It is simply getting ridiculous the charges credit card companies are imposing on consumers who are late making payments. Yes, creditors have a legal right to do what they are doing, however ethically speaking that is certainly open to debate! Let’s look at some ways you can avoid costly credit card late fees:

1. Pay your bills on time. This one is obvious. When you get your bill, open it up and pay it right away. Waiting means forgetting or hoping that your payment arrives on time.

2. Pay online. Paying via your computer is faster than mail services, but there is still some lag time from when you authorize a payment and when the payment is finally credited to your credit card account.

3. Automatic payment. If your credit card provider permits it, have them automatically deduct a set amount from your account every month. That way they’ll get their funds well in advance of their due date.

4. Fight it. Just because the credit card company said that your payment was late doesn’t mean that it was late. Call them up and ask them to reverse the charge — now as high as $39 — and to adjust their records accordingly.

Allowing credit card companies to run roughshod over you is one sure way to worsen your credit card woes. Know your rights and take action as required.

Credit Card Interest Rates – Why It’s Important To Understand How They Work

Einstein put it best when he said, “Compounding interest is the greatest mathematical discovery of all time”. Now the question you need to ask is, “Do I want this force working for me or against me?” If you own a credit card and you carry-over balances from month to month then you’ve got that amazing force called compounding interest working against you.

In this article, I’ll attempt to explain how this “force” works against you month after month after month, in the form of interest upon interest. And perhaps, by helping you to gain a better understanding of how this “force” works and how important even a small change in the interest rate you are being charged effects you and families financial future. And hopefully, it will also inspire and motivate you to do whatever it takes to pay off your credit cards and initiate some type of savings plan so you can put this “force” to work for you.

Credit Card Interest Rates are Compounded
The interest you pay on your credit card balances are compounded, which means that you pay interest on the interest from the month before. A simple example would be that if you were being charged an interest rate of 2% per month, you would not be paying 24% per year. In reality, you would be paying 26.82%. A neat little trick that credit card companies use to pick up an additional point or two of interest is to calculate interest on a monthly rather than on a yearly basis. You pay more but you don’t know you’re paying more.

A Brain Teaser
Here’s a little brain teaser based upon what you’ve already learned. Would you rather have $1 million in cash or $10,000 in some form of savings account earning you a compounded interest rate of 20 percent per year?

Hmm, let’s see how that $10,000 would grow after 10 years – $61,917 or 20 years – $383,375 or 30 years – $2,373,763 or 50 years – $563,475,143.

After fifty years, you would have over $500 million. Of course, you would have to take inflation into account and if we used a figure of 5% per year, then that $500 million would have the buying power that $10,732,859 does today. Not a bad return on your investment of $10,000 but on a side note it also exposes another lesson in how the compounding rate of inflation destroys wealth but that’s the subject of another article.

Clearly, that question was a bit tricky because there’s so many variables to take into account that would influence what decision you would ultimately make – but you get my point, the power of compounding interest and by the way… it’s the primary way credit card companies make their money is a powerful “force”. It’s also the way pensions work and the reason the prices of things seem to rise massively as you get older. Be afraid… or at the least very wary of compounding interest.

Compounding Interest Can Really Add Up
Now, let’s look at a more real world example. Let’s say you have an average unpaid balance of $1,000 on a credit card with an APR of 15 percent.

First year interest would be $150. However, this amount is then carried-over and added onto the balance and interest is charged on that. As a result, year two interest would be another $172.50 for a total of $1322.50 and it continues to build year after year. Year three, four and five would look like this – $1,520, $1,749 and $2,011.

As you can clearly see, after just five years at 15%, you would owe double what you borrowed and after 10 years you would owe four times. I know it’s hard to believe but once again this simple “real world” example dramatically demonstrates the power of compounding interest.

If you let something like that carry on long enough, you end up paying on that same amount of debt for years and years and end up paying back many times what you originally borrowed and in some instances you still may not have completely satisfied the original debt. Unfortunately, most people simply don’t take the time to think through this out and they feel that the high and never ending payments are simply their fault for spending too much money to begin with.

The Three Percent Difference
You may feel that there’s not that much difference between a credit card that charges an APR of 15% versus one that charges an APR of 12% but then again after reading this article I’m sure you’ve realized that there is and so – that’s exactly what I’m going to show you. Remember the previous example that showed you would owe over $2,000 after only five years at 15% after borrowing an initial amount of $1,000.

That same example at 12% reveals the following: Year one – $1120, year two – $1254 and years three through five – $1404, $1573 and $1762 respectively. After the same five year period you would have saved nearly $250 or almost 25% in interest from a mere 3% difference in APR. Quite dramatic and hopefully it will help you convince you to make the necessary decisions to pay-off your credit cards and start saving so that you can put, “the greatest mathematical discovery of all time” to work for you… rather than against you.

