Feb 26

Credit cards provide the cheapest means of currency conversion. Hold on, before you balk at this statement and argue that someone working for a credit-oriented blog would of course make such a claim, let me tell you something: I have the facts to back it up. In fact, credit cards have the potential to save international travelers as much as 15% on currency exchange, according to a recent Currency Exchange Study by Card Hub.

Card Hub – using both online fact finding and anonymous phone calls – was able to determine the U.S. dollar-to-Euro exchange rates offered by Visa and MasterCard, the credit card networks with by far the largest coverage areas worldwide; 15 of the largest consumer banks in the United States; and Travelex, the most significant airport currency exchange service in the world. And aside from the mere fact that the payment type most conducive to international travel is a credit card, this study revealed that:

  • On average, credit cards without international transaction fees save travelers 14.7% as compared to airport services and 7.9% relative to major banks.
  • The best banks for currency conversion are Northern Trust and Harris Bank
  • The worst banks for currency conversion are U.S. Ban

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Tags: Card, Credit Card

May 31

Credit cards can seem to be a blessing for someone who is struggling to get by. But as the debt mounts, you may begin making fewer payments, leading to ridiculously high interest rates. That can lead you to consider filing for bankruptcy in Chicago.

But a recent article by a debt expert Andrew Housser explains how people can avoid using credit cards as a crutch that ends up ruining their credit scores.

A Cook County bankruptcy law firm can help you if your credit card debt or other forms of debt have gotten out of control in your life. We can work to help you save your house from foreclosure or choose whether to file for either Chapter 7 or Chapter 13 bankruptcy.

But it’s not always necessary to file for bankruptcy. So, consult with a law firm dedicated to helping you protect your assets. According to the article, in recent decades household debt has gone up. From 1968 to today, household debt has increased from about $1.3 billion to $800 billion. But overall revolving household debt is down 17 percent from fall 2008, just before the country’s recession.

Over the last few years, you may have been cutting back on debt and trying to get it stabilized only to have it shoot back up.

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Tags: Credit Card, Debt

Feb 21

A recent report from the Center for Responsible Lending suggests that the reforms introduced by the Credit CARD Act of 2009 are working to improve transparency in the marketing of credit cards to consumers.

In case you need a refresher course, the Credit Card Accountability Responsibility and Disclosure Act was designed to improve transparency from banks and other credit card issuers so that consumers could navigate the world of credit with greater ease and less financial distress. Here’s a look at just how much this consumer protection legislation has changed.

  • Advertised credit card interest rates: Before the passage of the Credit CARD Act, the CRL reports, the discrepancy between the rates advertised by credit card offers and those that consumers actually paid had reached unprecedented highs. In fact, according to the report, between 2004 and 2008, the difference between promoted rates and real rates was at its greatest ever.
  • Higher advertised rates means more honesty: Since the passage of the CARD Act, it seems, credit card offers have come branded with higher (and closer to actual) advertised interest rates.
  • More transparency in pricing: According to the CRL, new rules governing the way credit cards can advertise their interest rates has led to the exposure of as much as $12.1 billion in annual fees. I

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Tags: Act, Card Act, Credit Card, Credit Card Act

Feb 03

With your holiday season in full swing the worst thing that may be on peoples’ thoughts is their unsecured credit card debt, or is it? The present credit crunch has positioned more and more people into exceptional economic hardship. And nothing will force you to examine your own financial situation more than when you’re paying a huge amount of extra cash on gift items for loved ones and good friends. If at all possible steer clear of ordering all of your presents with plastic cards. If however you find yourself in the position where personal debt has changed into a serious problem then maybe the best solution for the issue can be debt settlement.

A realistic look at exactly how lousy your personal credit card debt state of affairs is in will strike when you get your January records in the mail and understand that that you are caught in quite a gap and need help to get out of it. For everyone caught in such a hole the main advantages of debt settlement have been proven to be quite beneficial. Making use of a debt settlement program will let you get out of debt in a much faster time frame as opposed to if you were to simply maintain generating minimum payments. At

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Tags: Card Debt, Credit Card, Credit Card Debt, Debt

Jan 30

“Reduce credit card debt and eliminate it prior to it assumes a horrifying shape” – This is seriously the gist of the story. So, how do you reduce credit card debt? Well, you reduce credit card debt by preventing it from increasing and by paying off what it is currently. Straightforward, isn’t it?

Not genuinely. If it was that very simple to reduce credit card debt, then we wouldn’t have had so many persons with credit card debt related troubles. We would have been able to reduce credit card debt troubles and finally eliminate them (or decrease them considerably). You will find all kinds of advice readily available on the way to decrease credit card debt, but still nothing significantly seems to change. The difficulty still appears to persist and actually, worsen. Even so, it’s not that challenging to decrease credit card debt. As we just said, there is a great deal of guidance out there on the best way to decrease credit card debt and the only thing you’ll want to do is put that advice, on how to decrease credit card debt, to practice in real life. Well, no 1 but you’ll benefit in the event you reduce credit card debt.

So the 1st step to reduce credit card debt is to prevent it from taking dangerous proportions. The 2 most esse

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Tags: Card Debt, Credit Card, Credit Card Debt, Debt

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