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If you are carrying a balance on your credit card, stop everything you are doing right now, it’s time to save some money
Do you know how easy it is to have your credit card lower the interest rate on the balance you are carrying? It’s as easy as making a brief phone call. For the non-believers in you, it was demonstrated by CBC News at a mall where they approached 10 shoppers at random who then called their credit card company on the spot, and 6 of them got their interest rate lowered, in one case from 18.9% to 10.9%. With the average household carrying a $8.500 balance on their credit cards, it would translate into a saving of over $680, what could you do with an extra $680? You would put it toward paying down your balance, of course!
In one more case one of the ‘lucky shoppers’ had been paying 18% for the previous 30 years.
Read the article Skeptics surprised after negotiating lower credit card rate which will give you an idea of what to say.
DO IT NOW!!!
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Photo Credits: Landii (cc)
It’s truly a global economy: USA, Europe, Asia and beyond
The old adage “the high tide raises all boats” it’s also true when it’s low tide. The ebb and flow of the financial market is taking a toll on the global economies.
The experts agree that the cause of the present crisis is a slow-down of the credit markets which provide liquidity to business and financial transactions. That’s the finite cause. Additionally we have the psychological component that while it was the fuel powering the economic growth that the we’ve experienced in the past 5-10-20 years, now has turned negative with a few ripple effects: large finance players have cashed out from their various investment positions, and are now sitting on their cash without making any investments, waiting for some sign that we have reached the bottom and things are starting to change. Individual consumers are cutting down on their spending, buying less, trading down to less expensive goods and services, and procrastinating large purchases.
What does that mean for the average individual? It depends. This might be a great time to take inventory of one’s financial habits, turning them around for the best:
- Stop spending wastefully, and abide to a sound budget.
- Getting serious about paying down personal debt.
- Start a saving program.
- Finding ways to augment incoming cash like getting a part-time job, or starting a business on the side, following your dream and doing what you truly love.
- Taking a more proactive approach to your investments and personal finances.
We are here to help! For those of you who have been following us for a while, we have listened to you and expanded the scope of the articles we publish, while the name and address remains the same (CreditcardsMojo.com) going forward we’ll be talking about Personal Finances at large, helping you navigate by taking control of your money, so that money doesn’t control you, and you can live a happy and prosperous life.
As usual your feedback and tips are always welcome, you can always email us at our tipline (*):
MojoTipLine (at) gmail (dot) com.
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The near future of credit cards and you
Worldwide financial markets are irrationally challenged, with central banking systems having to adopt unprecedented measures to ensure liquidity, and with daily occurrences of huge bankruptcies, bailouts, consolidations and mergers.
What does this mean for the credit card industry and for you? While it’s hard to pinpoint exact time lines and finite issues, there are trends that are easily spotted:
Fewer large players, and many small ones: consolidation and bankruptcies means that a handful of issuers will control the vast majority of the market. And at the same time, in the long run, wholesale brandable credit card services will be available for other companies who can market credit cards to niche markets while having the wholesaler do all the heavy lifting.
High interest rates and very low interest rates. The credit card market will be more layered than segmented, with some credit card offerings targeting individuals with excellent credit, and the remainder of the offerings targeting individuals with poor or no credit. For those of you with good, but not excellent credit, it will become more and more difficult to find a very low interest credit card offering, and you will have to settle for a card with an ‘average’ interest rate.
Lower credit limits. Gone are the days when your credit card will continuously increase your credit limit, whether you needed it or not. Individuals will probably be required to open a new account if they want to tap into higher credit lines.
Consolidation of product offerings. Some credit card issuers are currently offering hundreds of credit cards flavors, with different perks, looks, and different features. In order to cut costs and manage the credit card portfolio more efficiently, credit card issuers will start discontinuing perks and features and consolidating products into a few standard offerings.
Longer waits on the phone for customer service. In order to cut costs, and facing a higher concentration of customers, the ratio of operators to customers will decrease, therefore expect longer waits on the phone, and more stressed customer service representatives on the line.
Higher fees and more creative fees. Interest income is no longer enough for credit card companies to produce profits, therefore the present trend of more ‘creative’ fees, and higher fees will only continue. Make sure you read the fine print in all the correspondence with your credit card issuers, and avoid being late on any payment at all cost. A good idea is to use your credit card issuer’s web site to schedule an automatic electronic payment from your checking account; you can always make additional payments or increase the payment amount in your quest to pay off your balance.
If you are following our advice to use one card for your daily purchases, paying off the balance in full every month, you can schedule to have your credit card company withdraw the full balance every month from your checking account. Make sure to continue to monitor your credit card operations, balances, and statement to catch mistakes on time.
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A simple phone call that could save hundreds of dollars
Where there’s a problem, there’s an opportunity. The entire banking system is experiencing some turmoil, covered by too many conflicting news, and too many opinions short of facts.
