Surviving in the world...

Surviving in the world of credit cards

Now we, customers, play a game ‘who have a better credit score’. It looks like that having a credit score is a point of pride rather than...

Some necessary researc...

Some necessary researches before getting rewards credit card

You decide to choose a credit card? OK, at first make a research to find the best variant for you. Before you request one of cards, you should be...

Advantages of reward c...

Advantages of reward credit cards

Of course, you think about worth and convenience of using a retail credit card so that when you buy something at this shop and you see something you...

A good credit history ...

A good credit history it’s very easy

Credit cards are convenient and can certainly help you to settle a good credit history, when you are young. And the good credit history is very...

Which Prepaid Debit Cards Report to the Credit Reporting Agencies?

Posted by: Matilda Sprent  Posted date: February 16, 2012 in Credit Cards Advisor
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PRBC

PRBC is a consumer credit reporting agency, but major creditors don’t use Payment Reporting Builds Credit to make lending decisions yet.  They capture rent payments, utility bills and other recurring bills not reported to the three major credit reporting agencies.  They help consumers build credit files as they pay bills or verify self-reported payments.

How does this information get reported to them? If you pay your bills through online automatic bill pay with a partner of theirs (such as the three prepaid cards mentioned above), the data gets reported.  If you submit your own data, you need at least six months and up to 36 months of history.  Payment Reporting Builds Credit charges you to verify the information you submit, which is $20 for rental history and $15 to verify other types of accounts such as phone, cable gas and electric.

According to the websites of these prepaid cards, companies that buy the report from Payment Reporting Builds Credit also receive a Bill Payment Score (BPS).  These companies admit that the score is not as important or significant as the FICO score, but helps in showing payment behavior.

Until this report is used by more business to grant you credit, you still need to establish credit at the three major credit reporting agencies. If you

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Tags: Credit Reporting Reporting

St George Credit Cards

Posted by: Matilda Sprent  Posted date: January 23, 2012 in Credit Cards Advisor
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While banks in general aren’t doing as well as they could for customer satisfaction, St George is showing the others how it’s done, coming top in recent Roy Morgan research.

So you know if you pick from the St George portfolio of credit cards you are going to be pretty happy with the service that comes with it.

And they’ve also got it covered when it comes to choice;

St George offers five personal credit cards:

  1. Amplify Visa Card
  2. Vertigo MasterCard
  3. No Annual Fee Visa Card or MasterCard
  4. Gold Low Rate Visa Card or MasterCard
  5. Platinum Visa Card

All of the St George cards are competitively priced in their respective niches, in particular the Vertigo MasterCard, which has a standard variable APR of just 13.24% and an introductory balance transfer rate for 12 months of 0.99%.

The Amplify Visa Card and the Platinum Visa Card are also offering competitive introductory rates on balance transfers for 6 months.

Both the Vertigo and the No Annual Fee cards have a minimum credit limit of $500, half of the standard $1000 required by many cards.

This makes them really useful as second cards or cards you might use purely for online shopping where you want to minimise the potential risk from credit card fraud.

St George also has a few other fraud detection and prevention measures in place for extra customer security.

Register for internet banking and you can access the Verified by VISA or MasterCard SecureCode services that validate online transactions with a password, in the same way as entering a PIN when you shop in store.

The St George Falcon 24/7 fraud detection service checks and informs you of any unusual activity on your card, in case it has been stolen or copied and is being used for unauthorised activity.

Some of the PIN pads on their ATMs are fitted with PIN pad shields to keep prying eyes from taking note of your PIN, and they also have anti-skimming technology fitted in their ATM’s.

Skimming is the illegally copying of the information from the magnetic strip on your credit card which is then use to make a fake or cloned card.

A good range of competitive credit cards, good customer service, and an eye on security makes St George credit cards a bit of a steal these days.

