How to Avoid Credit Card Late Fees

Everyone hates late fees and being late will cost you dearly these days. For some credit cards today, if you are late, you will have to shell out as much as $40 each time. This can put a nice sized hole in your pocket really quick.

Below, I will provide you with some tips and strategies on how to steer clear of those monstrous late fees. This will not only save you a lot of money in the long run, but it will also keep those money-hungry credit card companies, I won’t mention any names, from getting your hard earned money.

Just pay your bill. One of the easiest ways of avoiding a late fee is to just pay your bill each and every month by sending in a check, money order, or other type of payment to your respective credit card issuer. Just make sure you follow the numerous guidelines, which are usually outlined on the back of each credit card bill, on how to send in your payment. These guidelines must be followed precisely if you want to guarantee that your payment will go through on time.

Payment guidelines may include everything from a specific payment address to the time of day by which the payment must be received to be credited that day. Many issuers also stipulate that payments must arrive in the preprinted envelope sent to the customer.

While the Fair Credit Billing Act requires issuers to credit payments the day they are received, each issuer is allowed to set specific payment guidelines. If any of the guidelines are not met, the issuer can take as many as five days to credit the payment.

An on-time payment could easily become late during that five-day period, so follow those payment guidelines carefully.

Just skip the payment. One of the more rare types of methods you hear of are Skip-A-Payment services. You can use these services to skip mortgage, credit card, or loan payments. Usually you would need to get in contact with your bank just to see if you even qualify or not. There are also independent companies out there that will allow you to do the same thing, no matter what bank you are a member of. Depending on whose service you use, the fee’s associated with it vary. When you use these types of services make sure you know how much you will be charged then decide if it’s worth it or not.

Pay minimum due immediately. One of the best ways to prevent a late fee from being charged to your account is to pay the minimum due immediately. As soon as you receive your bill, send in the minimum due. This will always insure that your credit card issuer received payment. You can always send in more money later if you decide otherwise. This is a great way to avoid missing a payment because if you forget to send extra money you can guarantee that you won’t be charged a late fee because the minimum due has been already been paid.

Move your due date. Are your credit card bills due at a time of the month when you're running low on cash? Many people have trouble saving money, so when it comes time to paying their credit card bills, they don’t have any cash to do so. One particular solution is to move your due date. Many credit card issuers will allow you to set your own due date to meet your specific needs. If you have trouble saving money, move your due date to a time when you do have money, like as soon as you get your paycheck. If you time your credit card bill to come the same day you get paid, you will always have cash to pay the bill.

Pay by phone. If you are one of those people that wait to the last minute to do everything or if you just forgot to send in your credit card payment early enough, you could always pay by phone. This guarantees that your payment will be on time. Just supply the representative on the other line with your checking account number and your bank routing number, which is printed at the bottom of each check. Usually the routing number is first and the account number is second. A lot of issuers allow you to pay by phone and some will charge you a pretty penny for doing so. Fee’s can range from $5 to $20.

Use other express methods. If your bank does not offer a “pay by phone” service and you need to get your payment to your credit card issuer as soon as possible, I recommend either sending your payment in by express mail or by Western Union. Either one of these services can get your payment to your credit card issuer immediately. These express methods are costly, but it will always most likely be cheaper than any fees associated with being late. Make sure you send your express payment to the proper address. Many issuers have separate payment addresses for express payments. The last thing you want to do is slow the processing of an express payment by sending it to the wrong address.

Building A Credit Report Lenders Will Love You For

Will lenders really love you for having a good credit report score? Love is not the right word of course; lenders are after your money, and never forget that. But the lender's representative will love dealing with your credit application if your credit report is good. If you have got a high credit score and spotless credit record, then when you apply for a large loan, you stand up a good opportunity of not only getting the loan approved, but obtaining a competitory interest rate.

How, then, make you travel about edifice up a good credit report score?

The most of import thing you can make when beginning to construct a good credit report is to always pay your measures on clip and to never, ever borrow more than than you can afford to pay back. It sounds simple and obvious, but unfortunately, credit can be very tempting, and if you allow yourself to be seduced by the allurement of easy credit, you could quickly happen yourself in some difficulty. Credit card debt is often the biggest and most unprompted temptation. However, it is indispensable for your financial well being, and for edifice a good credit report, that you put and retrieve your long term goals. You must defy the instant satisfaction of easy and expensive credit, such as as with a credit card.

