Your Credit Card: Help from an Unlikely Source in the Event of an Airline Bankruptcy

By Curtis Arnold, Founder of CardRatings.com

With the cancellation of numerous American Airline flights and several other airlines filing bankruptcy, you might be feeling a little leery about purchasing airline tickets these days. And if you have already purchased tickets you may be worried about not being able to use the tickets and/or being out the money you paid for them. However, if you purchased those tickets with your credit card you may be in luck!

We contacted public relations representatives from Chase, Citi, Discover, and American Express to find out what assistance, if any, they offer their customers in this type of situation. We found out that airline tickets purchased from airlines that subsequently went bankrupt are eligible to be disputed via their normal dispute resolution process with two notable caveats:

1. You will probably need to try rebooking your ticket through another airline first. Some airlines, as well as credit card issuers, are offering to assist with the rebooking process.

2. Some credit card issuers will want to see the unused ticket.

According to Discover's public relations department:

"We are providing information to facilitate re-booking of their tickets with other airlines. If they are unable to re-book their ticket, we are initiating disputes and issuing credits to the accounts."

Overall it seems like a fairly painless process to get your money refunded. All the issuers we talked to said that they would do everything possible to support their customers. Gotta love the free benefits that cards offer!

This article was originally published on CreditBloggers.com by Curtis Arnold, a nationally recognized consumer educator and advocate. He is the founder of CardRatings.com and the author of How to Profit from Credit Cards: Using Credit to Improve Your Financial Life and Bottom Line (FT Press, 2008). Curtis has been educating consumers about credit cards since 1998. He is regularly interviewed and quoted by respected members of the national press regarding consumer credit issues.

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CardRatings.com is the most comprehensive source for comparing credit card offers. CardRatings.com is pleased to offer consumers free credit card ratings.

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Please Note! You are welcome to republish this article as long as you state that CardRatings.com is the source for the article. You must also include a link to our website if you republish the article online. Click here for more details about using our articles and thank you for your interest!

Getting Dinged with a $250 Credit Card Credit Limit Increase Fee!

By Curtis Arnold, Founder of CardRatings.com


Not too long ago, one of my CardRatings.com colleagues came home to find an offer from Best Buy in her mailbox. It was for a MasterCard that came with some nice perks:

• An introductory APR of 0% – good for a year


• Four percent back on Best Buy purchases


• A minimum of 1% back elsewhere


• Two percent back during special promotions (e.g., for travel and dining)


• A point system, where your spending leads to reward certificates good for buying music, movies, electronics, etc. at Best Buy


• Members-only deals, sweepstakes, and sales


• The liability on unauthorized purchases is $0

Unfortunately, there were some not-so-nice features of this offer – for example, a 5% fee for cash advances. That's on top of a 25.99% interest rate for cash advances – no introductory rate here, folks! Getting a cash advance on a credit card is almost always a bad idea, but on this Best Buy card, it'd be incredibly costly and anything but a best buy.

There's a late payment fee of $29 to $35, depending on the balance. On top of that, "If at any time you fail to make at least your Minimum Payment in time to be credited to your Account by the Payment Due Date, or you exceed your credit limit, your entire Account balance will increase to the variable Default APR."

That’s 29.99%. Ouch!

Even worse, there’s a fee for credit limit increases (CLI). Here’s how it’s explained in the terms and conditions that accompanied the card offer:

“If requested and approved a CLI fee of up to 50% of the CLI may be charged to your account depending on your creditworthiness.”

In other words, say you're in Best Buy and come upon a fantastic sale. Rather than risk going over your credit limit, you call to see if you can get a $500 credit line increase. While you may get that increase quickly enough to take advantage of the sale, there may also be a $250 CLI charge on your MasterCard!!! So much for a great bargain.

The notion of a lender charging us for the privilege of making them more money has never sat well with me, even when we're talking about the typical $10 to $25 fee. Fifty percent is different. Waaaaaaaaaaay different.


One of my colleagues made some calls to ask the card issuer for an explanation. Someone in management was supposed to get back to us, but didn't. So we decided to do what anyone should do when they have questions about a card.

We called the toll-free customer service number. The service rep said that while there isn't a credit limit increase fee "at this time," it's a disclosure that there might be one in the future (we were also told that there is more than one variation of this card offer). The bigger issue, though, is the fact that they're even thinking about something like this. Simply put, this is downright scary!