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Interest kills your finances. Especially on credit cards. Did you realize that paying the minimum payment on your credit cards just builds a deeper and deeper hole for you?

I have a wonderful strategy for those of you who have credit card debt on more than one card.

Take out your credit card statements and write down the interest rate and the balance of each. For example, lets say you have three credit cards that have interest/balance as listed.

Card#1 13.9% with a balance of $555.00
Card#2 17.9% with a balance of $486.00
Card#3 19.9% with a balance of $322.00

Note that card #3 carries a higher interest rate than #1 or #2. In fact, Card #3 would cost you more than 40% more in interest dollars over a period of a year if they had the same balance! Do you understand what I am saying here?

The plan to eliminate is easy. Pay the minimum balance due on the lower rate cards (in this case Card#1 and #2) and pay as much as you can afford to pay on Card#3. (For example, you are paying minimum payments of $15.00 on Card#1 and #2 and you can pay $100, $150, $200 whatever you can afford to pay. Make it hurt a little.

Continue paying this way until Card#3 is paid off. Cut it up and throw it away. You dont want a higher interest card do you?

Now, apply the same strategy to Cards#1 and #2. Card#2 is the next highest rate (actually 25% higher in interest than Card#!). Pay the minimum payment on #1 and pay the same payment you were making for Card#3 plus the minimum payment you were making on Card#2. You have already seen you can get by without the minimum payment. Do it!

Continue until Card#2 is paid off. Now, follow the same routine until Card#1 is paid off.

I promise you will feel good about yourself. You will save money that you didnt even realize you were spending before.

If you have followed this far, realize you can do the same thing with your hoousehold loans such as your mortgage and car loans. Many car loans have higher interest rates and can be paid down much quicker in this manner.

Remember, start with the highest interest rates and when your way down. Good luck!

Most major credit card issuers now offer their members a variety of different free insurance programs. It is highly recommended that you review the insurance terms of your credit card agreement as in certain circumstances the credit card insurance offered by your card issuer may cover situation beyond those you may originally have thought.

The major credit card insurance programs offered include:

Purchase protection

If you purchase a product on your credit card that is later damaged, lost or stolen, you should be able to reclaim all or part of the purchase price cost from the insurance policy. Not only is this a useful protection to have if you purchase expensive or fragile products, but can also be a very good additional insurance to any home contents insurance policy you have.

Fraud protection

Policy covers you should you be the victim of fraudulent use of your card. With the rise of identity theft, and the ever increasing Internet fraud taking place, this policy not only covers the traditional fraud methods but should also cover you for any Internet or telephone fraud.

Stolen card protection

Provided you report your card stolen at the first opportunity you have once you have become aware of your cards theft, this policy should reimburse you for any transactions processed on your card following your last genuine transaction.

Price protection

Not offered by all card providers, basically this policy will reimburse you the difference between the price you paid for a product and the cheaper price of the same product you later found elsewhere.

Travel insurance

If you purchase your holiday on your credit card there are two useful beneficial insurances you should check to see if you have. The first is a cancellation policy, which covers you in the event that you need to cancel your holiday between the period of purchasing the holiday and the date of travel.

The second is holiday accident insurance, which should cover you in the event that you have an accident including emergency accident evacuation – or are killed on holiday. Both of these are very useful to have as they can be a considerable extra on your holiday travel expenses if purchased independently.

Obviously all of the above credit card insurance schemes are subject to time and monetary limitations, so make sure you check these out. Additionally, you should also make sure that any purchases or use of your credit cards outside of the country of issue are also covered by the policy as, in some cases, they are not.

Owning a credit card is fast becoming a better deal for consumers as the credit card industry (banks and other credit card issuers) starts changing their practices and implementing what can only be construed as more lenient practices, under the pressure exerted by Congress. This article offers the whole story.

In economic figures released by the Commerce Department at the end of May 2007, the U.S. first-quarter gross domestic product (GDP) grew by 0.6 percent. This was the weakest quarterly expansion since the fourth quarter of 2002 and was well under the 0.8 percent growth rate projected by Wall Street economists.

Housing continued to be a drag on the economy and was though likely to remain so in the coming months. However, there were positive signs as well, which could signal a healthier rate of growth towards the end of the year. One of these good signs was personal consumption spending which powers two-thirds of the economy increased by about 4.4 percent versus the 3.8 percent figure in April.

In a related report, the Labor Department reported on June 6 that U.S. worker productivity had also increased at a much slower rate than originally estimated. This report raised fears about possible inflationary pressures as labor costs go up.

Most of the performance figures had already been anticipated.

What came as a surprise was that borrowing by U.S. households had expanded by less than half ($2.6 billion) of forecast ($6 billion) as credit card use actually fell for the first time in 13 months. This increase in consumer credit was the smallest monthly increment in seven months, since October.