These days, if you have got a good credit record, as reflected in your credit report, it intends more than than ever. Your opportunities of getting a car, a house, or being approved for personal loans or credit cards, have for many old age been affected by your credit report. Increasingly, though, the report is being accessed for more than reasons. Background checks by employers, for example, may include looking at your credit report, and even insurance companies sometimes see credit reports when crucial whether or not to widen coverage.

To accomplish a good credit record, you must have got got shown that you have borrowed money and then paid it back in conformity with the terms of a loan, with respect to both modern times and amounts. It also intends that you have got shown that you make not over widen yourself on credit. One thing to be careful about, though, is not to apply for a batch of loans or credit cards just to increase your opportunities of being successful in obtaining credit with one. If you make it too many times, you may look like a high risk.

It is a good thought to begin edifice your credit repute as a immature adult. Whether through cell phone ownership or student credit cards, you can begin to convert lenders you are a good credit risk, by paying on clip every time, and if possible by more than than the minimum.

A adjacent measure to edifice a good credit report score is by taking out a car loan. Cars are generally expensive, so a car loan is a existent diagnostic test of your credit score potential. Paying that loan off on clip will have got got a fantastic affect on your credit repute and report.

Once you have been using credit for a while, you may happen it good to supervise your credit and do certain all is well. Request a transcript of your credit report once a year, from each credit bureau. It is of import to cognize which of your credit accounts look in which reports, and to guarantee they are all accurate. It is all right to increase both disbursement and credit, so long as you make not over widen yourself. If you happen errors on your credit report, do certain you follow the Bureau’s instruction manual to challenge it, in writing. If you follow these steps, you can get your credit evaluation up to an AAA status and maintain it there.

Whatever You Do....Don't Save Money!

No, that's not a misprint. Even though falling interest rates are good when you want to get a loan, they are bad for people with savings accounts.

In this economy your best investment, the best place to put your money is into paying off debts. Think of it as investing in your debt because that is exactly what you are doing.

If you put $1,000 into a bank savings account earning 2%, at the end of a year you will have $1,020.

If you carry a $1,000 balance on a credit card with a 19% interest rate, and you pay the minimum monthly payments, at the end of one year you will have paid $190 in interest.

If you get $1,000 in a tax refund, small inheritance or from somewhere else you now have a choice to make. You can earn 20 bucks in a savings account or save $190 by paying off that credit card. Keep in mind that your 20 bucks is taxable income so you'll be left with $15 or so after taxes.

Do you need a savings account for emergencies? That savings account may be causing those emergencies! Think about it this way...

If you are earning money in a savings account at 2% and paying anything over 2% on your debts you are sliding backwards financially and you'll never get ahead. It's basic mathematics.

If you earn 20 bucks for five years in your savings account you'll have $100. If you pay $190 in interest on your $1,000 credit card after five years you will have paid $950 in interest charges.

In other words you have wasted, lost, burned or flushed $850 by having a savings account. ($950 - $100 = $850) OUCH!

What can you do? Pay off that credit card and use that as your emergency fund. It's not the best way to do it but it's better than earning 2% and paying anything over 2%.

So, while the stock market is on it's roller coaster and the economy is challenged your best investment, bar none, is your debts! Get them paid off!

Credit Card Debt & the Unfairness of the Universal Default Clause

Let’s look at a real world example: A woman purchased a new $4,000 large screen TV a few months ago based on the knowledge her monthly payment was going to be $175, and based on the 9% interest rate charged by her credit card company. For five months straight she made all her payments on time, but in the fifth month she was late paying her mortgage bill, for reasons unknown. She found out a month or two later that her credit card company doubled her interest rate to 18%, thus increasing the payment for the TV to about $190 per month. Even though she was never late on any other payments, she found most of her other credit cards raised their interest rates as well. Even her car insurance company raised their rates. The net effect was she ended up paying nearly $200 per month more because she was late on a single mortgage payment.

