Credit Card Companies

Reader Question: Why are the credit card companies allowed to change the dates on payment due dates? I'm talking about anywhere from 1 to 6 days. Then I get hit with a late payment fee along with a rise in my interest rate. I do everything electronically and they still find a way to get me, forget the fact that I've never been late in the past and my financial situation has not changed. You are no

American Express, yesterday, received approval from the Federal Reserve to transform itself into a bank holding company in order to potentially qualify for billions of dollars from the recently adopted bailout plan.  Why not?  If the automakers can get money under the bailout, let’s just toss in a few credit card companies as well! The money [...]

Representative Carolyn Maloney celebrated on Friday “the first time a congressional committee has ever passed consumer protections for credit cardholders.” With credit cards in existence since the 1950s, the question is: What took so long?

The San Francisco Chronicle noted that credit card companies are sometimes taking the collection of credit card debt that is in arrears into their own hands.  No longer waiting for consumers to bring the account up to date on their own because of the threat of a damaged credit report or litigation, the credit card [...]

While Congress is examining the practices of credit card marketing toward college students, they should be examining the actions of the universities as well. The Consumer Warning Network noted that Florida State University is profiting from the marketing of credit cards to its students, alumni, and supporters through an exclusive relationship between its athletic fundraisers and [...]

It was a chaotic time on the stock market last week with rumors that Lehman Brothers would be the next investment bank to succumb to the credit crisis a la Bear Stearns, the closing of IndyMac, and the collapse of the stocks of mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddy Mac after the announcement that they [...]

From what I have read, Democratic Presidential Candidate Barack Obama likes to proclaim that he is free from the influence of big businesses.  But Obama is in debt to credit card companies for much of his fundraising success, and the cost of processing those credit card donations over the internet is surprisingly high. In May, I [...]

It’s just too convenient to use credit cards at the gas pump these days.  And the increasing cost of filling up just isn’t helping matters. A Providence Journal article labeled credit card companies as a major beneficiary of high gas prices.  When gas prices are high, 80 to 90 percent of consumers use credit cards to [...]

It is expressed that credit card debt averages about $850 billion dollars in the United States.  This number has significantly increased since the 90’s.  It is said that the average debt for over half of card-holding households that do not pay their balance in full every month is about $17,000.  This is a ridiculously high number and has caused the government to step in and take

You're probably thinking "Tell me something I don't know" but in this time of low interest rates you might be thinking that you've got a great deal since credit card interest rates are low. Wrong. Credit card companies have a cutoff as to how low their interest rates will go. So when interest rates are low for lending, that doesn't mean your credit card rate will be low as well. If you don't know

Credit customers look for credit card deals everytime the mail carrier delivers the mail. Some people do not need these offers and other families will find the brochures to be very helpful in notifying the credit customer about deals that provide lower interest rates on credit cards. These types of deals that arrive in the mail might be affected by the creditworthiness of the person because some credit offers are strictly for use by people with bad credit histories.A person who has a low credit rating would welcome mail about credit card deals that allowed balances on other credit cards to be transferred to a new card. The card owner would have to determine if the credit deal was beneficial to lowering debt or if it is just a ploy to generate business for the card company. Some of these de

Chase and Citibank are routinely changing the due dates on their statements from month to month, often making customers with automatic payments late, thereby saddling them with late fees and higher interest rates per complaints pouring in to consumer watchdog groups. Consumer advocates say the tactics used by the banks are greedy and not a coincidence. In the case of one Citibank card user the

There is a law being proposed that would grant consumers some relief from abuse at the hands of credit card companies. Several victims of credit card abuse were supposed to testify before the Sub-Committee on Financial Institutions and Consumer Credit on Capitol Hill this week about the predatory practices of America's most prestigious lenders. But they never got the chance. That's because the

Those sneaky credit card companies are always out to make an easy buck. I paid off the remainder of my credit card debt last month but I got a bill this month for the remaining interest charges of $20.99. I immediately went online to schedule my payment. The payment is due on the 17th of this month. As I was scheduling the payment on the credit card company website, I had the option to schedule the payment to post on any day up to the 21st of the month. Why would they even offer the option to pay on the 21st when my payment is due on the 17th?The credit card company wants me to schedule my payment AFTER the due date so they can promptly charge late fees and jack up my interest rate. Just a heads up; when you are scheduling an online payment, be sure you schedule it to post on or before your due date. (I usually schedule my payments to post at least 2 days ahead just in case there is a problem. (This gives me time to fix it if something does go wrong.)I won't mention the name of the cr

Have you ever wondered how credit card companies can afford to offer you cash rewards and airline miles and all the goodies that go with using their credit cards? When you compare credit cards and search for the best credit card, do you marvel at the 0% interest rate offers, and ponder how they can [...]

Tired of your old credit card’s high interest rates and annual fees? Why not transfer your balance to another credit card, one that offers better interest rates and zero fee balance transfers? You get to enjoy the same privileges of having a credit card but can rest easy at night knowing your interest rates aren’t draining money away from your pocket. Here are some of the credit card companies that offer zero fee balance transfers you might want to get in touch with. For credit cards that offer zero balance transfer fees of up to 12 months, try: Discover Platinum Card Citi Platinum Select Mastercard CitiBusiness Premier Pass Card For credit cards that offer zero balance transfer fees of up to 9 months, try: Citi Professional Mastercard Other credit cards worth looking at: Discover Platinum Clear Card Citi Upromise Card CitiBusiness Card CitiBusiness Card with ThankYou Network Discover Miles Card All these cards offer zero balance transfer fees, so you can switch credit car

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They Don’t Want You to Pay Your Credit Card Debts Off!In all your dealings with credit cards, remember this one thing: they don’t want you to pay. The moment you pay back everything you owe, you’re free from their interest, and that’s not what they want. They want you to keep on paying them a little every month for the rest of your life, making them a steady profit on things you long since forgot about buying.Revolving Debt.Most credit cards are what’s called ‘revolving’ debt – the only real exceptions are American Express and Diner’s Club cards, which must still be paid off in full every month. They aren’t really ‘credit’ cards at all – they’re charge cards for people who could afford to pay in cash anyway.Revolving debt means that you can pay off as much as you like each month, or you can just pay the minimum, and you can run up as much debt as you want each month, up to the maximum. Unlike a fixed-term loan (a 20-year mortgage, for example), you don’t k