Credit Cards for People With No Credit History, Get a Credit Card With Bad Credit

This article discusses Credit Cards for People With No Credit History, Get a Credit Card With Bad Credit and Advice. We start with three important tips:

1. You can save as much as a thousand dollars or more each year in lower credit card interest charges by paying off your entire bill each month.

2. If you are unable to pay off a large balance, pay as much as you can and switch to a credit card with a low annual percentage rate (APR).

3. You can reduce credit card fees, which may add up to more than $100 a year, by getting rid of all but one or two cards, and by avoiding late payment and over-the-credit limit fees. See Credit Card for more information.

Bank Credit Card Application Advice
Should you keep the bank credit card you have now, or apply for ones that offer greater advantages? One VISA card or MasterCard could be very different from another VISA card or MasterCard. What counts is the bank issuing it.
The MasterCard and VISA organizations do not issue credit cards themselves. They provide a clearing system for charges and payments on the cards and license banks to use the VISA or MasterCard name. It is the issuing bank that determines the interest rates and fees.

To Credit Cards for People With No Credit History, Get a Credit Card With Bad Credit- Top

A bank's name on a credit card does not necessarily mean that it is the bank actually issuing the card. Issuance of credit cards is a high-risk, low-profit business. Seldom does a small bank issue its own.

Generally, a small bank will act as an agent for an issuing bank. The agent bank puts its name on the card, but it is the issuing bank that actually extends any credit.

Aside from costs, this can be important if the cardholder encounters an error. The correction might have to be agreed upon, not by a friendly local banker, but by an unknown, larger institution, perhaps in a different state.
VISA, for example, has about 1,400 issuing banks in the U.S. and about 10,500 agent banks.

Choosing which card to take is becoming more difficult, because some of the nation's largest banks have begun active solicitation of customers throughout the U.S. Individuals must be especially careful about accepting any offer that might come in the mail.

A recently discovered quirk in the federal law allows federally chartered out-of-state banks to ignore state usury laws that limit the amount of interest or fees that the issuing bank may charge on its credit cards. In Arkansas, for example, state usury laws prevent local banks from charging more than 10% interest on credit card balances. But a federally chartered out-of-state bank, in lending to Arkansas residents, may charge whatever its home state allows. Even within individual states, the terms on credit cards can vary widely.

Aside from the actual rates and fees, individuals must carefully check the fine print of their contracts. Most banks, for example, do not charge interest on balances stemming from purchases until the customer is billed for such purchases. If the bill on which the charges first appear is paid in full by the stated due date, there is no interest charge to the holder. But some banks, begin charging interest as soon as they receive the charge slip and make payment to the merchant. Thus, interest begins accumulating even before the cardholder receives the bill. These interest charges continue until the bank receives payment from the customer.

Bank Credit Card Rights
You may withhold payment for unsatisfactory credit-card purchases if:
? You've already tried to settle the dispute with the merchant and failed.
? You notify the credit-card issuer of nonpayment.
? The charge is over $50.
? The purchase was made in your home state or within 100 miles of your mailing address.
Amount and distance restrictions are dropped if:
? The goods were purchased from the card issuer.
? The merchant has a corporate connection with the card issuer. Example: Mobil owns Montgomery Ward, so limitations are void for Mobil services charged to a Montgomery Ward card.
? The goods or services disputed were solicited through the credit card's mailings.
When it's too late to complain: After the bill's been paid-you can't demand a refund.

Bank Credit Card Cautions
Debit card risk. If lost or stolen, unauthorized use of your bank-automation card leaves you liable for the first $50, even if the loss is reported before use. It's up to $500 if you delay reporting it until after someone has tapped your account for a teller-machine withdrawal. Point: That makes the convenience of a debit card potentially ten times costlier than a credit card, which limits your liability to $50 tops and charges you nothing if a loss is reported in time to flag it before use.
Don't disclose the account number of your check-cashing identification or electronic funds transfer (EFT) card, even when reporting it lost or stolen. Why: Authorities don't need to know the number. But thieves posing as bank officers may try to get it in order to use it.

Check your credit card statement against your receipts. It's very easy for a dishonest storeowner to run off several slips when you present your card and submit them later for payment.

Be sure that it's your card that the store clerk returns. Accidental switches do happen. The number of switches is increasing. It's not costly, but it can be inconvenient, especially if you're traveling.

You are not automatically responsible for any of the credit card charges of family members, even if they're using family cards. Example: An executive's son continued to use his father's card after he was told to return it. Under a Federal Trade Commission ruling, the father had only to inform the credit card issuer that the card was being used without permission. Having done so, the father would be responsible only for the next $ 50 charged.

Source: Consumer Information Center

Disclaimer: While every effort is made to ensure that the content of this website is accurate, the website is provided ?as is? and Bizmove.com makes no representations or warranties in relation to the accuracy or completeness of the information found on it. While the content of this site is provided in good faith, we do not warrant that the information will be kept up to date, be true and not misleading, or that this site will always (or ever) be available for use. Nothing on this website should be taken to constitute professional advice or a formal recommendation and we exclude all representations and warranties relating to the content and use of this site.

 Copyright © 2010 by BizMove.com. All rights reserved