Rumors and anecdotal stories of credit crunch abound on the TV news and on the blogosphere.
Credit card companies trying to cut their exposure are decreasing lines of credit on the credit card issued, and in the near future we can expect higher interest rates, higher fees, and more aggressive collection efforts. That’s for sure.
But there are many people who pay their bills on time every single month and have good credit. These people are the credit card companies’ most favorite customers, especially these days. There’s something you can do right now to leverage your position:
- Call you credit card company and ask to lower your rate. No matter how low you think your rate is, your credit card can do better. Just ask, be firm and determined, you have a 50/50 chance that the Customer Service Representative will lower the rate for you. If it doesn’t work, make a note to call again next month when you are about to send the check for the monthly payment. A reduction in interest rate of 2-3% is very common for low interest rate credit cards, and even higher on credit card account with interest rate higher than 14%. This will save you hundreds of dollars as you pay down or pay off your balance.
- The second thing you can do is to get one additional, low interest rate, credit card, especially if you have a small business. You don’t have to use it, but credit is something to arrange when you don’t need it, and business and the credit markets might be prepping for some wild rides ahead. Be prepared.
Chances are you’ll never use it, but if the needs arises, you’ll be glad you have that extra cushion in your wallet for extra comfort.
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Elections, Taxes, and WIIFM
Save the Date: Tuesday November 4, 2008 is election day in the USA, no matter who you vote for, make yourself heard, and go to vote!
In these final days of the campaign, and with the serious worldwide financial crisis, the information overload can be more than overwhelming. TV, newspapers, and debates are full of sound bytes that many people characterize as pure spin. If you are looking for more analytical and tangible answers to your questions on WIIFM (What’s In It For Me) there are a couple of web sites that might come to the rescue in providing you with effective information about how your taxes might be affected in the next 4 years and how the candidates’ promised match your worldview.
If you want to see how each of the candidates will affect your tax situation:
If you want to see how each candidate matches your worldview and philosophies:
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To Charge or Not To Charge?
The Stock market is down, the stock market is up; Congress is about to approve the bailout bill, Congress did not approve the bailout bill, Congress is in recess for two days; the Credit market only has one day of float, three days, a week . . . the bailout is good, the bailout is bad.
Confused by conflicting reports? You should be. Like they say, if you are not confused you are not paying attention.
In the meanwhile people on Main Street and on Wall Street realize that the balances on their credit cards are getting unmanageable, and some are wondering if they should even use credit cards at all.
As usual each individual situation is different, but if you have decided to do something to cut down on the amount of personal debt, step # 1 is to stop adding new debt. And while it’s easy to say that you’ll pay off the new charges at the end of the month, some people don’t have the discipline to curtail their spending in order to be able to pay off their monthly charges.
We have some suggestions for tactics that you can use to manage your spending:
- Use a credit card the same way you use a checkbook: put as a starting balance the amount of money that you can afford to spend, and each time you charge something you write it on as if you’ve written a check and deduct the amount from the total.
- If math is not your forte, round up the numbers of what you’ve charged to the whole dollar amount, so if you charged something for $26.06 write in $27.
- If you need to, you can write in as starting balance a (lower) weekly balance, and deduct (spend) from there, adding a new amount (deposit) every week. Make sure to NEVER go into negative balance, you are trying to bring discipline into your spending.
- On a weekly basis you can send a payment to your credit card company, either via mail, pay by phone, or internet banking. Credit card companies don’t mind if they receive 4 or 5 payments in a month. And if you are carrying a balance on your credit card, this method not only will decrease the amount of interest that you’ll be charged, but it will practically eliminate the risk of you being late in your credit card payment.
It might seem like a lot of work, but it’s not. It’s an investment of time to learn money management skills, well worth the time, it will pay dividends for a lifetime.
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Credit Card rewards and the turmoil on Wall Street and the Banking System
Maria M., a reader of CreditCardsMojo.com asked us: “Are my credit card rewards with [redacted] safe?”
Great question Maria! We have done some research, and called and emailed some very smart people in the industry, and the answer is: “Probably, but it depends”.
Let me explain: there are three major categories of rewards
- Airline Miles
- Cash Back/Rebate
- Points and similar rewards
In case of Airline Miles, the issue might arise with the fate of the Airline for existing miles, and not with the credit card issuer, unless you are concerned with your ability to continue earning miles.
In the case of Cash Back/Rebate, and Point rewards, when a credit card issuer that is a bank is taken over by another bank, without filing for bankruptcy, operations continue and slowly are integrated into the acquirer’s operations, so the credit card holder should have a long notice of things coming down the pipeline. When a credit card issuer files for bankruptcy, the issue gets a bit more complex, since depending on which state you live, which state the issuer has the charter, and the terms and conditions, you might risk losing something there.
