No Credit Credit Card

No Credit Credit Card - Excessive Credit Card Debt
Excessive debt

Most people advocate the case of credit cards, quoting the benefits and convenience that arises from them. However, there is another line-of-thought that strongly opposes credit cards. The reason being ‘Excessive Credit Card Debt’, which is one of the most serious problems faced by the credit card holders and the industry. However, you can’t pull the shutters on the credit card industry just because of a few irresponsible people (or even if it’s more than few). That is not a solution for beating excessive credit card debt. Moreover, you can’t overlook the benefits associated with the credit cards.

The issue of excessive credit card debt can be looked at from 2 angles. First is by addressing the debt problem at the industry level and second is by addressing the excessive credit card debt problem at the individual’s level. The first method involves increasing awareness of the excessive credit card debt problem to the masses. However, there should also be an effort to tackle this problem of excessive debt at an even deeper level. This means trying to devise a mechanism to nip the problem in the bud. This mechanism should actually be a part of the overall system. A lot of thought needs to go into devising such a mechanism. Case studies should be taken up, statistics gathered and a proper forum formed (with representatives from the credit card holders and from the credit card suppliers).

As of now, the credit card suppliers just seem to be engaged in coming out with new products and getting customers enrolled to those products. There is little attention paid towards addressing the problem of excessive credit card debt in the real sense. Something like attending mandatory seminars on the root causes of excessive credit card debt could be made part of the credit card application process.

Another way of dealing with the problem of excessive credit card debt could be: developing a system for calculation of applicable credit card limit at the individual level i.e. no standard/product-based credit limits.

Then there could be mechanisms for warning the users about excessive credit card debt or even imposition of early restrictions on noticing the first signs that lead to excessive credit card debt At the individual’s level, the treatment of the problem of excessive credit card debt would include following best practices by the individuals themselves. A checklist or a set of questions could be provided to individuals for recognising the first signs of excessive credit card debt.

So, the problem of excessive credit card debt can surely be dealt with by putting together some serious thinking at a broader level together with discipline at the individual’s level.

Labels: credit card, excessive debt

Credit Card Debt - After you pay off credit card debt

Credit card debt is a very big problem that is being faced by a lot of people who have been irresponsible and undisciplined in the use of their credit card. Though some might have landed up with credit card debt due to some unfortunate event/emergency in their life, most people carry a credit card debt due to their own wrong doings or, gasp, selfish purchases. There are a lot of ways to pay off credit card debt and a lot of people do achieve this feat. Surely, to be able to pay off credit card debt is really a great achievement in itself; for not everyone is able to pay off their debt. It takes a lot of discipline, restraint, planning and perseverance to finally pay it off. However, there is more to paying off credit card debt then just paying it off.

Here we are talking about the life after you pay off credit card debt successfully. As mentioned before, of all the people that try to pay off debt not everyone is able to do so. However, some people fail after they have succeeded in paying off credit card debt. These are those people who let themselves loose and go on a spending spree as soon as they are debt free. Soon, these people again land up with a credit card debt and are again trying to pay it off. So, it’s not enough to just pay off credit card debt, it’s equally important to maintain a debt-free status even afterwards; only then can you enjoy a stress-free life in the world of credit cards. So learn your lessons well and do not let yourself loose on the path to another credit card debt. Most of the rules that you followed when you were trying to pay off credit card debt, will also hold good after you have paid them off. Here is a quick synopsis of things that you should take care of even after you pay off credit card debt:
1) Do not overspend. Yielding to the sale offers for something that you don’t really need is a
big mistake that leads to overspending
2) Always remain within 70% of your credit limit.
3) Make credit card bill payments in time and in full.
4) Don’t hold more than 2 credit card accounts (two are enough for anyone)

These are just very basic things to adhere to. For those of you that managed to get out of debt, just keep doing what you have been doing. For those of you still trying to get out of debt, hang in there! Those fancies nothings might look impressive but it is NOT worth taking the 2 steps back into debt that would happen in order to get them!

Labels: credit card debt, credit card debt consolidation, pay off debt

Eliminate credit card debt

How to eliminate credit card debt? A questions that is asked by a number of individuals around the globe. These are the individuals who somehow (mostly due to uncontrolled spending) landed into the mouth of this monster called ‘Credit card debt’. So what are the ways to eliminate credit card debt?

If you are looking to eliminate credit card debt, you have already reached 50% of your goal because your decision to eliminate credit card debt is the first and the most important step towards you being able to eliminate credit debt. Having said that, it is important to mention that you also need to be firm on this decision and stick to it with complete sincerity and seriousness, till you finally eliminate credit card debt (and even after that).

