Credit Card Now

The bishop of Durham has described the interest rates charged by payday lenders as sinful and usurious, but says they are the only resort for many families desperate for money.

Citing the 4,214% APR charged by the UK’s highest profile short-term lender Wonga, the Rt Rev Justin Welby said his worry was people would get used to this “deeply shocking” level of interest and begin to think it was normal. “An interest rate of over 4,000% has been considered usurious since the time of Moses. It’s no different now,” he said.

The bishop said he was not describing the lenders as immoral or saying they were acting improperly, “but they have become the only resort for people in many parts of the country where traditional banks and credit unions are just not available”.

He said the surge in use of payday lenders – Wonga alone has extended 4m loans worth £1bn in little more than four years – reflected the increasing numbers of people being forced to collect food from church foodbanks each month. The

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Tags: Interest Rates, Rates

With Mother’s Day upon us, how will consumers pay for that bouquet of flowers for mom? The results of a recent survey say Americans will ditch the cash and make purchases electronically.

According to a survey by MasterCard, U.S. consumers say they are using less cash than they did 10 years ago — specifically, three out of four consumers (or 73 percent) say so. The survey was released May 3, 2012.

“Commerce has changed dramatically over the past decade thanks to the Internet and e-commerce, and this survey underscores that Americans are already shifting toward a cashless society,” said Carlos Menendez, Group Executive, Global Debit at MasterCard Worldwide.

In the survey of more than 1,000 consumers entitled “World Beyond Cash,” respondents expressed feelings of frustration in dealing with cash, citing situations such as trying to get a vending machine to accept a crumpled bill (63 percent), waiting for a check to clear (40 percent), waiting for people to find exact change (40 percent), and finding the time to get to an ATM (29 percent). <

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Tags: Ago Survey, Survey

Whether it is paying for emergency costs, managing major purchases or enjoying more financial flexibility during a shopping spree, credit cards help people get the most out of our finances.

In their most basic form, credit cards are like ongoing small loans. Issuers give people what is known as a “line of credit” and a maximum amount that can be spent, so that cardholders can access extra funds whenever they need.

Both banks and independent credit card issuers have different criteria that need to be met before someone can get a credit card, with the most basic requirements being a minimum age of 18 and permanent residency or citizen status.

Other things that will affect credit card approval include income, assets or investments and any outstanding debts.

To be considered for a credit card you must fill out an application for specific cards, providing as much of this information as possible and allowing issuers access to your financial history.

This information, also known as credit history, is compiled by independent agencies like Dun & Bradstreet and Veda Advantage and includes information on loans, utility accounts and other financial applications, whether approved or rejected.

This information helps credit card issuers determine or rate what kind of financial situation you are in and whether you will be able to manage a credit card. The

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Tags: Cards, Credit Card, Credit Cards

Credit card companies are using “shameful practices” to maximise profits from customers on interest-free balance transfer deals, the managing director of a bank has claimed.

Brian Cole, of Capital One in the UK, the bank that first introduced zero-interest balance transfers to Britain in the 90s, says: “There’s a lot of practice in the [banking] marketplace that is shameful, and credit card companies are not immune. [Balance transfer] customers think they’re going to progress in getting out of debt, and get some relief from interest payments. But make a mistake and you will end up making money for your credit card company.”

Cole stopped Capital One making interest-free balance transfers available to mainstream customers in 2008. He says: “When we first introduced the interest-free balance transfer it was a very different product to now.

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Tags: Card, Credit Card

Dear To Her Credit, I have been in financial hardship for a couple of years now. It started with divorce, spousal support, child support, lawyer fees and a small-time business that I got myself into, but did not succeed. All these led to credit card debts. Everything was getting charged to my credit cards.

I currently owe about $43,000. The last thing I want is to file for bankruptcy. I have a full-time job and earn a decent amount of money, just not enough to pay all my bills.

As advised, I called Chase, Citi and Macy’s for a temporary reduced payment arrangement. They were all willing to help and put me on a monthly payment plan for a year that is affordable to me. I closed all three accounts, which has helped reduce my monthly bills. I have been living on debit cards and cash for a few months now. It has been a struggle, but I am happy that I was able to survive without charging anything.

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Tags: Credit, Credit Card