This is a common result of a very little known or understood clause found in nearly every credit card agreement today. How would you feel if the company who sold you a product, based on certain arrangements (including the interest rate), called you up and said they were increasing your monthly payment for reasons that have absolutely nothing to do with them? Is this really fair?

Let’s take this a step further. Could any customer call a company, that had sold them a particular product on payments, and tell them the re-payment to the company will now be lower because they had missed a payment to one of their suppliers? Of course not. This Universal Clause is extremely one- sided, making consumers victims of what one could easily ascertain as an unjust and unmerited practice.

Yet many powerful credit card companies continue to lobby Washington, arguing it is the consumer that needs to be held accountable to the terms and conditions of the contract, neglecting the most important element, that they are equally accountable to the same terms and conditions of the agreement. The Clause was introduced in the mid nineteen- nineties, after seeing an influx of bankruptcy filings in America. The credit card industry, fearing huge losses, decided to enact this little known clause referred to as “The Universal Default Clause”. Simply stated, they feel the credit card companies should have the right to increase one’s APR if a consumer is late on any other credit card or debt entity, including outside bills such as phone, cable or utilities. This clause is purely an excuse to collect more money for credit card companies who invoke the clause. Surprisingly enough it comes at a time when many cardholders need monthly relief, not additional financial strain. This clause creates a natural conflict between cardholders and credit card companies, and generates an adversarial relationship that leaves everyone bitter.

According to the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) this is considered an unfair practice and has recently labeled it “Unacceptable”. The Clause is usually hidden under the “Other APR’s” section.

Our Advice: Please read each credit application carefully and avoid any card with this clause. Currently out of 45 banks issuing 144 cards, 44% use the Universal Default Clause.

Debt Consolidation or Bankruptcy

Over the last decennary Americans have got accumulated excessive amounts of debt. Partially fueled by low interest rates and increased equity on houses owed to existent estate markets driving terms high up. Excessive disbursement and no financial duty often lead to bankruptcy of consumers. Now with the new bankruptcy law in topographic point filing for bankruptcy have got go much more than than than hard and much more expensive.

More and more people have now to look out for different alternatives. Debt consolidation programs can assist consumer to get quit of the load of excessive debt and may reduce a consumers monthly costs by 100s of dollars each month. Debt consolidation experts can assist consumers to measure their individual state of affairs and do recommendations for how to near the situation.

With the aid of a debt consolidation professional, a consumer can work out a custom-made debt consolidation program Depending on the badness of the state of affairs the debt consolidation professional person person will reach the credit card companies of the consumer to negociate a manner out of the existent situation.

Debt consolidation is easy to get started. All it takes is a simple phone phone call or online inquiry. A consumer should research which companies have got a good repute as there are quite a few debt consolidation businesses out there that charge a batch of money and make not supply valuable service. They actually do things worse. A consumer also needs to be honorable about the state of affairs and willing to work with creditors. Concealment things will not assist getting a consumer back on track.

While filing for bankruptcy might sound like the easier manner out, this is not necessarily true. The damage to the credit score and the credit report is worse compared to working the manner out of a large heap of debt. In the long tally it also makes not help. A change of how people believe about these things have to be made. Filing for bankruptcy is pretty much person else paying for your debt. Credit Card companies and banks will travel these losings over into charges and everyone will have got to pay more than to cover bankruptcy losses. The consumer also makes not learn how to work with a budget and often bankruptcy filings are done twice or more than by the same people. By barbed the slug and paying off debt a learning procedure is established that volition aid to derive more than financial freedom in the long run.

The Top 5 Secrets to Managing Your Credit Cards-So They Won't Manage You

You’ve probably never heard of Frank X. McNamara, but he revolutionized the manner you store on a day-to-day basis.

One eventide in 1949, McNamara—head of the William Rowan Hamilton Credit Corporation in New House Of York City—was dining out with two business associates. Their subject of discussion: one of McNamara’s clients, who was defaulting on a loan because he had shared his gasoline and department-store credit cards with some friends in need. Unfortunately, the friends didn’t have got the money to pay back what they had borrowed, so the good good Samaritan was now facing his ain financial demise.

As the repast ended, McNamara reached for his wallet so he could pick up the check. To his horror, he realized he had left it at home—and was forced to name his married woman so she could convey him the cash he needed to settle down the tab.

