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Posted
Jul 30 2008, 05:26 AM
by
Karen Datko
Rating:
Money Blog: Smart Spending Blog - MSN Money
This post comes from partner blog The Dough Roller. Credit card companies are masters of marketing. From cash back to travel rewards, and 0% introductory rates to gas rebates, credit card companies have turned a once fledgling industry (remember MasterCharge?) into a multibillion-dollar juggernaut. While taking advantage of credit card rewards can be a financial boon, care must be taken that fees and default interest rates do not ensnare us. Let's take a look at those fees and interest rates by examining a popular credit card -- the Discover More card, Wildlife Edition.
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Posted
May 21 2009, 02:40 PM
by
Karen Datko
Rating:
Money Blog: Smart Spending Blog - MSN Money
This guest post comes from Odysseas Papadimitriou at Wallet Blog.
Both houses of Congress have now signed off on a bill to amend the Truth in Lending Act, and now it's off to President Obama's desk, where it's anticipated the legislation will be signed into law. At Wallet Blog, we have been covering the news on this bill as it has evolved. Now that it's headed to the president for approval, we'd like to provide an in-depth analysis on the bill's major features.
They are as follows:
APR changes on your existing balances. Credit card companies won't be allowed to raise interest rates on your existing credit card balance unless you are more than 60 days behind on your payments to them. If you get an APR hike because you were 60 days late, you will be able to get back your original rate by making payments on time for six months in a row.
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Posted
Apr 10 2009, 01:13 PM
by
Karen Datko
Rating:
Money Blog: Smart Spending Blog - MSN Money
This post comes from Truman Lewis at partner site ConsumerAffairs.com.
As Congress mulls new restrictions on credit card issuers, Bank of America is raising interest rates on millions of its customers who routinely carry a balance on their credit cards, a move already taken by most other larger issuers but not one that goes down well with consumers.
Basically, BofA and other banks are penalizing customers who don't pay off their bills each month. It's a reversal of banks' usual practice. During normal economic times, bankers loathe customers who pay their balance each month, because by so doing they deprive the bank of the interest it would have earned on the unpaid balance.
But now, with banks hoarding every cent, the worm has turned.
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Posted
May 21 2009, 03:35 PM
by
Karen Datko
Rating:
Money Blog: Smart Spending Blog - MSN Money
Many bloggers have applauded the credit card reform legislation now on President Obama's desk. It would eliminate or restrict some of the card companies' most egregious practices.
But will it have unintended consequences? For instance, will people who don't carry a balance end up being charged an annual fee? Will higher interest rates and lower credit limits become the norm for those who do carry a balance? We'll see.
But the strangest observation we've seen is that the new law does next to nothing to benefit the cardholders called "deadbeats" -- the term of endearment credit card companies have for those customers who never carry a balance from month to month.
Hmm, maybe we don't need any help.
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Posted
Sep 17 2008, 04:57 AM
by
Karen Datko
Rating:
Money Blog: Smart Spending Blog - MSN Money
This post comes from partner blog The Dough Roller. How much do we miss out on because we fail to do one really simple, free and easy thing? This one thing can greatly improve your finances. Amazingly, it can lower the interest rate you pay on a home-equity line of credit. It can eliminate the balance-transfer fee on a credit card. It may get you a raise at work or more money at your next job. And I know from experience that it can get you more investing options in your company's 401(k) plan. And this one thing has applications far beyond money management. It can improve just about every area of your life. So what is this one thing?
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Posted
Jul 02 2009, 10:28 AM
by
Karen Datko
Rating:
Money Blog: Smart Spending Blog - MSN Money
This post comes from Mark Huffman at partner site ConsumerAffairs.com.
Consumers have been hit with huge interest rate hikes and increases in their minimum monthly payments, and now complaints about America's credit card industry are reverberating through the halls of Congress.
CitiGroup, Bank of America and Capital One in recent days have all begun raising customers' interest rates, in many cases saying it has nothing to do with the customers' performance and everything to do with making up for losses before new laws and regulations tie their hands early next year.
Chase has singled out its customers with the lowest interest rates -- raising their minimum monthly payment from 2% of the balance to 5%. In many cases this action turns the credit card bill into the size of a monthly mortgage payment.
"This is what many of us feared about a law that didn't take effect right away," Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., told The Washington Post. "It was never going to take this long for the credit card companies to get ready for the new reforms. Instead, issuers are using the delay in the effective date to wring more dollars out of their customers. It is against the spirit of the law, and it is just plain wrong."
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Posted
Aug 19 2009, 09:22 AM
by
Karen Datko
Rating:
Money Blog: Smart Spending Blog - MSN Money
A few provisions of the credit card reform or CARD Act take effect on Thursday, Aug. 20. You'll have to wait until next year for more substantive changes to the way credit card companies operate.
We're referring, of course, to major changes to federal laws and regulations governing credit cards, which won't kick in until February and next August. Because the fact is that credit card companies responded quickly to the passage of the CARD Act by:
Whew! Did we leave anything out? In other words, they're trying to squeeze every drop of blood they can from customers before the government restricts their ability to do that. (To see how widespread these activities are, read "Credit card holders unduly whacked?")
Here are the legal changes you can expect right now:
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Posted
Dec 03 2008, 05:03 PM
by
Karen Datko
Rating:
Money Blog: Smart Spending Blog - MSN Money
"Brainy Smurf" was pretty well gloating when MoneyMateKate announced that Citibank is upping her credit card interest rate. "I kinda selfishly thought to myself, 'Wow, sucks to be her,'" he wrote at Pants in a Can. Then he got his own letter from Citi. As of today, his APR is jumping from 9.96% to at least 16.99% (and 29.99% if a payment is late). What's up? He pays in full every month and he's never late. And didn't Citigroup just get a huge government bailout?
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Posted
Dec 18 2008, 11:30 AM
by
Karen Datko
Rating:
Money Blog: Smart Spending Blog - MSN Money
This post comes from Mark Huffman at partner blog ConsumerAffairs.com. As expected, federal banking regulators approved a final rule today that addresses longstanding consumer complaints about credit cards. The action was taken by the Office of Thrift Supervision, the Federal Reserve and the National Credit Union Administration. The banking industry called it "unprecedented in scope."
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Posted
Sep 15 2009, 05:44 PM
by
Teresa Mears
Rating:
Money Blog: Smart Spending Blog - MSN Money
Ann Minch is mad as hell and she's not going to take it anymore.
Like many, she has seen the interest rate on her credit card jacked up (in her case, to 30%), even though she made all the payments on time, wasn't over her limit and didn't in any way violate Bank of America's rules. She had been making the minimum payment on her account for years, about $130 a month.
After trying, and failing, to get the interest rate reduced, she has, in her words "fired the first shot in the debtors' revolution" by refusing to pay another cent of her $5,943.34 debt unless Bank of America returns the interest rate to its previous level, 12.99%. She has staked out her position in this YouTube video, which has circulated widely on the Internet and has been viewed more than 150,000 times.
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