Credit cards

Check out Carnival of Personal Finance #80 on the personal finance blog. Some interesting data there regarding the following.

Truth About Interest Rates
Why should I pay off my low interest rate loan (mortgage or otherwise) when I could make so much more by investing in the market?

Tips To Reduce Debt & Stay Out Of Bankruptcy

The Good, the Bad and the Ugly of Credit Cards, Part 1: The Good  (from consumerismcommentary)

Wells Fargo’s Debit & Credit Rewards Program - Associated Content
A review of Wells Fargo’s Credit & Debit Card Rewards program, and why they’re probably not worth your time.

Protect Your Card From Its Issuer

This is interesting reading for the avid personal finance solution tracker. Let me know if you find anything interesting I may have missed:)

Keep an eye on your own credit report. You get to know which companies are accessing your report to figure out the offers to be sent to you. Interesting? Well not so much if you do not need those offers anymore.

And how do you check your credit report? Visite AnnualCreditReport.com to get one of the three free annual credit reports available there. Did you know that all citizens of the United States are legally entitled to these reports? Get more of this at Credit Cards at T.J. Maxx Hacked, Checked My Credit Report. Time to gain some common sense knowledge that is sort of uncommon:)  

I am a regular reader of consumerismcommentary and must admit I get some really sound tips time and again. Just when I thought that the post on choosing the right card for balance transfer was very informative, here comes another extension to this post. That too in the form of an instant messenger transcript. This one provides a decent understanding of both Discover and Amex simplycash cards. You should check out Discover Business Card or AmEx SimplyCash Business FreedomPass if you are a balance transfer enthusiast.

Have a great day!

I saw a recent post on how to know if you have too much money. Check it out at Five Signs You Have Too Much Money.  Its a fun article but if you read between lines, there is a pointed message to the overspenders of this world. Its good to spend, but do this understanding your limits.

I started reading it to pass time, but slowly got engrossed. I could soon identify some people around me with these examples. In some cases, it also made me look inward and take stock of my personal expenses. Time and again, such articles get you thinking and in effect, help you mend your own ways. This ones a good read for those seeking some timely lessons in life!

Have you ever thought of credit card arbitrage? I mean balance transfers here.

I used to wonder how to make sure that I am gaining money through balance transfers and not making the credit card company rich instead. And most importantly, I wanted to know which cards would provide the best balance transfer options in my given situation. I found some answers to my query at Best Credit Cards for 0% Balance Transfers.

This article provides quite a few interesting  tips to follow while selecting a card from an  arbitrage perspective. Things like avoiding fees and interest and checking that these cards do not charge you any annual fees. Worth a read….check it out.

How many times before have you heard of a paypal account getting compromised by an intruder? And how many of these have been able to get their money back? Not many. Often touted as an easy way to process payments, we tend to forgive the fact that it can be hacked into and result in a big loss of money.

Well, there is good news in the pipeline. Paypal is now concerned about this issue and is introducing secure ID tags. I liked this concept of  security. Heard about HSBC doing a similar stuff for its online customers sometime back. Assurance from paypal that my money is safe, adds to the convenience that it already provides. Read more

All this while I have been reading about credit cards and the menace they can cause. Higher debts that is. 

Most advisors have been preaching about monitoring your expenses closely. I too have been watching my pocket and trying to implement some of those tips myself. And to be honest, I did manage to keep a few expenses under control….but the temptation to swipe my card is a difficult thing to resist; some thing that requires a high amount of disipline!

More on that later. Here is a question. How many of you think you know all the facts about credit cards and are equipped to use them wisely? Well, for starters, I stumbled across  few things I was fascinated to know about credit cards, in general, and a few other things that confirmed that credit card companies are getting richer due to my inability to resist the temptation to swipe it. Take a look at this article and you can judge for yourself…all about credit cards! Read this and let me know your opinion.