This fateful repast led to an innovation that have transformed how the human race manages money to this very day: the credit card. While previously available gasoline and department-store credit cards allowed users to do purchases at a single location, McNamara’s personal plight—and that of his well-meaning client—prompted him to make a credit card that could be used in multiple venues. The Diners Baseball Club card was born. In its first year, 200,000 consumers signed up for one.

The remainder is history. After carefully observing Diners Club’s success, American Express and Bank Americard (soon to be renamed VISA) followed suit. Thank McNamara the adjacent clip you pay with plastic.

But have McNamara’s novel conception go more than of a curse word than a approval in your life? Are your credit cards managing you—and is your debt spiraling out of control?

Here are 5 ways to tame the credit card beast.

1. Know Your Limits

If you have got a inclination to overspend, bounds your extravagances by relying on paper currency instead of plastic. Set disbursement bounds before you go forth the house, whether you’re shopping for grocery stores or heading to the promenade to purchase a new brace of shoes. If you happen yourself reaching for your credit cards, freeze—and don’t move an inch until you can reply the following questions:

• Why am Iodine breaking my ain rule?

• Americium Iodine being self-destructive with my financial health?

• Bash I really need this item, or is my ability to state “charge it!” clouding up my good judgment?

2. Learn from McNamara’s Client

As McNamara’s client learned the hard way, loaning your credit cards to even those closest to you is a surefire manner to accrue debt. You are giving your spouse, children, other relations and/or friends carte blanche to pass up a storm—and you are the 1 who is legally obligated to pay the measures that volition happen their manner into your letter box at the end of the month. Be extremely selective when passing play the plastic to anyone who can run up a bill—and neglect to pay you back.

3. Show Interest in Interest

Surveys consistently demo that most people do only the required minimum payment on their credit card measures each month, leaving them with an outstanding balance that goes on to climb. Not only make further purchases add up, but you are continually paying interest on your existent and new balances—a sometimes considerable fee that have catapulted many consumers into life-altering debt.

Today, the average American family, for example, owes approximately $8,000 on its credit cards—and the credit card companies could not be more than pleased. If 115 million households owed you money—on which you earn finance charges and late fees every month—you would be positively giddy, too.

Let’s state you have got an outstanding balance of $2,000 on a single credit card. Your annual interest rate is 9%, and your credit card company necessitates you to do a minimum $30 payment each month. Assuming you do not lose any payments (which would cause your interest rate to rise, as well as add late fees as high as $40 per month), it would take you 204 calendar months to pay off this balance if you make only the minimum $30 payment each month—and by then, you will have got paid an extra $1,028.43 in interest. This is how debt begins: A $2,000 charge winds up costing you $3,028.43.

4. Switch Cards

If you are still paying an annual fee on your credit card, it’s clip to do the electric switch to a card that is not only free, but rewards you for using it.

Assuming you have got good credit and can secure a new card, research your options. Banks offer cards that awarding cash-back bonuses, airline miles, gasoline discounts and other fringe benefits each clip you utilize them. If you can manage your credit appropriately, maintain gait with payments and pay your measures on time, you may as well harvest the benefits of your disbursement habits.

5. Read Your Statements—Carefully
Some consumers pay their credit card measures without carefully reviewing their statements. This is one of the most serious errors you can make—especially in an age of identity theft, when person can utilize your card to do purchases in your name.

Always maintain your credit card receipts, and check them against the measure when it gets each month. Brand certain every charge is accurate, and advise your credit card company immediately if there are any charges you did not make. The company can change by reversal the charge if it is a simple error—or if person have used your card without authorization. In the latter case, inquire the company to call off the card, reappraisal any further purchases made since that day of the month and issue a new card with enhanced security features, such as as a personal designation number (PIN), to be entered each clip the card is used.

In addition, check owed days of the month on credit card bills. You may be used to paying your measure by the 20th of each month, but credit card companies have got got been shortening the length of clip consumers have to pay their balances. Very often, there is no presentment of a policy change—or the mulct black and white is buried somewhere on your statement. Note the payment owed day of the calendar month each month, and seek to pay the full amount to avoid accruing interest or late fees.

