All Entries in the "Credit Cards" Category

I Had a Dream That I Maxed Out All of My Credit Cards in One Glorious Day

And what a day it was! A massive spending spree.

I just woke up, and I’m still a little fuzzy as to whether or not I dreamed it, or actually did it.

I currently have seven credit cards, six of which I don’t use. At this very moment, I have a total of 97 thousand dollars available credit.

I bought a complete set of the best furniture for the entire house, dishes, and All-Clad pots and pans for the kitchen. An All-Clad Slow Cooker I’ve been eyeing, but not willing to spring the $150 dollars for. And $1000 dollars worth of books. And not just any old books. New books.

In my dream, that is.

It was wild. A rush like no other.

I’ve never had the experience of going out and just spending, without a thought of how I would pay the money back. I can see why people do it. Especially younger people, not used to the new found freedoms of adulthood.

I’ve had some regrettable smaller splurges over the years. I have a beautiful 12 foot, dark blue kevlar Adirondack guide boat hanging in my garage. Cha-ching: three thousand dollars. I love the boat, glad I have it, but I sure didn’t love having to pay that debt off.

I remember the feeling when I made the purchase. It was so easy. I had been pining the boat for a while. I knew exactly what I wanted. And in five minutes, it was over, strapped on the top of my car, my boat.

Sort of. Three weeks later the bill came in. Ouch.

But with middle age comes wisdom.

Now I use one credit card, which I pay off every month. I only use it because I get 2% credit directly against the principal on my mortgage. Period. No ifs, ands, or buts.

But, in my dream at least, for one day, I was rich.

I hope I don’t dream about the day after I maxed out all my credit cards tonight. What a nightmare that would be.

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A Scammer’s Heaven: On-Line Fraud

A reminder to, while in search of that on-line frugal deal of a lifetime, beware of pesky scammers. I just received this latest “business proposal” (in blue below) today. I can make a quick $2 million with this one.

“E-mail continues to be the preferred method to initiate on-line fraud,” States the IBD News. “It accounted for 35.7% of all fraud claims last year.” Instant text messaging accounts for 11.5%. The rest involves various on-line activities such as identity theft, nondelivery of goods, and auction fraud. In 2007, the Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) received 206,884 complaints. This compares to 2006 (207,492), 2005 (231,493), and 2004 (207,449).

Other statistics:

• Over 50% of the complaints were for less than $1000 dollars. 31% lost between $1000 and $5000.
• Counting by country, the United States had the most cybercriminals, with 63.2%, followed by the United Kingdom (15.3%) and Nigeria (5.7%).

If you’d like to file a fraud complaint, you can do it at the IC3 website. But the best thing to do is avoid becoming a victim. Here are some on-line fraud prevention tips-

• Know who you are doing business with. Someone shouldn’t mind you checking up on them if they are legitimate.
• Don’t use your credit card on unsecured websites.
• If an opportunity appears too good to be true, it most likely is (see letter below).
• Be extra cautious when dealing with someone outside your own country.
• Be suspicious of any unsolicited requests for personal information.

Here’s the letter. According to IC3, it’s a common one. I must admit, I find it hard to believe anyone would actually fall for something as outrageous as this. But I’m sure there are less obvious scams, that are harder to catch on to until it is too late.

Fbn merchant Bank Building

Plot 1662 Oyin Jolayemi Street, P.M.B. 2023

Victoria Island, Lagos Nigeria

TEL: 234 1 8759890

FAX: 234 1 5559361.

DATE: 04-04-08

From the desk of:

Dr. Issa Mayaki (director)
Accounts and Audit Department

Hello my friend,

I am the head of Accounts and Audit Department of FBN Merchant Bank Plc. I decided to contact you after a careful thought that you may be capable of handling this business transaction which I explained below;

In my department we discovered an abandoned sum of Six million, five hundred thousand u.s. dollars ($6,500 000.00) in a dormicilary account that belongs to one of our Foreign investor (late Mr. Dasne Minnelli) who died along with his entire family in 2002 in a plane crash. Since we got information about his death, we have been expecting his next of kin to come over and claim his money because we cannot release it unless somebody applies for it as next of kin Or relation to the deceased as indicated in our banking guidelines.

But unfortunately, we learnt from our record here that his supposed next of kin, his son and wife died alongside with him in the plane crash leaving nobody behind for the claim. It is therefore upon this discovery that I and other director who knew about it in my department now decided to make this business proposal to you and release the money to you as the next of kin to (late Mr. Dasne Minnelli). We want to present you to our Bank Foreign Credit Controller as his Family member and business associate, so that the proceeds of this Contract Payment Fund will be paid to you as the next of kin to our late Foreign Contractor since you are a foreigner And more-over nobody is coming for it and we don’t want this money to go into the Bank treasury as unclaimed Bill.

The Banking law and guideline here stipulates that if such money remained Un-claimed after six years, the money will be reverted into the Bank treasury as unclaimed floating fund. The request of you to stand as a foreigner and next of kin in this business is occasioned by the fact that our investor/contractor was a foreigner and a Nigerian cannot stand as next of kin to a foreigner .

We agree that 35% of this money will be for you as our foreign partner, in respect to your provision of a foreign account where this money will be transfered, 5% will be set aside for expenses incurred during the business and 60% would be for me and my colleague. Thereafter the successful transfer, I and my colleague shall visit your country for the disbursement according to the percentages indicated.

Therefore to enable the immediate transfer of this fund to your account as arranged, You must apply first to the Bank as next of kin to the deceased foreign contractor. Though upon receipt of your reply, I will send to you by fax or email the text of the application letter which you will send to our Foreign Credit Control Department for the claim over this fund valued ($6,500 000.00).