To eliminate credit card debt, you need planning. This starts with analysis of current situation in terms of your debt and your finances (current and as expected in near future). So to eliminate credit card debt, you need to first check the amount you owe on various credit cards. Just use a notebook to note down the amount you owe on each credit card and the corresponding APR associated with them. Once you have this information handy, you can total up the various amounts to get the total amount of your credit card debt. After all, you can’t eliminate credit card debt if you don’t know how much it is actually. The next thing is to see if you have enough cash handy e.g. in your various bank accounts, which you can put to use to eliminate credit card debt (of course, you will need to take a view on how much cash you will need to fulfil your day to day and specific future needs). If you find that you have enough to eliminate credit card debt completely, just go ahead and eliminate credit card debt and earn your peace of mind. However, if you can’t eliminate credit card debt completely, check the amount that you can use to eliminate credit card debt partially. Next step, as you must have guessed, is to check how best you can use this amount to eliminate credit card debt (even if partially) i.e. which portion of credit card debt should you eliminate first. So, first eliminate credit card debt on the credit card which has the highest APR and which is hitting you the most. Then eliminate credit card debt on the credit card which has the next highest APR and so on and so forth. If you are incurring additional late fees etc on some of your credit cards, you might decide to reserve some amount to make minimum payments on those credit cards (before you finally eliminate credit card debt on them).

What we have seen is just some basic analysis and first steps on how to eliminate credit card debt. You might need to take some other steps to eliminate credit card debt e.g. consolidation of credit card debt is one good option. However, it’s imperative to understand that any and all methods to eliminate credit card debt will fail if you don’t inculcate controlled spending habits.

Labels: credit card debt, elminate credit card debt

No Credit Credit Card - Credit card deal

What is a ‘good credit card deal?’

You must have heard people say – ‘I got a good credit card deal’. So if you happen to be looking for a credit card at that moment, do you just go with what your friend has told you as a good deal?

Let’s check out what one means by a good credit card deal. A credit card deal is good if it works for you. So, if the credit card fits into your lifestyle in a way that rakes in maximum benefits for you, that is a good credit card deal. The most important thing to realize here is the word ‘your’ as in ‘your lifestyle’. So logically speaking there is nothing like a good credit card deal. What it is - is good deal for ‘you’ i.e. the individual who is going to use that card. This is because the lifestyle and the needs differ from person to person (and that is precisely the reason why every credit card supplier offers so many different kinds of cards). It might be true in some cases (where the lifestyle of two individuals/friends is similar) that the deal which is good for one may be good for the other, however, this is just in a few cases.

You can always check with your friend who has recently got a credit card, since that might cut down the time needed for researching/hunting-for a good credit card deal. However, it’s really a matter of evaluating your own needs. If you travel a lot and to far off places by air, a card that offers you good rewards/rebates/benefits on travel would comprise as a good credit card. Sometimes the airlines themselves have their own credit card issuing/supplying company from where you can get a good deal. For people shopping at a particular retail store or a shop, a good credit card deal would be a card that offers discounts, rebates and rewards on shopping. Again, the retail stores themselves might have cards that could be beneficial to you. Then there are credit card deals that are linked to gasoline stores or big grocery chains. If you don’t have any specific needs, you might use a general purpose credit card that gives reward points on every purchase you make. These points can then be redeemed for rewards.

Good credit card deals are really relative terms and there is no credit card deal which is equally good for all. So do your research, take an interest in what you spend most of your money on as it is, and look for a credit card that will work for you in the long run with benefits!

Labels: credit card, good credit card, no credi

No Credit Credit Card - College credit card

College credit cards are the credit cards that have been specially designed for college students. They are more popularly known as student credit cards. Student credit cards allow the students to experience the benefits of credit cards much earlier in their life. Through student credit cards, the college students are able to learn more about credit cards and their use. In fact, for most of the students, their student credit card is their first card and that acts as a gateway into the world of credit cards. Some other students might have previously used supplementary credit cards linked to their father’s card account; however, for such students , their college credit card is the first one that is truly theirs.