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Obtaining a Credit Card

If you have got had trouble keeping up with your bills, you can rest assured you are not alone. Many people have got run into problem or a shortage of cash flow from clip to clip that have resulted in the inability to do all of their payments in full and on time. However, just because you don’t have got a perfect credit history makes not necessarily intend that you will be not able to obtain a credit card. It’s no surprise that a individual with a low credit score will have got more than than trouble and less options when trying to get a credit card in their name, but it is not completely impossible because creditors make take more than just your credit score into consideration when crucial whether or not to give you a credit card. The of import thing to retrieve is you make not desire to apply for every credit card out there- every clip you apply for a credit card, you are additional hurting your credit rating. When you have got a low credit score and a poor credit history, you need to do your research before you begin applying, and only apply to the smattering of credit cards that are designed for people with a less than perfect credit history to make certain you restrict the number of credit enquiries that are placed on your credit report.

When a credit card supplier is deciding whether or not to widen credit to an individual, the lenders take respective things into consideration. The credit score is always a factor, as is your overall credit history of how many modern times you’ve made late payments, and how much credit you currently have got available to you, and how much debt you currently owe. In improver to these issues, a credit card company will also see the length of clip that the individual have got been employed at their current job, and will look favorably on people who have held a steady occupation with a nice income for a long clip period of time. If your debt to income ratio is manageable, meaning you do enough money to comfortably pay for the amount of debt you currently owe, sometimes a lender can still widen you credit even though you have got made late payments in the past.

Chances are, if you’re workings to better your credit score for your future, you’re sending as much money as possible to each of your creditors each calendar month as you are trying to pay down your overall debt. Because of this further money being sent out, there will be less money available to you on a regular basis, and having a credit card can give you some security in the event of an emergency. What haps when your car interruptions down, or a wellness issue come ups up and you just don’t have got the money to pay for it because you’ve been sending all your extra money to each of your creditors? Having a credit card can be the security you need for these emergency issues. Credit cards for people with poor credit histories will almost always carry a higher interest rate than a traditional credit card, but the benefits of having a credit card for emergencies, or to utilize as a second word form of identification, or even for renting an flat do having the credit card advantageous over not having the card at all. Some landlords may necessitate a credit card be on data file in the event you are late with your rent payment, so that they have got the further security of knowing they can get their money by charge your credit card.

The most popular option for people with poor credit histories is to obtain a secured credit card. A secured credit card allows the cardholder to do a cash sedimentation on the card, and then whenever the card is used, it deducts the amount from the amount of the sedimentation you made. It’s much like a bank debit entry card, but a secured credit card sedimentation will earn interest, and assist earn money when you aren’t disbursement with the card. In addition, as you go on to do sedimentations to the card to cover your purchases, you are helping to better your overall credit score.

Online Gambling Causing Credit Card Debt

It is the up-to-the-minute fad at the minute and everyone looks to be enjoying gaming at home with the addition of stove poker land sites on the internet, but its not good intelligence if you are running up debts on your credit card. I don’t cognize about you but it looks that I have got a misconceived perceptual experience of clip when I am sitting at my computer; clip just looks to wing by. The longer you are gaming on an internet stove poker site, the more than money you are spending.

Online gambling is being seen as pushing up consumer debts and that’s not good for the United Kingdom economy. Figures from the authorities have got revealed that the amount of money spent on gaming last twelvemonth was £42.8 million; in 2001 that figure was only £8.6 million. It is a distressing crisp increase. Internet land sites that have got got been registered outside the United Kingdom have not been included in the authorities figs of money spent.

The glamorisation of gambling, especially poker, by people at the minute is partly to fault for the rise in gambling. Sitting at home on your computing machine can sabotage your ability to pass your money wisely. Internet stove poker land land sites or gaming casino sites allow you to infix your credit card details; once your inside information have got been entered you can go on gambling up to your credit limit. Some gamblers are maxing out numerous credit cards at a clip to seek and win back money they have got lost with the Debt Advisor grouping seeing some individual debts as high as £100,000. Casinos have got a strong cash civilization unlike internet gaming where it is your credit card that makes the spending. Using cash instead of your credit card do you more than aware of the amount you are spending.