Tags: George St George

10 Side-Effects of Bad Credit

Posted by: Matilda Sprent  Posted date: January 11, 2012 in Credit Cards Advisor
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I always laugh at those medication commercials that promise to treat a runny nose, but have a long list of side-effects that are actually worse than the runny nose itself. That’s how it is with bad credit. Sure, it might feel good to charge up your credit cards and ignore your billing statements, but the side effects outlast any emotional high you get from your financial misbehaving.

With bad credit, you’ll have trouble renting or buying a house, pay higher security deposits to get your utilities turned on, and pay higher premiums on your insurance. That’s just a few of the ways bad credit affects you. Find out 10 Side-Effects of Bad Credit. The gravity of this list will make you want to get your credit together ASAP.

Tags: 10 Sideeffects Bad

Private Label Cardholders Revolve Their Balances More Often

Posted by: Matilda Sprent  Posted date: January 06, 2012 in Credit Cards Advisor
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Private label cards are issued by retailers to be used at their stores to purchase merchandise. These cards are limited to the places that accept them, and the balances and credit limits are lower than those of bankcards. Because the underwriting criteria are less stringent than bankcards, the risk is higher to the card issuers and interest rates are higher.  This is reflected in higher charge-off rates on private label cards.  According to Fitch, as of June 2011, the average charge-off rate on private label cards was 9.45% and for bankcards was 6.33%

Research highlights

7% of responders cancelled a bankcard; 3% canceled a private label card.

40% of those that canceled private label cards in the previous year did so because of high interest rates.

60% of credit cardholders who revolved (carried a balance) on bankcards also revolved on private label cards.

49% of responders had never paid off a balance on either card within the previous one to four years.

Those surveyed spent more annually on bankcard and debit cards than on private label and charge cards.  They spent 48% on bank credit cards, 32% on debit cards, 14% on private label cards and 6% on charge cards that require payment in full.

Most private label cards were opened at the store at the time a purchase was made, 23% opened an account online and 9% through direct mail.  There are usually incentives at point of sale to help convince you to apply for the card. As

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Tags: Balances Private Label

Obama Proposes Initiative for Making Credit Terms Easier to Understand

Posted by: Matilda Sprent  Posted date: January 01, 2012 in Credit Cards Advisor
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In 2009, a number of improvements were made to credit card statements and agreements in an effort to help consumers better understand their credit card policies.  The 2010 Dodd-Frank law created a federal agency, The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, for protecting consumers against potentially abusive practices of mortgage lenders and credit card companies.  On Wednesday, December 6th, the Obama administration announced another initiative for helping consumers understand their credit card terms, as the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has discovered that consumers are still confused over credit card issues.

There are more than 500 million credit cards in circulation in the United States, accounting for about $700 billion of household debts.

Bank Industry Concerns

Banking industry officials expressed concerns over the initiative which would result in credit card agreements with fewer pages, fearing it would put them at a higher risk for lawsuits.  A prototype credit card agreement was released by The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau to the American Bankers Association.  The association’s chief counsel, Kenneth Clayton, said while the association supports the bureau’s goal, he felt the credit card agreement prototype raises liability concerns that could be improved and made even shorter.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau will allow the general public to view the prototype agreement and offer their opinion as well.  Most banks use an average of 5,000 words in their credit card agreement, and the prototype uses just 1,100.

Tags: Understand

Repair your credit to get the best out of borrowing money

Posted by: admin  Posted date: December 29, 2011 in Credit Cards Advisor
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If you are in debt and are having trouble in paying it back, one of the major consequences that you can face is a drop in your credit score. Usually if you are more than 3 payments late, it gets reported on your credit report. The process of debt settlement also reduces your credit score as in this process you don’t pay the full debt amount to your creditors; you settle the amount for much less than what you originally owed. However, the worse attack to your credit report is a bankruptcy. It will make your credit score tank by 150 to 200 points which can be lethal. A low credit score can affect you financially. Lenders will check your credit score while giving you a loan, whether secure or unsecured and with a low credit score you won’t get a loan at suitable terms and conditions. Thus it is extremely important that you do credit repair in order to raise your credit score. Read on to know about some credit repair tips to help you improve your credit score.

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Tags: credit repair

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