Monday, January 6, 2014

Reducing Credit Card Debt: Try Contacting Your Lender

Most people find themselves with credit card debt at one time or another. When the debt becomes to large you can begin to feel like you have no options to ever pay that debt down.

What many people don't understand is they may be able to contact their credit card company directly and negotiate some of the debt away. How is that possible?

For starters the Internet makes it possible to research all the different kinds of credit card offers available to you. Many of these credit card companies are offering low introductory rates, or maybe even 0% interest on balance transfers.

If you are a good customer for your credit card company you might be able to utilize some of these offers from other companies to negotiate with your existing credit card lender. If you're happy with the credit card company you really don't want to leave them by transferring your balance and starting with a new company that you're not sure will be as good as your existing one.

What you want to do is take a look at your existing interest rate to see if there might be an opportunity for you to contact your credit card company and request a lower rate. The average person doesn't really understand how many thousands of dollars they spend on interest every year. They also do no realize how well getting a lower rate could reduce their credit card debt significantly.

It certainly is worth picking up the phone and making a call to see if you have any options. All you have to do is look at all of the commercials on television for credit card offers to understand how competitive the credit card business is.

Companies spent a lot of money to attract new customers, but they're also willing to offer lower rates to existing customers if they feel you are one they want to keep.

Saturday, November 23, 2013

Convenience of Operating Credit Cards and Joint Applicants

Adding a co-applicant to the credit card account is a common practice. There are two ways in which you can share a credit card- as authorized user and joint user.

You can maintain a credit card as authorized user if you are sure that other applicant is minor (below 21 years of age) and cannot bear the liability of sharing the outstanding bills. Other than this it is better to maintain a credit card as joint user.

There are various benefits of maintaining credit cards and joint applicants. Here are some of the aspects you can consider before taking a credit card jointly from any financial institution.

Tracking Monthly Expenses

Maintaining separate credit cards make it difficult to track the expenses. If you consolidate your expenses under a single card then it will be easy to calculate the budget and expenses.

Gaining Rewards and Points within a Short Period of Time

Every credit card company offers attractive offers, discounts and gift vouchers upon completion of a certain level of expenditure. So if you are spending from a single card then you can earn these points and rewards quickly. This also helps to reduce the expenses.

Joint Sharing of the Bill Payments

Joint account holders are at a better advantage than that of the authorized applicant. If the Co applicant is below the age of 21 years of age you have to apply as an authorized user, which will ensure that there is no liability of the outstanding bills on the children. However, if you are applying as a joint user then the burden and liabilities of the bill can be shared.

Improving Credit Scores

This is beneficial for the family with bad credit. In case you have a bad credit record in the past you can improve the scores by applying for a joint credit card with some member of the family having a good credit score.