It seems consumers are pulling back from taking on more debt. Revolving credit, which includes credit cards, declined $403 million in April, the first monthly decline in the 13 months since March 2006. Consumers may be cautious about contracting more debt while housing remains in a slump and economic growth has been so weak. The decline in revolving credit has been interpreted as a sign that consumers are paying off more of their credit card debt.

In the middle of these mixed signals from the various sectors of the economy, legislators have expressed their dismay over practices being followed in the credit card industry. The House Financial Services subcommittee hearings last Thursday, June 7, called for stronger action by the Federal Reserve to control what lawmakers called the deceptive and predatory practices of credit card companies. Lawmakers subjected executives of major credit card issuing banks to intense questioning during the hearing.

Saying that the average American household carries $13,000 in credit card debt and overall credit card debt runs in the hundreds of billions of dollars, the panel chairwoman Rep. Carolyn Maloney, D-N.Y., was reported to have expressed fears that we will see a perfect storm in consumer credit as these pressures converge on Americans, and that the ripple effect will be felt throughout our whole economy. Maloney cited the success of credit cards in providing for the credit needs of the American consumer but also emphasized that with great success came great responsibility.

Lawmakers think the Fed needs to do more to protect credit card users, and propose to give other bank regulators the authority to curb industry abuses, including policies that confuse consumers and push them into more debt. The Fed is requiring credit card companies to extend to 45 days the notification period to consumers before they implement any changes in the terms of an account. The present practice is that when banks want to make any changes, for instance, to increase interest rates or to impose a higher penalty rate for missed or late payments, they will give only 15 days notice.

The Feds proposed full disclosure requirements would, among other things, allow consumers a longer time to look for another credit card. But legislators feel this is not enough and want regulators to impose an outright ban on abusive practices. They do not want to create new laws, but prefer to see regulators act on the problems.

Legislators are targeting other practices like charging interest on portions of debt that is paid on time during a grace period, and raising interest rates because a customer is late on payments to other creditors (not the credit card issuer) which is termed universal default in the industry. Legislation is being proposed that would make some of these practices illegal.

These are serious concerns being raised by our lawmakers. Other regulators appear to agree with the lawmakers. The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation chairman is not fully convinced that problems regarding credit card industry practices will be resolved by full disclosure alone. Other federal regulators who were also called to testify expressed support for legislation that would give their offices the authority to curtail practices that are deemed to be deceptive or unfair.

Because of the close scrutiny by Congress, several major banks have started to temper or remove some of their most criticized practices. Banks may need to do more to allay consumer fears, suspicion, and eventually, resentment.

How banks will respond remains to be seen.

Already one of the major credit card issuers, Chase, has begun to articulate its response. The bank has issued a June 12 statement saying that in their view the complex credit card system that exists today will be able to sustain its success if the two principal parties in the relationship the credit card issuers (banks) and the credit card holders (individual consumers) acknowledge that theirs is a shared responsibility. The credit card holder must use the card in a responsible manner; the bank must strive to meet the credit card holders needs.

Overall, the bank says the credit card has broadened access to credit to all consumers. It insists that average interest rates have gone down from close to 20 percent to only 12 percent approximately, and in many cases issuers no longer charge annual fees.

The bank has defined what responsibility should mean for the credit card holder: pay on time; keep within your credit limit; and maintain your creditworthiness. By following this simple equation, the credit card holder gets an interest-free loan for a certain period when they pay off whole balances every month, fraud and loss protection, and other benefits, plus instant and constant availability of credit.

The bank also delineates what it sees as its responsibility: make sure customers understand the terms of their credit card account; show them how to manage their credit cards; give them tools that help them pay promptly time and stay within their credit limits; spot those in trouble and point to avenues for financial solutions; and evaluate more carefully the credit applicants capability to manage debt prior to credit card issuance.

The bank has implemented a set of initiatives to promote greater customer understanding of the terms of their credit card account and to provide tools for managing accounts. This program is channeled mainly through the companys special website, which it says details everything in clear and simple terms. Some of these initiatives involve:

Putting detailed instructions and calculations that clarify the implications of paying only the minimum amounts instead of paying more on the balance, if not paying it off entirely; Outlining procedures that allow customers in the military to keep their credit card accounts current when deployed overseas; Allowing all customers to choose their preferred due date for payments; Providing instructional materials for students and first-time credit card users to guide them in making prompt payments and keeping within credit limits; Installing a system of communications where customers can sign up for timely alerts sent via phone, e-mail and text messages to remind them of payment due dates; Providing for a system of automatic credit card payments; and, Creating an outreach program to reach those who may be having financial difficulties and to determine what assistance and financial programs can best help them.

Individual credit card holders like you have made your opinions heard, to both the legislators and the credit card issuers. By heeding your opinions, and altering the criticized practices, holding a credit card is becoming even better than before.