened only on my 2nd month of use. Best Feature: 5 cent rebate Credit Card: Chase Platinum Visa®/MasterCard® Review: Exobirant Rates I had my chase card for many many years. I was a victim of identity theft and had a new checking account issued to me by my bank but they told me only the last 2 digits (suffix number) changed. These numbers are not on my checks. Anyway the long of the short is by pure accident my on-line payment did not go thru. As soon as I realized the error I called Chase to tell them of my fraud issue and resulting mistake and also mailed them a payment. The payment was not late and the customer rep made note. Well they bumped my rate up from 9.90 to '.49. Well if that was how they were gonna do me I immediately transferred my balance to Discover Card and closed my account. Lets face it credit issures are just waiting for any I mean any screw-up on consumers part so they can jump our rates. They do not care about customer loyalty, previous good paying history, length of time you've been with them. They don't even seem to care that they are losing customers over greediness. No laws exist to prevent them from license to being loan sharks. Right Now the best we can do is to stop using our cards. Pay them off and throw them away!!!! Best Feature: High Interest Rates Best Feature for them!!! Credit Card: Juniper MasterCard® Review: I hate this card! Ratejacked for NO REASON!!!!! OMG what can I say? Offer in the mail for a juniper mastercard. 0% on balance transfers AND purchases, boy was I ecstatic! On BOTH purchases and balance transfers, gosh what a good deal. Well I have excellent credit so why not, I took the offer. Too bad there are no rewards, but can't beat 0%. Now the BS. Paid it off the BT and rate jumps to 12.49. Not great but not bad I thought. Never late and never over the limit ON ANY OF MY CARDS! Juniper 3 months after the intro expires tells me that due to information in my credit file my rate is JUMPING to 22.49%!!!!!!!!!! I was FURIOUS! I have excellent credit. They had the nerve to tell me that I have to much credit availability and that is the reason for the increase in my interest. Gosh! NEVER NEVER EVER do business with Juniper. I cancelled my account immediately. Best Feature: 6 months 0% interest Credit Card: Plains Commerce Bank Total Visa® Card Review: great credit builder I have both the total card and the rewards 660 card, and they do just what they said they do, they report to the credit people every month, they really are helping me build my credit back up. Best Feature: the online payment Credit Card: NextCard Standard Visa® Review: You never get in paid off. Never get a person to talk to, always a machine. I have been paying on this for years and it NEVER comes down. They keep saying I am making cash advances and my account has been closed for years!!!!! I can't get anyone to talk to. !!!!! Best Feature: none Credit Card: New Millennium Bank Platinum Visa®/MasterCard® Review: Cool Card! I paid the setup fee and made a deposit at their bank at new brunswick,nj And got my card after 3 business days.So I have no problem with their service so far. Best Feature: Doesn't show up on a credit report as secured card. Credit Card: Wells Fargo Platinum Visa® Card Review: I just got the card but we'll see Well, I refinanced my auto through Wells Fargo and of course, although the representative was very nice and made me more than confortable in the office when I went in to sign the contract, she attempted many sales pitches. I see with Wells Fargo once you start a business relationship with them, they are going to seek more and more business from you. She first attempted to sell me some security package for homes and I am not a homeowner yet so that stopped that. Then, she told me about the various accounts they have and I passed. She then suggested I obtain a line of credit from them in order to have more variety on my credit portfolio/reports. I passed on that. Then, she said, "Well just sign here to get the information in the mail and when you get it, read over it and think about it. If you pass, then just discard the info" Well about three weeks after the meeting and that last signature, I get a Platinum Visa card from them with a baby limit of $1500...I can live with that but even though I have recently repaired my credit and have raised my FICO score from 480-675 in less than one year, they offered me an APR of 19.something which I found disheartening. I thought I was just signing to get some paperwork and must have been signing for a card with them lol!! It's a good thing I read all the other paperwork more carefully regarding my car refinancing. She sprung that on me at the end and I was tired by then lol. I intend to use this card very little. I only kept it because I need more good accounts to stomp out the old adverse accounts on my credit despite them all being paid in full. I figured I can raise my FICO score even more within a few more months with another good account on record!! I will post another review once I have had the opportunity to interact with customer service and utilized the online website to make payments. Hopefully, I will have all good things to say then!! Best Feature: Just got the card, can't say... Credit Card: Cross Country Bank Card Review: Someone used my account number/no satisfaction There were charges on the credit account not made by myself, without MY signature; This seemed like a good company to deal with until then. Somehow two of my credit accounts were used by someone else, as well as my personal info. I've had a horrible time with these people, they wanted me to pay for charges not made. Best Feature: sorry Credit Card: MBNA Platinum Plus Review: Interest Rates Quietly increase I currently have an MBNA Platinum Plus Card with the World Points option. I have a credit score of 793 and have paid the balance in full or extra (since I round up) each month. I have proven at times I can handle a large balance in a given month. I have recently transferred a balance of a time share and plan on paying it at the end of the year upon receiving my bonus. When I received my statement I was charged $75 for the transaction and called to discuss with customer service. On that call I also realized that my 4.9% fixed rate, so I thought, had quietly increased over time to 9.5%. Customer service admits I have been a great customer and there is nothing they can do. They suggested that I leave and call the new customer dept. customer service and start over so that I can get a better deal. It sounds like they do not value existing "good" customers. Upon reviewing my history, I recall I have had problems with MBNA in the past. I should of never left Providian / Chase, they treated me great for years, American Express is also 5 star. Best Feature: World Points Option since they have flexible rewards 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.
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