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Credit card solution:an essential tool
Credit card solution:an essential tool
A credit card is issued after approval from a provider (often a
general bank, but sometimes from a captive bank created to issue
a particular brand of credit card, such as American Express
Centurion...
Find The Best Credit Card Type
There are a variety of credit card types, each claiming to offer you the best possible deal. Finding the programs and incentives that works best for you is key to maintaining a good credit card history.
Each type of credit card offer different...
Five Easy Steps to Repairing Your Credit
Have you damaged your credit rating, and now need to repair it? It can be a long, tedious process, if you aren’t sure of exactly what to do. And if you decide to work with an agency that specializes in this type of work, you’re paying someone to do...
Increase Your Sales - Accept Credit Cards
Many people today simply prefer the convenience of paying by credit card. If you want their business, you must be able to accept their credit-card payments. In part one of this series we will discuss why you should accept credit cards, and the...
Why Should I Buy Your Book? How to Turn 'Lookie Loos' into "Take-out-the-Credit Card-Buyers"
Why Should I Buy Your Book? How to Turn 'Lookie Loos' into "Take-out-the-Credit Card-Buyers" Judy Cullins © 2001 You say your book has lists, how-tos, easy-to-read recipes? 124 pages? Do these features give your potential buyer enough of a reason...
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Choosing and Using Credit Cards
Credit cards are convenient, but they're also dangerous. A lot
of people ruin their financial lives by turning the phrase
"charge it" into a reflex. It's a real problem, but this article
explains how to make good use of credit cards and how to choose
a good credit card. This information, by the way, applies both
to using a credit card for personal expenses and to using a
credit card for business expenses.
Selecting the Right Credit Card
Selecting a credit card is easy. If you don't carry charges
forward from month to month, choose the card with the lowest
annual fee. It doesn't matter to you if the credit card company
charges a painfully high interest rate, since you pay only the
annual fee if you pay your monthly credit card bill on time.
If you do carry a balance, it makes sense to choose the card
with the lowest interest rate. Some credit card issuers play
interest rate calculation tricks that make it very difficult to
make apples-to-apples comparisons of credit cards. But if you
choose the credit card rate with the lowest annual percentage
rate, you're doing about as well as you can.
The Right Way to Use a Credit Card
You shouldn't use a credit card as a way to borrow money. That
means always repaying the charges within the grace period. You
want to be what the bank calls "a revolver," which is a person
who always pays his or her credit card bills on time.
After investments in a profitable business, a 401(k), and a
deductible IRA, the next best investment you can make is to pay
off credit cards that charge a high interest rate. Earning a
tax-free interest rate of, say, 14 percent, which more than what
a 401(k) and deductible IRA pay (and probably only slightly less
than investments in your business should pay) is too good to
pass up.
NOTE While credit card interest on personal charges would not be
deductible for income tax purposes, credit card interest on
business charges should be deductible as business interest
expense. Therefore, the worst kind of credit card debt is
personal credit card debt. Business debt isn't quite as bad.
Do Affinity Cards Make Sense?
An affinity card is a credit card that's issued by someone other
than a bank--such as a car manufacturer, an airline, a
professional group, and so forth. Affinity cards typically
combine the usual features of a credit card with some extra
benefit connected to the issuer. In the case of a General Motors
card, for example, you accumulate dollars in a rebate account by
virtue of what you spend with the affinity card.
In
general, an affinity card--especially one that doesn't charge
a fee--is a good deal as long as the interest rate is
competitive. For example, I have a General Motors credit card
that includes a 5 percent rebate account. In other words, five
cents of every dollar I charge on the card goes into a rebate
account that I can use toward purchasing a new General Motors
car. How big your rebate gets depends on the type of affinity
card you have. For example, as of this writing the regular
General Motors credit card lets you accumulate up to $500 a year
to a maximum of $3,500. The General Motors gold credit card lets
you accumulate up to $1,000 a year to a maximum of $7,000.
There are many different affinity cards. Ford has one. Most of
the major airlines have them too. Airline affinity cards let you
accumulate frequent flier miles based on the credit card
charges. In the plans I've seen, you usually get a mile a dollar.
The one sticky part of using affinity cards, however, is that
getting even a 5 percent rebate isn't worth it if having the
card makes you spend more money. Some studies show that you
spend 23 percent more when you use a credit card. The same is
very likely true of affinity cards.
If you're one of those people who spends more when you have a
card in hand, you won't save any money by using an affinity
card. Even if you get a new General Motors car for free or a
handful of free airline tickets to Europe, you pay indirectly
for your new car or airline tickets with all the extra charging
you do. If you don't make use of the rebate, the situation is
even worse. You've charged more, perhaps paid hefty annual fees,
and you've received nothing in return.
NOTE One other point to consider argues in favor of using
affinity cards for business charges. In many businesses, you
will have large business credit card charges--much larger than
an individual making personal charges will have. In this case,
assuming you don't overcharge and don't overspend, you may find
that an affinity charge card produces big benefits. In my case,
because many of my business expenses can be charged on my
frequent flier credit card, I probably get two free airline
tickets a year.
About the author:
Seattle certified public
accountant & Stephen L. Nelson CPA has written more than 150
books. His bestselling book is Qu Determining How Much Life
Insurance You Needicken for Dummies, which sold more than
1,000,000 copies. His books have sold more than 4,000,000 copies
in English and have been translated into more than a dozen other
languages.
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| Credit - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia |
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| en.wikipedia.org |
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| DebtAdvice.org is a service provided by the Members of the National Foundation for Credit Counseling (NFCC), most of them known as Consumer Credit ... |
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| The Credit Card Prank |
| In my lifetime, I have made nearly 15000 credit card transactions. ... Credit card signatures are a useless mechanism designed to make you feel safe, ... |
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| Credit magazine, corporate bonds, derivatives, structured credit ... |
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| CUNA: The Credit Union National Association |
| News and resource directory about credit unions. |
| www.cuna.org |
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| Credit/Debt Management - Tools and Advice for Managing Credit and Debt |
| Drowning in debt? Trying to improve your credit score? This is the place for you. Get real world information and tips, as well as the legal low down, ... |
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