Finally I will not fail to bring to your notice that this transaction is hitch-free and that you should not entertain any atom of fear as all required arrangements have been made for the transfer.

I expect you to call me on my direct number +234 1 8759890 for more details immediately you receive this letter, Or quickly reply me via e-mail.

Hoping to hear from you immediately.

Yours faithfully,

Dr. Issa Mayaki (director)
Accounts & Audit Department,
FBN Merchank Bank Plc

Nb. Endeavour to give me your Direct Telephone for easy communication with you.

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The Dope on Credit Card Debt

There’s a statistic floating around saying Americans carry an average of nine thousand dollars in monthly revolving credit card debt.

Sound bad?

The good news is, this average doesn’t reflect the reality. According to Liz Pullium Weston at MSN Money, it’s not as bad as it sounds. “Averages don’t reflect a true picture,” she says. “Say 20 people were in a room with Warren Buffett and Bill Gates. The average net worth of the people in this room is 4 billion dollars. The other 18 people could make 100,000 dollars, or even 1 million, or 10 million dollars, but this is not reflected in the average.”

She goes on to say that if you look at the median, the average household has just $1900 dollars in debt. Median is the midpoint where 50% of the households have more debt, and 50% have less debt.

She also states some healthier statistics:

23.8 % of American households have no credit card debt at all.
31.2 % have credit cards, but pay them off in full every month.
Only 1 in 20 households (or 5%) have credit card debt of $8000 dollars or more.

The credit card debt problems, it turns out, lie in specific sectors of the population. For example, undergraduates average $2300 dollars in credit card debt, graduate students, $5800 dollars. Getting your first credit card has become a right of passage for young adults, like getting your driver’s license, being able to vote, or buying your first beer at the local pub.

And 36 % of those who owe more than $10,000 dollars make less than $50,000 dollars per year. Of those, 13% make less than $30,000 dollars per year.

If you have high credit card debt, there are some things you can do:

Start living within your means. Don’t buy anything until you have the cash, or can pay off the card before any interest accrues. If you must pay for something over time, and we all need to at some point in our lives, don’t stretch yourself beyond the point of no return. Don’t buy that $2000 dollar stereo if you can only afford the $1000 dollar one. Never charge a vacation.

Come up with a plan to eliminate your debt. As you reduce the amount of interest you’re paying, that money becomes yours.

Pay off the higher interest rate cards first.

Be sure to pay more towards the balance than the amount of interest accruing each month.

If you can’t pay off the higher interest rate cards quickly, transfer their balance to cards with lower interest rates. This could save you hundreds of dollars. Be sure to read the fine print. Transfer fees can be high.

Consolidate all your cards on to one low interest card. This keeps it simpler.

Seek outside counseling. If money management is not your forte, get some advice. You can start by checking out this website: http://www.nfcc.org/, or by calling (800) 388-2227.

Go for getting to zero debt. And once you’re there, stay there.

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Credit Card Companies- Falcons Searching for Prey

They got me. And there’s nothing I can do about it. I read the fine print, but not the implied fine print. It started out innocently enough. Last September I had the ability to borrow $10,000 on a credit card for a flat fee of $199, and no interest for six months. I was putting an addition on my home, and the added cash in the bank would help me sleep until the project was over.

The loan needed to be paid off by February 2008. I paid off the loan in full on January 29th (the due date was February 1st).

However, my next statement had an additional $40 charge for interest! What was the catch? I was told that because my billing cycle ran from January 15th to February 15th, I had to also pay interest for January 15th- January 31st.

I know it shouldn’t, yet the ambiguity of it all amazes me. I feel deceived, but for $40, it isn’t worth challenging the “rules”. Perhaps I should have caught it. I’m sure it must have been written somewhere in the twenty-five page lilliputian print describing the terms, mixed in with numerous other flashy pamphlets promising free trips to the Bahamas and Waikiki.

But the hard fact is, that even if I had, I probably would have gotten caught in some other way. Credit Card ads and policies run rampant with misleading marketing claims. One card promises me a 5% rebate on gasoline. but really it’s only for the month of August, and that month only. Until then, I get 0.5% points for the first $1500 per month, and 1% after that. One card promises a $50 cash rebate for signing up, but really it is for gift certificates to stores, not cash.

Not all credit cards are like this. I have one that pays 2% of whatever I spend on the card towards my mortgage every month, as promised.

But the modus operandi is User Beware. American Business Culture’s “what can I get away with” attitude is not looking out for you. The falcons are circling for unsuspecting prey. Stay low.

Have you ever been caught by one of these schemes? Would you get a credit card from this bird?

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The Money Miser: Find the Best Credit Card Offers Here

I just stumbled upon an interesting credit card website, and since it looks like I’ll be shoveling snow in the morning, I thought I would get the post up tonight.

Creditcards.com takes the card offerings of thirteen major credit card issuers, such as Visa, Chase, and Bank of America, and slices and dices them into lists that cover just about every category imaginable.

You can find lists of cards with the lowest interest, highest rewards, or greenest donations. Etcetera.

They also sort the card offerings in a variety of other ways. Whether you have good credit, bad credit, or no credit history at all, they’ll be a list for you. Glory be. Then there’s the student card, instant approval card, and the pre-paid card (for those of us that forget to post-pay, I guess).

Finally, you can apply for any of these cards right from their website. If you don’t feel comfortable doing that, I would just go right to the specific company site.

Some credit card tip reminders we all know and love: Read the fine print. As much as they want us to think they are just being nice with these offers, they really just want our money. Pay off the entire balance every month so you’re not paying interest. Paying interest=BAD. And be careful not to spend more than you make.

See you later, I’m heading to the Cash Back Just For Applying List. This has been a major source of investment income for my new ING Sharebuilder account. Pinch me I’m dreaming.

The Money Miser has spoken.

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