photo credit: orphanjones

The average American receives credit offers monthly, and you’re likely no exception. But choosing your next credit card is not a decision to be taken lightly, especially with lots hidden charges and fees hiding among those offers. So review this list to determine if a credit card offer is a rip-off:

• A low APR: The typical APR — annual percentage rate — is 11.32%. If you have a credit score of 720 or higher, you deserve an APR of under 10%. If cards offer you higher rates, throw the offer away: it’s a rip-off.
• Annual Fees: You shouldn’t have to pay for using a credit card — that’s what interest is for — so unless you’re opening an airline or cashback card, say no to annual fees.
• Check out penalties: Interest rates can shoot through the roof if you go over your limit (30% or higher), so double and triple-check what a card’s penalty will be. You’ll find the penalty rate in the Schumer Box.
• High loan rates: A good credit card will offer you an average of 21.65% interest on a cash advance, plus a 2-4% fee. This already feels like robbery, so if a card charges more, run for the hills.
• Shady finance charges: FInance charges should be based on your average daily rate or average daily balance.

photo credit: TheTruthAboutMortgage.com

Being in serious debt thanks to your credit cards is a serious problem - but it’s one that you can get support for. Organizations such as Debtors Anonymous or simply groups that come together to meet in churches or cafes can really help you to feel that you’re not alone with your problem, and inspire you to find solutions to break the debt cycle.

A recent Wall Street Journal article told the personal stories of several people who are now working on their debt problems after joining support groups. For example, they explained the story of a 26-year-old female accountant who had almost no money to her name despite earning $82,000 a year. It turned out that her problem was mostly in spending money on extras and luxury, like expensive clothes, or high-end fruit for her boyfriend to eat!

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Make a late payment on your mortgage and your credit card interest rate goes up–even though you’ve been making timely payments on the card. (more…)

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If you’ve got some heavy credit card debts, your key priority has to be to pay down some of your debt so that you can start getting financially on top of things again, and you can start planning for the future. A recent article at About.com had some great suggestions for ways you can find some money to start reducing your credit card bills: (more…)

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Many people believe that credit card companies have been irresponsible in their dealings with customers, and that fewer people would have large credit card debts if the companies acted somewhat more responsibly. Of course, they are only making business decisions, but the Federal Reserve has started talking about new regulations that would help credit card customers avoid overwhelming debts. Some of these regulations include: (more…)

Of course, it’s pure economics, and just the way the world goes round, but I’m sure plenty of you don’t feel that great when you read that one of the world’s largest credit card companies, Visa, made a larger-than-usual profit this quarter.

The cause of this profit surge is firstly that, across the globe, more people are spending more money using the Visa network. In fact, year on year, the revenue of Visa increased 22% up to US$1.45 billion - that’s a whole lot of credit card purchases! That means that despite the United States economy being a little shaky, San Francisco based Visa is doing very well. Areas like the Asia-Pacific region have seen a big jump in spending, but despite that it is actually still the domestic purchases in the United States using Visa cards that form the largest chunk of Visa’s revenue.

On top of additional public spending across the world, Visa says its profit was also derived from increases in fees. That means not only are we increasing Visa’s profits through the spending we do and the interest we owe them, but also because we have to pay more and more fees. These are the kinds of figures that make you reconsider having a credit card, don’t they?

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Credit cards often have a bad reputation for charging high fees and writing far too many details between the lines. However, your credit score and a bit of knowledge on the best credit cards available now can score you a great deal. (more…)

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Everybody has a credit card, and everybody knows the basics of how it works. But there are a few lesser known facts that could cause you problems. They’re not secrets, as such – they’re public knowledge, often found in the small print of your credit card contract – but they’re facts that you should be aware of to avoid getting into trouble with your credit card.

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Recent tips at CNN Money about the surprise fees on your credit card had a few reminders of other ways your credit card debt can mount up. Luckily, they also provide a few tips on how we can either avoid or minimize some of these costs.

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It’s bad enough if you end up in some financial difficulties yourself and harm your credit rating, but if someone steals your identity and you end up with a bad credit rating without doing anything yourself, that can be very annoying and extremely inconvenient. Not only that, it’s becoming increasingly common, as we leave details of our identities in more and more places. (more…)