"What's in your wallet?" (calculate, credit card, debt, visa)
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You may have heard this catch phrase on TV... Whether your answer is their card, or not their card... you may want to read this MSN article about credit, and they also discuss Cap One's practices...
Information about balance transfers from the MSN link Jeff provided:
Quote:
Before you transfer a balance, read the fine print and calculate all of the fees you're likely to face. Compare offers using sites such as CardRatings.com, Bankrate.com or IndexCards.com. With a little research, you can often get a better deal. Then use your low rate to help you pay off your balance; don't keep shifting it around.
This has been a big pet peeve of mine for years. I ALWAYS read the fine print before I consider applying for a "teaser rate" credit card with a low interest rate. They really sock it to you on the balance transfer fees. Gone are the days with the "no balance transfer fees" offers. My FICO score has stayed well above 750 for years. But the no fee balance transfer offers have disappeared.
This has been a big pet peeve of mine for years. I ALWAYS read the fine print before I consider applying for a "teaser rate" credit card with a low interest rate. They really sock it to you on the balance transfer fees. Gone are the days with the "no balance transfer fees" offers. My FICO score has stayed well above 750 for years. But the no fee balance transfer offers have disappeared.
Oh yeah. And I love it when they combine those offers with 0% interest on new charges - you have to make sure they aren't charging you some crazy rate for the balance transfer amount, or that they apply your payment towards new purchases first to rack up the interest on the balance transfer.
Suze Orman had a great program about sneaky credit card fine print around Christmas time last year. One of the little 'gotchas' I didn't know about was 'universal default.' Here's Suze's article about it (thought it was worth mentioning):
Oh - I also wanted to ask about Capital One. I'm aware of their reporting practice as described in the MSN article, but I checked my Equifax report last month and saw something interesting - maybe someone here can explain it.
I had a crappy little Capital One card several years ago. As expected, Capital One did report the limit as whatever I had spent that month; however, there was another company listed directly below the Capital One account - with a different acount number - that listed the actual limit on the card. I had a First Premiere Capital One card. The first account listed was Capital One, complete with monthly payment chart for the previous 81 months. Directly under it was an 'account' with First Premiere - different account number - with the actual credit limit of the card, but there was no 81 month history of payment chart attached. Why do they do this?
I had a crappy little Capital One card several years ago. As expected, Capital One did report the limit as whatever I had spent that month; however, there was another company listed directly below the Capital One account - with a different acount number - that listed the actual limit on the card. I had a First Premiere Capital One card. The first account listed was Capital One, complete with monthly payment chart for the previous 81 months. Directly under it was an 'account' with First Premiere - different account number - with the actual credit limit of the card, but there was no 81 month history of payment chart attached. Why do they do this?
That one is strange. Typically it's a Cap one Visa, US bank Visa...etc...the company uses Visa/MC/Amex, etc. to run their cards. It couldn't just be another account with the same limit? If not that, I'm baffled as to what it could be. I don't think banks or companies can issue a "cap one card" so it couldn't be like I described in the first sentence.
UseJeff - yes, it was a Visa - but it wasn't listed as such under the First Premiere account. That was the only card I had for a few years, and the only conclusion I drew was that there was some sort of attempt to report the actual card limit.
I don't know anything about Ameriquest other than their commercials were hilarious.
Only thing I know was that they got their name pulled off the Texas Ranger baseball field in Arlington (more crooks doing more advertising, huh?), and that was the last most folks heard of them.
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