Student credit cards are not very different from other types of cards in the basic sense; they function in the same way as any credit card would. However, there are some differences, which basically arise from the fact that student credit cards are used by people who have no prior experience with credit cards and who perhaps don’t understand the concept of credit cards completely. Hence, the credit card supplier is at risk with issuing cards to such people whom he is not sure about. Most of the students don’t have a credit history either. In such a case, the supplier of the student credit card cannot be sure of receiving the bill payments in time (if even receiving them at all). To counter such risks, the supplier of college credit card requires the parent of the student to co-sign the application form as a guarantee. Moreover, the credit limit on student credit cards is generally around $500-$1000 per month, which is lower than what it is for other cards (this credit limit is generally sufficient to fulfil the typical needs of a student). Another risk mitigation instrument used by the card suppliers is the interest rate or APR. The APR on student credit cards is generally higher than that for other cards. Again, this is done to dissuade the students from overspending on their card and possibly not being able to pay off the accumulated debt.

However, if we were to look at these restrictions in a positive sense, we would find that these are actually in favor of the student (who is still getting trained to take on the real world of credit cards). Moreover, student credit cards also help the student in establishing a ( hopefully good) credit history which is another important benefit that becomes handy when the student needs any type of loan at a later stage in his/her life.

So, students credit cards are really something that every student should consider going for, after evaluating all the different offers and discussing it with their parent/co-signer.

Labels: credit card, no credit, student credit card

No Credit Credit Card - Get out of Credit Card Debt

Can I get out of credit card debt? Yes, you can!

If you are determined to get out of credit card debt you surely can. Though it’s a bit difficult to get out of credit card debt, it isn’t impossible. All you need to do is determination and planning. Both are equally important (or maybe determination is even more important). First you need to ask yourself – “What will I get if I am able to get out of debt?”, “What difference will it make?”, “What’s in it for me?” or “Is it really beneficial to get out of credit card debt?” Use those answers to build your determination. The fact that all the nagging by the credit card suppliers or their collection agencies will be gone should do good to strengthening your determination and should provide you with a reason on why you should get out of debt. Think about the stress-free life after you get out of credit card debt. Try to link various reasons together and try to see the benefits through them. All these collectively will help in bolstering your determination and prevent it from getting weak at any point in time.

The second thing that you need to do is plan. Planning starts by making a list of all the credit cards that you currently posses and noting the debt and the APR for each of them. The total of all these various credit card debts will give you you total debt. You also need to check if you have been defaulting on payments on some of these credit cards. You will need to avoid that and put it on your plan stop doing that first. The next step in getting out of credit card debt is to check your current financial position and make an assessment of what you expect your future financial position to be. Then comes the research to check the various balance transfer offers available in the market; see if one of these can prove beneficial to you. Use all this information to calculate how much time it will require to get out of debt and how you will distribute the payments across your various credit cards (ensuring that you payoff the debt that is hitting you the most and also ensuring that you don’t incur late fee on any credit card payments).

Following these simple steps, with a little patience and a lot of time will guarantee you to be debt free from any or all of your credit cards!

Labels: credit card, debt, debt consolidation, no credit

No Credit Bad Credit Credit Card

“Bad credit" credit cards are used to refer to credit cards that can be obtained even with a bad credit rating. The cards provide opportunity to people to help improve their credit rating. In that sense, these cards act as rescuer for such people. They also act as a necessary training ground for people who have not been able to control their spending urges in the past.

"Bad credit" card cards are commonly known as secured credit cards. The secured credit cards require the individual to open up an account with the credit card supplier and maintain some cash balance in the account. Why is that required? Well, credit cards are a business; so how can they trust someone who has defaulted on his/her payments in the past? After all, a business is about profits and such risks are a threat to profits. The bank or the credit card supplier will generally pay interest on the balance in your account. However, it’s best to check this with the supplier/bank. The credit limit on the bad credit card card is determined by the cash balance in the account and is generally between 50-100% of the cash balance. These secure cards are also referred to as debit cards, owing to the fact that they work less in a credit-giving manner and more in a debit-giving manner.

There are plenty of secure card cards available in the market. When searching for a secure card that is best suited to you, you should consider 4 things in particular: the minimum balance that you are required to maintain in the bank account, the credit limit that you will receive (i.e. the percentage of your bank account balance that you are allowed to spend), the fees/other-charges applicable to the procurement of the secure card, and the rate of interest that you will receive on the balance in your bank account. An ideal card would have no fees/other-charges associated with it and would require zero or a very small amount as minimum bank balance. It would also have something like 90-100% of a bank balance as its credit limit. Moreover, an ideal card would also offer a good interest rate on the bank balance.

Secure Credit Cards are really a good concept that can provide respite to people with a bad credit rating. This is done by letting them enjoy the benefits of credit cards while they mend their credit rating.

Labels: bad credit, credit card, no credit, secure credit card