While Cash Back / Rebate rewards are probably safe, the general consensus here at CreditCardsMojo.com is that you should keep an eye on your balance, and have the credit card company send you a check as soon as you hit that threshold, so that you can save it, use it to pay some bills, or spend it and reward yourself!
For the points, why not enjoy them now? Week-end away, hotel stays, restaurant meals, magazine subscriptions are all welcome now that most people are on a budget. Enjoy them, you’ve earned them!
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Will the Federal Government Bail People Out From Their Credit Card Debt?
Probably no. Last month we would have said “NO”, but after the latest event, the rule of “Never Say Never” must be applied, hence the “Probably” clause.
However all the indicators point to the Federal Government wanting to acquire most of the bad debt on the books of the Financial Institutions including Credit Cards, Student Loans, and Auto Loans.
Which will mean that – if the plan goes through – you will owe money to the Federal Government.
In the meanwhile, between now and the time when the bailout will be approved, executed and implemented, there will be some turmoil in all the markets: stock market, credit market, banking, international markets etc. . .
We have always advocated that ideally you should carry two credit cards, one for every day purchases, paying off its balance in full each and every month, and another one for emergencies.
If you carry a balance on your credit card, then you should not use this card at all, make regular monthly payments as high as you can so that you can eventually pay it off; hence – in this case – you’ll carry three cards.
During the times of turmoil, that “emergency” credit card, the one that has an untapped credit line might come handy. If you have a business, you might want to get additional credit in the form of a business credit card, not to use foolishly, but to have the credit “just in case”. Like Donald Trump says: credit is something you get when you don’t need it.
Related articles:
- Student, car debt quietly added to bailout plan, The Washington Times
- How Many Credit Cards? And How to Reduce Credit Card Debt
- How to Pay Down Your High Interest Debt Without Feeling The Pinch
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Is this the best time to pay off your credit card balance?
There’s a financial mayhem going on in Wall Street, Main Street, and in most streets of the entire world. And chances are that nobody fully understands the ramifications of the actions of the Federal Reserve and the Treasury, but everyone is wondering: “what does this mean for me and what’s the advantage to me?”.
Every situation has some opportunity for those people in the right situation. One thing that’s clear right now is that credit card companies are trying to “limit their exposure”, which means they are trying to cut the amount of balances on everyone’s credit cards.
If you are on a plan of paying down / repaying your credit card debt as we have advocated many times (see: How long will it take you to pay off your credit card) we’ve got good news for you. According to the Wall Street Journal, some credit card companies are starting to offering incentives for payments, some of them going as far as matching payments above the minimum payment due, up to $550, which means that if you have money sitting in a savings account while you owe a balance on your credit card, you can effectively double your money by sending an extra $550 payment to your credit card company if they offer you this incentive.
While this is restricted to Citibank for now, expect most credit card companies to offer incentives for facilitate paying down those balances.
In the meanwhile you can pick up the phone and call your credit card company asking if they have any similar programs, and since you have the Customer Service Representative on the line, ask for your own personal ‘bailout’ in the form of an interest rate reduction.
Sources:
- Wall Street Journal
- Boston.com
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Wordwide acceptance of Credit Cards no longer true for U.S. Credit Cards
If you’ve been to Europe recently, you know that the majority of vending machines like kiosks or public telephones only take Credit Cards with the security chip in it.
While all of the credit cards issued in Europe have this security chip in them, only a handful of U.S. Credit Card issuers use such a feature. When traveling it can result in a waste of time, since it is a lot faster to get tickets at Museums, Train Stations, Subways, Airports using kiosks that also have English language menus, than to wait in the long lines and having to experience the language barrier.
But it’s getting worse. In order to counteract credit card fraud due to identity theft, credit card cloning and stolen cards, Europe is switching to a “Chip-and-PIN” system. The “Chip-and-PIN”system has extra protection since only credit cards with the security chip are accepted, either at vending machines or in person (like in a restaurant), and the point of sale machine will ask the consumer to enter the PIN, a procedure similar to what happens today when you use your ATM card.
Boston.com is reporting that “Nearly all the credit-card terminals in Britain, Ireland, Denmark, France, and Spain have been changed. Canada is scheduled to convert in 2010. And as many as 50 other countries around the world are converting.”
Unfortunately U.S. credit cards issuers have no plans to adopt the “Chip-and-PIN” system, not even for Business Cards. This is going to be a major inconvenience for international travelers, especially frequent business travelers. Until then, if you are planning a trip abroad, your best bet is to call your credit card company and ask when they are going to adopt such a system, the more people signal their feedback the sooner the credit card companies will get their act together and do the right thing.
We are going to be on the lookout for the first enlightened credit card companies that will understand this issue, and will add such a feature on their cards. As soon as we spot one, we’ll report promptly. If you spot a credit card company that offers such a feature, do not hesitate to email us at our tipline: MojoTipLine (at) gmail (dot) com.
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