Christopher Luck asked:
The first credit card I ever had was cosigned by my parents. My father picked it out for me and did the bulk of the paper work, and I can only assume the card was issued through his regular bank. The Chase credit card I use now is the first one I signed up for myself. I got it after a long research process where I discovered that shopping for credit cards isn’t as easy as I used to assume.
When I set out to get a card under my own name and before I settled on a Chase credit card, I didn’t realize that there was anything more to think about then MasterCard or Visa. The first thing I looked at, therefore, was what kind of acceptance those, and a few other, cards had at the kind of places I shopped. It turned out to be a pretty much equal spread for the most part. Then when I got into looking at rates and found out all the different perks and payment options that were available I realized that I was getting in a bit over my head.
At the time I didn’t have a specific bank that I used because I didn’t have a lot of money to require a lot of banking services. So there was an account in one bank that I opened with my first job and one in another that I opened after moving to the city. When I learned that so many of the options and savings one card could give you depended on what bank you got it from, I had a lot more questions to ask. When I opted for a Chase credit card it was because they were not only the most helpful to be but offered a lot of the best benefits.
The Chase credit card options start out with the basic question of issuers. This would be MasterCard or Visa. From there things get tricky. There are cards that are good for gas and cards that help with traveling. There are Chase credit cards that are designed to support certain organizations and others that offer perks to specific retailers. It was tempting at first to dive into a credit card based solely on silly temptations. Loving musicals I wanted to get a Broadway Card that would have given me points to get free theater tickets. There were similar temptations when looking at cards that offered points towards electronics, theme park vacations and books.
If this is all new to you as well then explore the chase credit card website and take a look. There are dozens of brand names, clubs and charities that associate themselves with credit cards to earn more business. The list is staggering.
In the end what I discovered was that it was best to look beyond all those things for the time being. The most important features I needed given my current position were things like low interest rates and no annual fees. If I ever get another Chase credit card though I’m going with the Disney Card.
Monte
David Patullo asked:
Finding it more difficult to use your credit card for travel expenses? You may want to change that credit card for an airline mile credit card instead. This is because each time you use the credit card you will be able to earn miles. These are frequent flyer miles that you can exchange for free trip tickets later on when you have collected enough miles. This is something that credit card companies have offered to their customers for quite some time now and you really should take advantage of it especially if you are a regular traveller. It is especially helpful if you travel for business.
Now, here I how it works: Your airline mile card can be used for anything. Each time you use it, you get to earn miles on the card. The more miles you collect, the more chances you get for exchanging those miles for free travel tickets. This means that you get to save money on travel tickets. So how can this help if you are a business traveller? Usually, employers will let their workers use a corporate cards or even petty cash to use for company expenses.
They will also ask if you would like to use your own card and then get reimbursed for your expenses later. This is the best option because you can use your airline mile card and then collect all the miles that you would for all your business transactions. Then you get your money back from your business but you get to keep the miles that you earned. That means you can essentially travel for free!
Guy
Victoria Edison asked:
Now most people use credit cards to pay for what they need. And the personal credit systems in many countries have been highly developed. Credit card consumption has a close relationship with our daily life, such as house purchase, car purchase and daily consumption.
Since more and more customers use credit cards to pay, so it is necessary for the merchants to offer credit card payment gateway, but when they do this, their merchant accounts will have chargebacks from customers. To every merchant, it is a headache thing. When will the merchants encounter chargebacks?
First, the merchant gets the money, but he does not send the product out. In this case, because the buyer does not get the product, so he will take an action to chargeback.
Second, the product the customer receives is not the one he buys. If the merchant does not deal with the problem correctly, usually the customer will take an action to chargeback.
Third, the payment is not made by the credit card holder, which means that someone else steals the credit card and makes the payment. So once the holder finds out that his card has been stolen, he will also take an action to chargeback to get the money back.
When you encounter a chargeback, you should not blame the collection company but to contact this company as soon as possible and send them the shipping documents, also send them some other documents such as emails between the customer and you, so that they can help you with making a complaint.
Usually the chargeback process is quite complicated; the person who takes an action to chargeback needs to offer a proper reason to the issuing bank, and then the issuing bank will investigate the case, and will inform the payment collection company of the related details.
But as a merchant, you do not need to worry about the chargeback problem too much; actually you can control the chargebacks of your merchant account, because most of customers do not want to damage their own credit records just for one product. So as long as you perform correctly, then your customers will also behave well.
Alphonso
John Rasor asked:
Credit card companies have come under fire for unfair practices that almost force unwary consumers into default or bankruptcy.
The Feds have taken notice, and new rules are in the offing. The bad news is that the new rules are slated to take effect in July 2010. The good news is that in response to consumer outcry, that date may well be moved up.
What’s going to change?
Credit card companies will no longer be able to raise interest rates on balances you already owe, unless your payment is 30 days late. And, they’ll be required to give you notice that they’re going to raise those rates instead of handing it to you as a surprise on your monthly statement.
They’ll also be required to mail those statements in plenty of time for you to receive them and mail back your payment before the due date.
After the rules take effect, when you send a payment that’s more than the minimum, your credit card issuer will be required to apply that excess to the balance carrying the highest rate of interest. At present, they apply it to the lowest.
The current practice of “double-billing,” which goes virtually unnoticed by most consumers because it isn’t calculated out on the statement, will come to an end. This is the tactic in which the card issuer calculates the interest based on the average daily balance for both the current and the previous billing cycle. Thus, you might have made a $1,000 payment last month, but that $1,000 of debt will still be factored in to the interest on your current statement.
We’ll be watching for notice that the new rules have gone into effect. In the meantime, consumers need to keep a close watch on their credit card statements and any “junk mail” coming from their card issuers.
These mailings could give notice of changes in your terms that will have a profound effect on your credit score, as well as your access to credit.
Some card issuers, in an effort to lend less, are cutting card limits down to the amount currently owed. Consumers who have an automatic billing to their accounts are suddenly seeing bills that reflect an over-limit fee when they thought they had a safe cushion.
Do set up internet access to your accounts – and do check your credit limit before setting out to make a major purchase with your card. Your credit scores are at stake!
Bryan
Catherine P asked:
I would like to put up a store with physical address as well as an online store business. Since I will accept payments from credit cards, I need to have a credit card processing company. What factors should I consider when looking for a credit card processing company?
George
Me. asked:
I’m only 20 and I’m still a little clueless with the whole credit thing. I know, though, that I do have bad credit because I moved out on my own when I was 18 and got into a lot of debt. I’m obviously trying to pay everything off as fast as I can… but how can I rebuild my credit if no one is willing to give it?
Travis
