Michael Finney's Consumer Blog

0% balance transfer fee credit cards are back

Credit card deals just keep getting better and one of the best deals ever is making a comeback:  Zero percent balance transfers. For years now these cost nothing transfers have been hard to come by with most banks charging at least 3% for a transfer. Now many major banks are offering zero percent transfer fees and zero percent interest for a year and more. Now make sure you read the fine print, but if you are carrying debt this could be the fastest, cheapest way to pay it off.  To learn more check out Bankrate.com, credit.com, creditcards.com, or the many other credit card sites. 

 

Worst way to mess up your credit card account

www.Credit.com has been looking at some of the worst ways to mess up your credit card account. Here's the one that really gets to me because so many consumers do this. Carry a balance and then being over 60 days late with your payment. Here's why: If your payment is more than 60 days late, your credit card issuer can apply the penalty rate to your entire outstanding balance. That $5,000 balance you have at 12.99 percent now turns into a $5,000 balance at an interest rate of 29.99. Your payment doubles and there is nothing you can do about it.

Discover ends disposable credit card number program

Discover Card has had a really cool feature where when used online the credit card number changed. Every purchase, a different number. That stops the thieves. But now the Discover people have called a halt to the program. If I had to guess, we all said we wanted it, but then few actually used it. Our good friends over at the Consumerist.com have the low down.

Sweet new credit card deal!

Capital One is introducing a new credit card today that pays a 1 1/2% kick back on all purchases. Most money-back cards only pay 1%. The catch? You only get 1% each month, but then get the rest at the anniversary date of activating the card. So if you get a $50 kickback at the end of August, another $25 dollars is added to the pile you receive in 12 months. Why do it this way? I assume to discourage you from cancelling the card.

Consumers turning down cheap credit

Credit is cheap, way cheap, but consumers aren't buying. The last time interest rates were this low consumers piled on debt, not this time. Look at us being so smart. Who knew? 

>>Get more details at nytimes.com

 

Can shopping for an auto loan hurt your credit?

Does shopping for a loan, let's say to buy a new car, ding your credit score? Yes. Does asking several companies for quotes ding your credit score several times? No! Credit score giant, FICO, knows you want the best rates, so it counts all credit checks related to the same loan as just one check. Warning: don't drag out the process, make all your related loan applications within a week or two. Otherwise the credit scorer could think you are looking to finance several purchases.

Credit inquiries are not all created equal

Consumers worry their credit scores are hurt by credit inquiries. Those are the notices added to our credit report that someone checked our credit. Here's the basic rule: if you ask for credit, say checking mortgage or auto loan rates, those are noted. If on the other hand a preapproved credit offer arrives in your mail box, the inquiry that allowed that junk mail is not applied to your credit score. In my next post, why shopping around and asking lenders for rates doesn't hurt your score.

Credit card skimming goes high tech

Credit card skimming - stealing the information off the magnetic strips - has gone high tech. Rather than a waiter using a pocket scanner when the customer isn't looking, or a magnetic model being pasted to the front of an ATM machine, thieves are now opening gas pumps and attaching skimming devices to a circuit board. A series of these devices have been found in the Silicon Valley thanks to an observant service station attendant. This is the second time these devices have turned up around here. A few months back an attendant found on in a North Bay gas pump.

>>Here's a Mercury News article on the latest skimming scam

Experian now tracking rent payments

Credit reporting giant, Experian, is changing its ways. This is good news for renters who have their act together. They can now get credit for paying on time. Up until now, most rental transactions were not included in the credit report. Make a house payment on time and it was noted, pay your rent on time... nothing.

Now, not all renters are in the database yet, but this move may well be picked up by the other credit agencies as well. So now you have one more reason to pay your rent on time.

Bad news from credit card survey

Consumer Action has put out its new credit card survey and the news is not good for many consumers.  Top credit card issuers average interest rates are up nearly two percent over last year. The average variable interest rate increased from 13.20% in '09 to 15.06% in 2010 - with no corresponding rise in the Prime Rate. The prime remains at 3.25%.

>>Read more at www.consumer-action.org