An interesting article on US News was titled “forget the mortgage, I’m paying my credit card bill…“  A recent study by transunion credit company showed that out of Americans who are current on their credit card bills, and increased 6.6% of them fell behind on their mortgage.  And the number of consumers behind on their [...]

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CNN Money had an interesting article about 5 families who live only on a cash budget.  They don’t use CC, but use a debit card for some.  I found it interesting and very cool to see the reasons why people switched to cash.  How it helped them get out of debt and manage their budgets.  [...]

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People say that you use credit cards for rewards you’ll get burned.  That many people never redeem their rewards.  What is the actual value of the redeemed rewards?  What’s the purpose?
Well on one of our cards, I just redeemed $273 in cash and applied it to the balance of the card.  This our primary credit [...]

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I’m a heavy credit card user, I always have been, and probably always will be.  I’ve never had a spending problem. Something interesting I’ve found about credit cards is they are great at handling disputes.
In the past month, I’ve bought some items online and found the experience to be unsatisfactory.  I immediately contacted the seller [...]

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An interesting post on a message board was should you close unused credit cards?  Will it hurt your credit score to do so?  Does it really matter?  Should you care?
A common answer was yes, you should care about your credit score.  Unfortunately your FICO score influences your auto, home, and life insurance premiums.  Why?  I [...]

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So on Friday I complained about people walking away from mortgages.  And a commentor Leigh, said she hates people who default on credit cards.  I have to say I agree, 100%.  I’m sorry, but credit cards and credit card companies are NOT evil.  And in NYT article more people are choosing to default with credit [...]

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You always see ads for 0% financing on cars, furniture, medical bills, or other big ticket items.  Often times it is dependent on your credit score or being approved for a store credit card.  Yet is it worth it?  Do you really save money?  Should you do it?
I say it depends.  Mostly it depends on [...]

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On Tuesday, the US Senate passed new legislation regulating credit card companies.  This new bill contains many restrictions in an attempt to protect “naive” consumers.  A clear and concise summary was written here.  So what regulations were put into place?
First, banks must wait 60 days before they can charge you interest for lack of a [...]

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I found a couple of interesting posts that each argue their side of the story.  It started with Free From Broke decreeing that “Credit Cards Suck,” and response from I pick up Pennies “Credit Cards Don’t Suck“.  Both make interesting arguments for having or abstaining from having credit cards.  Both writers have been shaped by [...]

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Can you live without credit? Yes, but honestly it’s not fun.  Even bad FICO score is better than no credit score.  When you have no credit history or score, people and businesses don’t know what to make of you.  They are unable to predict what sort of risk you are.  You end up paying A [...]

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