Top 15 Credit Card Tricks And Traps

I got this awesome email from our allies at Americans For Fairness In Lending [AFFIL.org]. It explains in plain English the TOP 14 Credit Card tricks and traps.

Here they are below:

1. Fees and More Fees!

On any given month, you might pay a late payment fee, over limit fee, cash
advance fee, balance transfer fee, foreign exchange
fee, bill payment fee, Western Union fee, and
whatever else your lender can devise. Not to
mention monthly and annual fees.

2. Tricks to Make You Pay Late.

These come in many varieties. If you’re late you’ll pay a hefty fee
and your interest rate may go up. Check each
statement carefully and pay your bill as soon as it
arrives.

3. Changing Due Dates.

Your bill will not be due
on the same day every month.

4. Early Due Dates.

Bills may be due just a few
days after you receive them.

5. Weekend Due Dates.

If your due date is on the
weekend and your payment arrives on the date, it
won’t be processed until Monday and you’ll be
considered late.

6. Morning Due Times.

Your payment may be
due at 9am on the due date, not 5pm.

7. Approved Over limit Charges.

If a purchase puts you over your limit, your credit card company
will approve the charge then hit you with an
over limit fee and maybe even raise your interest
rate. Keep careful track of your balance and know
that even approved charges may put you over limit.

8. Universal Default.

Pay Card A on time but pay late to Card B (or anything else monitored by your
credit score) and your interest rate on Card A may
jump!

9. “Any Time For Any Reason” Changes.

Most contracts include this ominous phrase. It means
just what it says – they can increase your interest
rate on a whim.

10. Teaser Rates That Don’t Stick.

An introductory 0% interest rate can jump to 30% with a late
payment or if you go over limit. Don’t bank on
keeping that 0% rate for the entire promotional
period.

11. Retroactive Application of Higher Interest
Rates.

To make things worse, if your interest rate
increases, they can apply the higher interest rate to
the entire existing balance, not just to new charges.

12. Allocation of Payments.

If you end up with two or more different interest rates, they will apply
your payments to the balance with the lower
interest rate first. The rest of your balance will
continue to generate high interest charges until the
low-rate balance is entirely paid off.

13. Tricky Interest Calculations.

For some cards, you can pay interest on purchases from previous
cycles. This is known as double cycle billing.
Look for a card that uses the “Average Daily
Balance” interest calculation method.

14. Credit “Protection”.
Services like this may sound good, but they’re usually useless. The fee
for the service likely exceeds the minimum
payments it would cover if you became sick or lost
your job. Avoid add-on products like this.

15. Binding Mandatory Arbitration (BMA).

This provision requires that you resolve any conflict
with an arbitrator selected by the lender, which
means you give up your right to take the credit
card company to court.

Log onto http://www.affil.org/ to learn how you can help end these dirty credit card tricks and traps.

To get the training to negotiate your credit card debt for YOURSELF log onto http://www.debtwarriors.com/.

Wishing you Financial Security!

We are Debt Warriors!