Nickled and Dimed: The High Cost of Banking While Poor
October 6, 2009 – 7:23 am | 5 Comments

You load sixteen tons, and what do you get?
Another day older and deeper in debt.
Saint Peter, don’t you call me, ’cause I can’t go;
I owe my soul to the company store…
That’s the chorus to an …

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Articles in Credit Cards

Pissed About Credit Card Business Practices? Take Action
February 3, 2010 – 10:13 am | No Comment
Pissed About Credit Card Business Practices? Take Action

Washington Post recently ran some required reading for all credit card users entitled “Five myths about America’s credit card debt.” Don’t be deceived by the somewhat banal title – this piece is actually very illuminating …

Watch Your Back: 8 Up and Coming Credit Card Fee-Creep Tricks
January 27, 2010 – 11:20 am | One Comment
Watch Your Back: 8 Up and Coming Credit Card Fee-Creep Tricks

February 2010 is almost upon us, which means the CARD Act is about to kick in to full effect. Of course, the credit card companies haven’t been resting on their laurels, waiting for the government …

What Happened To Rebate Checks?
January 2, 2010 – 11:25 pm | One Comment

I don’t know about you guys, but I’ve been noticing an increasing trend lately that I’m not completely on-board with yet. Retailers who use rebates to lure us in are moving from a paper check …

How Many Credit Cards Do I Need?
December 14, 2009 – 4:19 am | 2 Comments

Sound familiar? I was recently asked this question by one of my clients and figured the question warranted discussion.
The average American has anywhere from 5-10 credit cards, though with the recent financial crisis, that number …

Discover® More(SM) Card increases it’s 0% Balance Transfer offer to 12 months
December 8, 2009 – 4:57 pm | No Comment
Discover® More(SM) Card increases it’s 0% Balance Transfer offer to 12 months

At last, a sign that the credit crunch may be on its way out? The Discover® More(SM) Card now has a 0% interest offer on balance transfers for 12 months! There’s also 0% on purchases …

Penny Pinching or Big Ticket Savings: Which Is For You?
December 7, 2009 – 6:41 am | 2 Comments
Penny Pinching or Big Ticket Savings: Which Is For You?

In personal finance there is a constant list of things you hear in order to get started on the path to saving money and reducing your debt.

Skip the Starbuck’s coffee

Brown bag it during the …

Want to Invest in the SPSE? (Somali Pirate Stock Exchange)
December 2, 2009 – 10:54 pm | No Comment
Want to Invest in the SPSE? (Somali Pirate Stock Exchange)

What with the more conventional investments under-performing over the last couple of years, it may be time to start thinking about putting some of your money towards a few ‘less orthodox’ ventures. This, presumably, is …

Are You Leaving Your Credit Card In Your Wallet This Christmas?
December 1, 2009 – 8:26 pm | 4 Comments
Are You Leaving Your Credit Card In Your Wallet This Christmas?

What with rising interest rates, cancelled accounts, and slashed spending limits, it’s looking like many credit cards won’t see the light of day this Christmas, shunned in favor of the trusty (and ever more popular) …

Links with Your Black Friday
November 27, 2009 – 10:00 am | One Comment
Links with Your Black Friday

Happy Black Friday, shoppers. Did you go out a-spending this morning? Are you still waiting in line as you read this post? We hope you’re having fun and took some of our advice for retail …

Black Friday and Cyber Monday: Get More Rewards!
November 25, 2009 – 9:35 am | No Comment
Black Friday and Cyber Monday: Get More Rewards!

Here come the sales. And the crowds. And the flurry of plastic and cash in exchange for plastic goods and novelty knickknacks. For some, there’s nothing quite like the smell of commerce in the morning. …

Dear CitiBank: What the heck is an “interest rate rebate?”
November 24, 2009 – 7:13 am | 2 Comments
Dear CitiBank: What the heck is an “interest rate rebate?”

Yesterday, Sen. Carl Levin (D-Mich) fired off a letter to the Federal Reserve Board urging it to tweak the rules implementing the CARD Act. Among them, Levin took time to identify a litany of wily …

Credit Card Subsidies: Three Ways the Minority is Paying for the Majority
November 19, 2009 – 7:02 am | 4 Comments
Credit Card Subsidies: Three Ways the Minority is Paying for the Majority

Good credit card customers don’t make money for the likes of JPMorgan Chase and Bank of America. They take money. If you’re like me, you rack up tons of points on your card, pay it …

Innovative Ways to Build Your Credit
November 13, 2009 – 9:56 am | No Comment
Innovative Ways to Build Your Credit

Get Rich Slowly has a great post this week entitled “How to Establish a Credit History Without Losing Your Shirt” and it focuses solely on secured credit cards. Basically, the credit line on a secured …

Beat Black Friday Crowds with Price Protection
November 11, 2009 – 10:07 am | No Comment
Beat Black Friday Crowds with Price Protection

We’ve all heard about that notorious “natural drug” found in turkey. You know – shoptophan, which induces Americans to compulsively wake in the wee hours of the morning 12 hours after consumption and lurch zombie-like, …