Perhaps most disturbing about this Best Buy card offer is that all these consumer-unfriendly terms were really buried. They’re not in the fine print of the Schumer Box, where lenders are required to show their basic rates and fees. You’d only find them if you chose to read the teeny-tiny print that follows the Schumer Box.

And the Moral of the Story Is …
No matter how tempting the offer, read the fine print – and the teeny-tiny print before you apply. If it raises as many red flags as this card does, rip or shred it to pieces, whatever your pleasure. There are plenty of great credit card offers out there that do not have such worrisome terms.

Have you seen any egregious … or excellent … credit card terms lately? We welcome your comments in our popular credit forum!

This article was originally published on CreditBloggers.com by Curtis Arnold, a nationally recognized consumer educator and advocate. Curtis has been educating consumers about credit cards since 1998. He is regularly interviewed and quoted by respected members of the national press regarding consumer credit issues. Curtis is currently working on publishing a book about credit card usage with Pearson/Prentice Hall- more details forthcoming!

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CardRatings.com is the most comprehensive source for comparing credit card offers. CardRatings.com is pleased to offer consumers free credit card ratings.

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Please Note! You are welcome to republish this article as long as you state that CardRatings.com is the source for the article. You must also include a link to our website if you republish the article online. Click here for more details about using our articles and thanks for your interest!

Prestige Credit Cards: Not Just for the Rich and Famous Anymore

By Curtis Arnold, Founder of CardRatings.com


The first and considered by many to be the most exclusive prestige credit card is the American Express Centurion, reportedly for people who charge at least $250,000 a year. Available by invitation only, the card is so exclusive, it's hard to get reliable information about it!

What's clear is that Centurion is for wealthy people who travel frequently, shop at high end stores, and are used to receiving VIP treatment. Stories about the rich and famous who use Centurion abound. There are free companion airline tickets, free upgrades to first class, special deals with hotels, personal shoppers at stores like Saks and Gucci, travel planning and concierge services, as well as bonuses and rewards galore. Starting this May, there's going to be a $5,000 initiation fee … to be followed by annual fees of $2,500. (Curious to know what cardholders have to say? Click here.)

If by some chance you don't qualify for Centurion – and wouldn't want it even if you could – you're not alone! According to industry estimates, there are only about 10,000 Centurions out there.

Is There a Prestige Credit Card in Your Reach?

Both MasterCard and Visa have prestige credit cards that are marketed as Visa Signature Cards and World MasterCards. These cards have lots of enhanced benefits, geared to more typical cardholders – at no additional cost. Surprised? Don't be. Card issuers are in fierce competition, and they want business so badly, they are dangling bigger and better carrots in front of us.

Like Amex's Centurion, these cards offer tons of benefits for frequent flyers and spenders, including hotel discounts and upgrades, rebates on travel, extra travel insurance, points good for free flights with no blackout dates, VIP reservations at expensive restaurants, special discounts at stores and spas, early ticket purchasing for concerts and sporting events, flexible, generous rewards … and on and on.

Chances are, you already have a credit card issued by a lender that would be happy to give you Visa Signature or World MasterCard privileges – assuming your credit is good to excellent, you earn in the range of $125,000 a year, and you charge at least $2,000 a month. While the offers on individual cards change frequently, it's quite likely that you can find a card with an introductory rate of 0%, no annual fee or a low one (up to around $85), and as reasonable an interest rate as you'd get on cards without the extra benefits.

Surf over to these two sites and take a gander at the freebies you can get:

• Visa Signature


• World MasterCard

Warning: Don't let the lure of the extra benefits tempt you into charging more than you can afford. But if you do a lot of traveling for business, why not reap the enhanced rewards?

Do you have a prestige credit card? Please share with others the benefits you have used!

This article was originally published on CreditBloggers.com by Curtis Arnold, a nationally recognized consumer educator and advocate. Curtis has been educating consumers about credit cards since 1998. He is regularly interviewed and quoted by respected members of the national press regarding consumer credit issues. Curtis is currently working on publishing a book about credit card usage with Pearson/Prentice Hall- more details forthcoming!

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CardRatings.com is the most comprehensive source for comparing credit card offers. CardRatings.com is pleased to offer consumers free credit card ratings.

---

Please Note! You are welcome to republish this article as long as you state that CardRatings.com is the source for the article. You must also include a link to our website if you republish the article online. Click here for more details about using our articles and thank you for your interest!