How much do credit cards cost you?

Q. How much do credit cards really cost you?

A. Good luck figuring that out.

Credit card issuers don’t make it clear. They write murky
disclosures, bury important terms and even include unnecessary
information.

Many consumers don’t understand such important facts as what
they’d be charged for making a late payment or what would cause their
interest rate go up, according to a recent study of the nation’s
largest card issuers by the Government Accountability Office, the
investigative arm of Congress.

You may think you know your interest rate because it’s in a
big-type box on your credit card agreement. But you have to learn how
the balance is added up to get your true cost.

There’s a particularly insidious practice called double-cycle
billing that makes it next to impossible to know what you’ll be paying
on a purchase. Not all cards use it, but if yours does, watch out. Read
the fine print especially the part about how the credit company
computes your balance.

The GAO report says it can work this way: You charge $1,000
on the card. You make a payment on time of $990. The next month, you
thought you’d be paying interest on the remaining $10. You’re not. The
card figures interest based on two payment cycles. What you owe is
based in part on what you’ve already paid off. The end result: You are
charged $11.02 in interest, instead of the 11 cents you would have owed
on $10.

technorati tags:holiday+credit+card+debt, credit+card+interest+costs

Written by Adam on November 30th, 2006 with no comments.
Read more articles on Credit Score and Personal Finance.

How to be debt free in 3-5 years

Hello-

As a valued reader I felt you
had to hear this compelling story.
If you are in debt right now
it WILL change your life forever.

Why?

Clint Holland was $213,000 in debt
with nowhere to turn… then he came
across a ‘military strategy concept’
and he WIPED OUT that $213,000 in
debt in only 5 years! And, he did it
WITHOUT bankruptcy and WITHOUT
getting a second job.

At this point I’ll let Clint Explain in
his own words…

‘My name is Clint Holland and the
first thing you should know about
me is I am not a credit expert or
some kind of financial egghead.
I’m just an ordinary, average guy
that ended up deep in $213,000 of
debt and found a 100% guaranteed
and proven way to get out faster
than any method currently taught.

Not long ago … I was scared I was
going to lose one of my cars or my
home. Things were tight and times
were tough money wise. The pressure
was eating away at my health and it
took its toll on my family. I was
convinced I had to do something to
get this monkey off our back.

As you can imagine …

I was buying all sorts of books and
courses that promised me a way to
get out of debt, but most of it was junk
or stuff that was too hard to do. Some
of it was good. Anyways, I ended up
stumbling upon a ridiculously simple
technique one day that came from a
military strategy concept - and so I
tried it on my mountain of debt.
Guess what?

It worked!

I know this sounds crazy, but with your
permission I’ll prove it’s 100% true.

Just go to:

Debt Free in Three years

for the rest of my story’.

Written by Adam on November 25th, 2006 with no comments.
Read more articles on Credit Repair and Credit Score and Personal Finance.

VantageScore vs FICO score

Here’s a good visual comparison of the differences between the FICO score and the new VantageScore:

VantageScore vs. FICO score

The VantageScore is based on six variables, versus the FICO score’s five variables. Here’s a comparison of the two:

technorati tags:vantagescore, FICO+score

Written by Adam on November 18th, 2006 with no comments.
Read more articles on FICO Score and Vantage Score.

Take charge of your credit score

Take charge of your credit score

You are responsible for your credit score. That’s why you need to know what your number is and how to improve it.

•Step 1: You should check with each individual agency - Experian,
Equifax and TransUnion - once a year to make sure your information is
correct. Federal law entitles you to one free report from each agency
each year. To request copies, call (877) 322-8228 or go to www.annualcreditreport.com”.

• Step 2: If you find a discrepancy, work with the agency to fix it. You’ll likely need to provide documentation.

• Step 3: This should really be Step 1. Pay your bills ON TIME. This is the biggest determining factor on your score.

•Step 4: If you want to improve your credit score, develop a plan to pay
down your debt - and remember, it takes time. “Correcting your credit
is not something you can do overnight,” says Amy Ghannam of National
City Bank.

technorati tags:improve+your+credit+score, raise+your+credit+score, free+credit+score+tips

Written by Adam on November 16th, 2006 with no comments.
Read more articles on Credit Score and Credit Score Tips and FICO Score and Improve Credit Score.

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