Low Interest Credit Cards

You’ve finally done it. After months or even years of reducing debt, staying in line with bill payments, and generally rebooting your financial life, you have finally been rewarded with a good credit score. The path to fix credit is never easy, but those who have been successful understand its value more than ever. While a freshly-polished score is certainly an accomplishment, do you have the skills and willpower to maintain it? Keep your future in check by avoiding the old patterns and potential pitfalls below. You owe it to yourself.

1. Freebies. If you have dealt with bad credit for most of your life, you may not be aware of all the perks good credit can bring. Creditors, lenders, car dealerships, and retail stores alike all dangle the ever-tempting freebies in front of their creditworthy customers’ faces. Som

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If you have several credit cards and carry balances on more than one, it is important to stay proactive and pay attention to each card limit. Lowered credit limit on a card with balance increases the credit utilization rate and often makes credit score go down. If two or three issuers have your credit card limits lowered, the scores will likely go down quite significantly.

Who is the most vulnerable to such a scenario? Credit card holders who transfer balances at 0% percent interest on two or three cards and set up monthly automatic payments. And with banks lowering credit card limits, it is easy to suddenly discover your utilization rate is too high and credit score went down 50 or more points.

Check credit card limit often
Every time you login into the account, look at it carefully. Often, bank send neither timely letters nor emails. On many occasions, consumers learn their credit card limit lowered to the point the utilization rate is over 90%.

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What is the value of good credit? If you’re like the majority of Americans who rely on having good credit scores to help smooth the way when you buy a car, get a mortgage or apply for other types of loans, a high credit score is vitally important.

A conversation with someone at a dinner party over the weekend and recent comments from a friend makes me wonder whether the number of people who don’t value good credit is growing.
The person at the dinner party proudly revealed that he doesn’t have any credit cards (he uses debit cards if he has to book an airline flight) and pays cash for everything, including cars.

He says the last time he checked his credit score was several years ago and it was 540 back then. Credit scores range from 300 to a maximum of 850, so he was on the lower end of the range. These days, you need a FICO score of about 750 or more to get the best mortgage rates. He has no idea what his score is now. But he says it doesn’t matter to him. Read more…

Q: I’m in the process of rebuilding my credit after a few bad years. Is there a zero percent APR credit card that I could be approved for?

A: As you probably know if you’re asking this question, it’s hard to find a 0% APR offer for bad credit. Most of the best deals go to those with good or excellent credit, and those who most need low interest rates are left out in the cold. If you have bad credit, though, you do have a couple of options.

One of these is the Capital One No Hassle Cash Rewards card. Although Capital One’s website states that this card is for those with excellent credit, this isn’t necessarily the case. People with credit scores in the low 600s have reported being approved for this credit card. Right now, Capital One is offering a 0% introductory APR until June 2012. This APR applies to purchases; balance transfers have an APR of between 12.9% and 20.9%.

If you want a card with 0% APR on balance transfers, you may be able to qualify for Citi’s Simplicity card. This card m

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In last week’s post, we brushed up on the basics about credit score differences between credit bureaus and even within the same credit bureau. Now, let’s discuss the significance that three digit number might have to lenders looking at your credit.

Let’s take a look at your credit range, here based on TransUnion’s range used by Credit Karma, and how it influences your chance to access credit.

Poor Credit Score: 300 to low 500s

Your credit is in bad shape due to a derogatory remark on your credit, like a bankruptcy or foreclosure, or some poor credit choices in the past. Typically, lenders won’t extend credit to a consumer with a poor credit score. Consumers with scores this low are considered high-risk or subprime borrowers. Those who

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