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Credit Card FAQs
What are credit cards?
Credit cards let you pay later for any purchase you make. In case of any sort of emergency or urgent situation, when you may not have cash to make payments, credit cards can be helpful. Credit cards are commonly used to...
Credit Card Issuers to Restart Charging Annual Fee
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Let your business soar with an American Express Business Gold credit card
American Express has everything your business desires. Let it take you where you need to go! With one of America’s most widely used and accepted credit cards, you simply cannot go wrong with an American Express business gold credit card. The best...
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How to score with credit
With a massive £1.3 trillion of personal debt in the UK, obtaining credit and staying financially afloat are daily dilemmas for the British consumer. Many major banks, including Lloyds TSB, have recently declared an increase in the number of customers experiencing repayment difficulties, with the need for better financial advice and support has never been more important.
Shadow Chancellor Oliver Letwin said that the current levels of personal debt comprise a “time bomb” that poses a threat to as many as 15 million households.
To help consumers make informed decisions when taking out personal finance products such as credit cards, loans and insurance, a new breed of financial comparison websites has emerged. Since 1997, consumer websites like Moneynet (http://www.moneynet.co.uk/ ), Moneyfacts (www.moneyfacts.co.uk/), and Moneyextra (www.moneyextra.com/) have provided invaluable information to help choose the best financial products. However, what happens when things go wrong and payments cannot be met? The unfortunate borrower gets branded with a bad credit rating and any further loan applications may be turned down, or lenders may charge higher rates of interest if there is a higher risk in the default of a loan. To someone already in financial difficulties, increased rates will of course make a bad situation worse.
Each lender weighs the information contained in a person’s credit file differently. However universal contributing factors include:
* Electoral Roll information for a person’s currently registered address.
* Payment history for mortgage, credit cards, loans, hire purchase and finance agreements.
* Any County Court Judgments.
* The complete
amount owed and the number of credit facilities used.
* The number of new credit facilities that have been applied for (both successful and unsuccessful applications).
* The type of credit used.
* Salary details given on the application form.
The best way of reducing the risk of being classed as a bad debtor, is to improve your credit score and to ensure that a good record does not go wrong.
For people who have been refused credit, or offered loans at atypically expensive rates, here are a few basics on how can you keep your credit file in good shape:
* Immediately register on the Electoral Roll when you move house.
* Pay all bills on time; it's recorded even if you're only a few days late.
* Keep credit card balances low.
* Pay off debt rather than moving it around.
* Only apply for new credit when you need it.
* Build up your credit history slowly, don't open lots of new accounts rapidly.
* Check your own credit file to make sure it is correct.
Source: credit reference agency MyCallcredit (http://www.mycallcredit.com/)
However, should the worst happen it is always best to immediately seek qualified help from the free debt counselling services available including:
* The Citizen's Advice Bureau (http://www.citizensadvice.org.uk/index/getadvice.htm),
* Citizen's Advice Scotland (www.cas.org.uk),
* National Debtline (http://www.nationaldebtline.co.uk/)
* Consumer Credit Counselling Service (http://www.cccs.co.uk/).
About the Author
Richard works in Edinburgh for a media company, occasionally writing for the personal finance blog Cashzilla ( http://cashzilla.blogspot.com/ ), and drinking too much coffee.
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| Credit Reports - Credit Cards - Car Loans - Home Loans - Credit.com |
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| www.credit.com |
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| Equifax Personal Solutions: Credit Reports, Credit Scores ... |
| National consumer credit reporting company that offers credit reports, FICO(R) credit scores and identity theft protection products to consumers and small ... |
| www.equifax.com |
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| The FTC's web site on Credit |
| Credit is much more than a piece of plastic, and the resources on this site can help you become a more savvy consumer. You’ll also find compliance ... |
| www.ftc.gov |
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| Federal Trade Commission - Consumer Credit Center |
| Features an assortment of helpful articles related to credit issues. |
| www.ftc.gov |
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| AnnualCreditReport |
| Site set up by the big three credit reporting agencies in the United States, to furnish free annual credit reports, as required by federal law. |
| www.annualcreditreport.com |
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| Springboard - Non-Profit Consumer Credit Management |
| Our mission is simple: To offer education on the wise use of credit. ... SPRINGBOARD has been approved to provide credit counseling services and issue ... |
| www.credit.org |
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| myFICO - FICO Credit Scores, Online Credit Reports and Identity ... |
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| Experian: Free Credit Report and Credit Score, Credit Check ... |
| Credit referencing and consumer targeting for the USA and other countries. |
| www.experian.com |
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| National Credit Union Administration - Home Page |
| An independent federal agency that supervises and insures 7152 federal credit unions and insures 4240 state-chartered credit unions. |
| www.ncua.gov |
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| Credit - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia |
| Debits and Credits, a type of bookkeeping entry; Credit (creative arts), acknowledging the ideas or ... Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Credit" ... |
| en.wikipedia.org |
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| Credit (finance) - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia |
| Any movement of financial capital is normally quite dependent on credit, ... Sometimes if a person has financial instability or difficulty, credit is not ... |
| en.wikipedia.org |
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| The National Foundation for Credit Counseling |
| DebtAdvice.org is a service provided by the Members of the National Foundation for Credit Counseling (NFCC), most of them known as Consumer Credit ... |
| www.nfcc.org |
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| FreeCreditReport.com | Free Credit Report and Credit Score Online ... |
| FreeCreditReport.com: Free credit reports and credit scores from Experian. Get your free credit report and credit score now. It's free, fast, and easy! |
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| www.moneysupermarket.com |
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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, ... |
| www.zug.com |
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| Credit magazine, corporate bonds, derivatives, structured credit ... |
| Credit magazine provides information on the international credit markets for credit investors, issuers and market professionals. |
| www.creditmag.com |
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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, ... |
| credit.about.com |
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