How Credit Cards Work

If you're paying income tax to the IRS this year, you have several ways to pony up, including cash, personal check and your favorite credit card. While there are positives to paying taxes with plastic, the experts we talked with say there are at least as many negatives. Rewards points and convenience are two reasons for [...]

Many credit card articles are about the importance of using a credit card responsibly.  This one isn't one of those. Credit card roulette is a game, but it's definitely not for kids. Or people who are cash poor. Or people with a nervous constitution. If you think "credit card roulette" means deciding which of your credit card [...]

Panicking because you haven't paid your credit card bill yet? You may get a few extra days. Eight House Democrats are trying to fix a problem that has plagued credit card holders for years: when you send a check to a credit card company, you never really know if your mail will arrive before the deadline [...]

Q: My credit score is 678, I have no other credit cards except a gas card that I pay off each month, recently went through a divorce, and was turned down by Capital One because of "insufficient income". What to do? A: Due to recent credit card reform, you personally must demonstrate sufficient income in order [...]

An excellent question with kind of a complicated answer, since I can easily say "yes" in both cases. Ideally, you should always pay your credit cards in full every month. Yes, you'll hear that credit issuers like to see a debt-to-credit utilization ratio of about 25 to 30 percent, meaning that if you have a credit [...]

If you're the parent of a teenager, at some point he or she is going to ask you about two things that may make your heart skip a beat: getting a driver's license, and getting a credit card. Before your son or daughter can get behind the wheel of a car with a license, he or [...]

You've clipped your coupons. Scanned the ads. Cleaned out the trunk of your car. You're ready to shop for your family, your friends, your co-workers and the aunt you see only once a year, but are you ready for the question you'll invariably be asked every time you whip out your wallet? "Do you have a [...]

Sometimes an invention can solve a problem. At other times, it can leave you wondering: Was this a problem to begin with? Think of the difference between a TV remote control and a Flowbee. Everyone likes to change the channel without getting out of the Barcolounger, but how many people want to cut hair using [...]

The number isn't as catchy as 911 or 411, but for beleaguered credit card holders, 1-855-411-CFPB (2372) could end up being a financial lifeline. In case you don't know what that last phone number is, that's the direct toll-free hotline to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, the brand new Federal agency launched on July 21. If [...]

New technology usually comes with its share of consumer concerns. It's no surprise that urban legends and myths have proliferated about the new EMV chip credit cards. Here are a few of the most common, along with our expert opinion as to their veracity:PINs don't matter. True. Researchers from the University of Cambridge discovered that a fraudster [...]