Credit Cards Articles

The demand for prepaid cards has risen during the current recession, especially with consumers who are credit deprived or have damaged credit histories. Carrying the Discover, MasterCard or Visa logo, these cards can be purchased by consumers to make purchases, pay bills or to get cash from ATMs. Reducing the need to carry large amounts of cash, prepaid cards offer less exposure to bank or credit funds and safeguards against lost or stolen cards. Reloadable prepaid cards offer the ability to budget and track spending, avoiding over spending, overdrafts and high interest charges.

A survey on consumer attitudes about reloadable prepaid cards was conducted by the Network Branded Prepaid Card Association (NBPCA) and indicated they fill an unmet need. Read more…

Secured business credit cards are designed especially for business owners with bad credit history or haven’t yet established a business credit. Let’s discuss the basic points about secured credit cards and how it can help you in running your small business.

Basic Details about Secured Business Credit Cards

Compared to issuers of standard credit cards for business, issuers of secured cards are more lenient with their standards. To make up for the risk of having bad credit history or no credit, an entrepreneur must submit cash deposit in his/her account. Usu

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NEW DELHI: In their constant pursuit of recovering dues from credit card customers, banks are empowering themselves with a tool that allows them to ask employers to deduct the outstanding amount from the salary. Employees who may have defaulted on payment, however, cannot object to this deduction of dues at source, according to the new clause introduced in the ‘terms and conditions’ by the country’s largest private sector lender ICICI Bank and expected to be adopted by others as well.

Such deductions will be remitted to the bank and will continue till the entire dues are recovered. Read more…

Low APR credit cards are offered everywhere in the internet. It is the annualized percentage rate of the credit card charges.  The lower the APR, the more advantageous it is for you. Though you intend of paying the card purchases before the end of the month, having minimal APR still makes your finances easier to handle. APRs differ from one company to another. Oftentimes, credit cards with low APR are only offered within limited period. Aside from looking at the low interest offer, you should look at the period of the offer. The longer the period of the low interest offer the better.

For you to handle the credit based on the offered APR, this is what you should consider:
Look at how long the offers of the low APR.

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When evaluating and comparing credit cards, it helps to understand the terminology used in the industry. The card issuer, for example, is entirely separate from the credit card network used to process transactions on your card. Once you understand the roles of the issuer and the network, you’ll be better prepared to choose a credit card that works best for you.

A credit card issuer is the financial institution that extends the credit for you to use the card. There are Chase credit cards as well as those issued by Citi and Bank of America.

The credit card network, on the other hand, is the entity that processes credit card transactions. T

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Are you planning to shop online in the near future? Or is there any other online transaction, involving the use of plastic money, high on your agenda? If yes, better get registered with your bank, otherwise you won’t be able to use your credit or debit card online just after a week’s time. For, the RBI has made it mandatory for all online transactions to have an ‘extra’ level of authentication from August 1, 2009 onwards. And some banks have already started complying with this mandate.

Although lots of ecommerce players are concerned about losing their business in the short run, as they believe that many shoppers, who are still not aware about the RBI mandate, may simply ditch the buying decision at the checkout process, bankers view this as one more step towards moving closer towards a fraud-proof world of online transactions.

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Have you been awed by 0% credit card offers lately? Are you opting to transfer your credit card balance to a 0% interest card? 0% credit offers can be a more-than-ideal solution for those who are searching for new ways to get their finances under control and in the process reduce their overall debt situation.

First and foremost, every 0% credit card offer has an attached terms and conditions sheet which is crucial for you read and understand. In order to earn back the lost interest revenue, the credit lender might charge higher late payment rates, over-the-limit or missed payment fees, which could altogether cancel out the benefits that you are expecting to receive from the 0% interest rate.

It is not uncommon for credit card providers to charge a “transfer fee” when transferring your debt across their account, which can reach as high as 3% of the total debt amount that you owe. If

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