Consolidating Credit Card Debt? Watch For Hidden Fees

Your bank account can have a lot of damage inflicted upon it by the high interest rates you may be paying on your credit card bills. The higher the interest you have to pay, the less each payment you make tales off the principal, so the balance left seems like it barely goes any lower. [...]

How to Save When You’re in Debt

If you’re in debt with credit cards, or personal loans and a mortgage you may be feeling a little nervous when you think about your lack of savings, but does it make sense to direct funds towards a savings account when the interest earned there will be overshadowed by the interest you are paying on [...]

How to Dispute a Credit Card Charge

If you need to dispute a credit card charge, here’s what you should do:

#1 Understand the law. Consumers are protected by the “Fair Credit Billing Act” and we have the right to dispute a credit card purchase or withhold payment for a purchase if it satisfies certain conditions. It pays to know these rules even [...]

4 Ways Sneaky Banks Will Evade the New Credit Card Law

For months I’ve been trying to figure out what credit card companies are going to do to get around the CARD Act, which takes effect on February 22. I had already identified one — switching everybody to variable rates linked to an index like the prime rate. Doing so allows to banks to change your [...]

Can I write off credit card debt with an Individual Voluntary Arrangement?

One option for people with problem credit card debts may be an IVA (Individual Voluntary Arrangement) – a formal arrangement with your lenders in which you`ll repay as much of your unsecured debt as you can afford over a set period of time, after which your lenders will write off the rest.
IVAs have helped many [...]

Credit card companies exploiting loopholes in federal law

Upcoming federal credit card reforms are intended to make debt management easier for people, but one consumer group is warning that lenders are already using a variety of tricks to continue maximizing their profits.
According to the Center for Responsible Lending (CRL), consumers are finding it very difficult to gauge the true cost of their [...]

Clean up your own Credit Report

Federal law guarantees you one free credit report each year from each of the bureaus, Equifax (equifax.com), Experian (experian.com) and TransUnion (transunion.com). But you have to go directly to their Web sites for the freebies. Any other site will charge you for a report.
And the free reports do not include your credit scores.
The most common [...]

Card Firms Add Inactivity Fees to Slow Revenue Loss on Defaults

Amy Schiffman has had a Fifth Third Bancorp credit card for eight years to guard against unexpected overdrafts on her checking account. Now the bank wants to charge her $19 for not using it.
“If you’re not thinking about the card, you might forget to pay the fee, and then you’ll be facing another late fee [...]

Suze Orman on credit card companies

Orman said credit card companies are changing the rules on consumers before the government changes the rules on them.
“People are being raised to 30, 31, 32 percent (interest rate) across the board — for no reason at all in many of the cases,” Orman said.
Coming in February 2010, there will be “consumer friendly” reforms to [...]

Credit Cards From Largest Banks Would Break New Law

None of the credit cards offered online by the 12 largest U.S. banks would meet requirements of new federal curbs on the industry’s rates and fees, a report from the Pew Charitable Trusts said.
All of the cards surveyed used practices considered “unfair or deceptive” by the Federal Reserve, according to the report released today by [...]

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