The growing of gaming online in the adjacent five old age is predicted to be around 22% A twelvemonth while playing stove poker online is said to lift by 44% A year. Gambling through your mobile phone is now also being offered by companies which could see even higher debts being accumulated.

Gambling have always seen its just share of creating debt problems but with easier accessibility it may cause more than households to endure from unmanageable debt. Other household members are usually unaware that there is a debt problem looming not realizing how much is actually being gambled, the more than than than desperate people go to win back their money the higher the bet go seeing people usually losing more and more.

If you are suffering word form credit card debt problems through internet gaming there are many organisations that tin aid you. Seeking aid sooner rather than later will forestall even more than debt.

The Best Ways to Boost Your Credit Score

Because of the manner credit scores are calculated, some actions you take will impact your credit score better than others. In general, paying your measures on clip and meeting your financial duties will hike your score the most. Owing a sensible amount of money and being able to refund it will demo lenders that you take your finances seriously and present small menace of lost money. There are a few tips that, more than than any other, will hike your credit score the most:

Tip # 1: Wage your measures on time.

One of the best ways to better your credit score is simply to pay your measures on time. This is absurdly simple but it works very well, because nil shows lenders that you take debts seriously as much as a history of paying promptly. Every lender desires to be paid in full and on time.

If you pay all your measures on clip then the likelihood are good that you will do the payments on a new debt on time, too, and that is certainly something every lender desires to see. Experts believe that up to 35% of your credit score is based on your paying of measures on time, so this simple measure is one of the easiest ways to hike your credit score.

Paying your measures on clip also guarantees that you don’t get hit with late fees and other financial punishments that do paying your measures off harder. Paying your measures in a timely manner do it easier to maintain making payments on time.

Of course, if you have got had problems making your payments on clip in the past, your current credit score will reflect this. It will take a number of calendar months of repaying your measures on clip to better your credit score again, but the attempt will be well deserving it when your credit hazard evaluation rebounds!

Tip #2: Avoid excessive credit.

If you have got many lines of credit or respective huge debts, you do a worse credit hazard because you are close to “overextending your credit.” This simply intends that you may be taking on more than credit than you can comfortably pay off. Even if you are making payments regularly now on existing bills, lenders cognize that you will have got a harder clip paying off your measures if your debt loading turns too much.

The higher your debts the greater your monthly debt payments and so the higher the hazard that you will eventually be able to refund your debts. Plus, statistical surveys have got got got got got shown that those with high debt tons have the hardest clip financially when faced with a crisis such as as a divorce, unemployment, or sudden illness.

Lenders (and credit bureaus who cipher your credit score) cognize that the more than debt you have the greater problems you will have in lawsuit you make run into a life crisis.

In order to have a great credit score, avoid taking out excessive credit. You should lodge to one or two credit cards and one or two other major debts (car loan, mortgage) in order to have got the best credit rating. Bash not apply for every new credit line or credit card “just inch case.” Borrow only when you need it and do certain to do payments on your debts on time.

You should also cognize that taking out tons of new credit accounts in a relatively short clip period of clip will cause your credit score to nosedive because it will look as though you are being financially irresponsible.

Tip #3: Wage Down Your Debts

If you have got a batch of debt, your credit score will suffer. Paying down your debts to a minimum will assist elevate your credit score. For example, if you have got a $1000 bounds on your credit card and you regularly carry a balance of $900, you will be a less attractive credit hazard to lenders than person who have the same credit card but carries a smaller balance of $100 or so. If you are serious about improving your credit score, then begin with the largest debt you have got and start paying it down so that you are using a less large percentage of your credit total.

In general, seek to do certain that you utilize no more than than 50% of your credit. That agency that if your credit card have a bounds of $5000, do certain that you pay it down to at least $2500 and work at carrying no larger balance. If possible, reduce the debt even more. If you can pay off your credit card in full each month, that is even better. What numbers here is what percentage of your sum credit bounds you are using - the lower the better.

Tip #4: Rich Person a range of credit types.

The types of credit you have got are a factor in calculating your credit score. In general, lenders like to see that you are able to manage a range of credit types well. Having some word form of personal credit - such as as as credit cards - and some larger types of credit - such as a mortgage or auto loan - and paying them off regularly is better than having only one type of credit.