Low Interest Credit Cards

The charity said that it had noticed many more middle-class families – people who owned their own businesses and home owners – approaching them for advice.

In total the charity, which is mostly funded by public money, dealt with 7.1 million cases, more than a million extra on the previous year’s tally of 6 million. It said that 2.1 million individuals had received advice from their local bureaux in total, up from 1.9 million the year before.

One area that saw the biggest increase was fuel debts. In total the charity dealt with 110,000 cases where someone could not afford to pay their gas or electricity bill – nearly as many people who could not afford to pay their mortgage.

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In a major victory for retailers, the Senate this week approved an amendment to the financial reform bill, which if signed into law will put curbs on the interchange fees merchants pay to credit card giants Visa and MasterCard for debit card transactions.

Limitations on the so-called swipe fees are intended to give small businesses a break in the rising costs of debit card payment processing. Swipe fees on credit cards, which hover between 2 and 3 percent of the transaction amount; are not affected by the bill. Visa and MasterCard currently charge debit interchange fees of around 1 to 2 percent of the transaction amount, substantially higher than the actual cost of processing debit transactions.

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One week before the CARD Act goes into effect, Citi has added an annual fee to more accounts on many of its popular credit cards.

Many Citi cardholders are receiving letters about a $60 annual fee that is being added to their account effective April 1, 2010. If consumers make $2,400 in purchases during the year, then the annual fee will be credited back to their account.

It appears that Citi’s test of adding an annual fee to a small percentage of their customers in August of 2009 proved successful for the issuer. At that time, Citi began charging some cardholders an annual fee of $30 to $90 unless they spent at least $2,400 per year.

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A credit score has become more important than ever when it comes to things like trying to get an auto loan or better mortgages rates.

And, with credit tightening, lenders are looking for people with higher credit scores as they try to limit the risks involved with letting consumers borrow money. As a result, people may wonder where they can go to get an idea about how their credit history stands.

Recently, CNNMoney.com released a list of the top 20 websites related to personal finance. Included in that list was Credit.com, which was picked by the news organization as a good place for consumers to learn about their credit standing.

Credit.com features a free service called the Credit Report Card, which pulls a record of a consumer’s credit report. Read more…

Q: Is adding an authorized user to a credit card a good idea?

A: Thanks for your question Lynn. Most credit cards (almost all) will allow the account holder to add on authorized users. For those that choose to add a user, they usually add only one. However there are some credit cards that let you add multiple users if you so choose. But whether it’s one or five, is this a smart move? Let’s take a closer look…

Why Add An Authorized User?
Perhaps you are a parent who wants your son or daughter to have a card. Maybe you run a small business and would like one of your employees to have their own credit card for convenience. But m

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