Tag Archive | "American Express"

50 Fun Facts of Credit Cards

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There are some fun facts about the fifty credit cards have been found, which are combined for you to read them when you find free time like during the weekend to enjoy the weekend. Some things, that you all already knew, such as American Express Centurion card has fees of $ 2500 per annum and a $ 250,000 annual consumption requirements, but others have not, like American Express has begun shipping, and then launches into financial services.

Historical Nuggets

Credit Card Fun

  1. At the beginning of the credit cards, they were used only to recover the balance provided by individual stores and used only in those stores. In 1950, the Diner’s Club offered the first credit card, which could be used at different places.
  2. Diners Club card gives this only to first two hundred customers, which could only be used at twenty-seven restaurants in New York City.

History of American Express

  1. American Express began shipping in 1850. Shipments of products in the United States and exploitation are not very extensive and United States Postal Service was also very slow. Their main clients were banks that were subjected to different financial instruments such as equities and other observations. They started to sell money orders and traveler’s checks in 1882 and issued their first credit card in 1958.
  2. In 1984, Platinum American Express Card billed as very exclusive, and had an annual fee of $ 250, which was $ 484.84 in 2006. Today, their very exclusive card is black Centurion American Express card, which has a fee of $ 2,500 per annum.

History of MasterCard & Visa

  1. MasterCard and Visa are network holding the banks and different financial institutions. American Express has its own business and the subsidiary of Morgan Stanley is Discover Card.
  2. Visa was originally named as BankAmericard which was offered by the Bank of America in 1958, at California. In 1970, they created an association called the American National Bank Card, Inc., which includes all those banks in the United States who issued the card, which has not changed its name to Visa until the 1976th.
  3. Visa is the reality of Visa International Service Association.
  4. Visa logo colors were chosen because the sky is blue and gold in the share of hills, California, where Bank of America was located.
  5. Originally formed as the Interbank Card Association and has attained brand and logo of Master Charge in 1969. In 1967, MasterCharge was originally formed by the four banks in California, which came together to form the Western States Bankcard Association against the U.S. bank card by Bank of America. In 1979, MasterCharge was renamed as MasterCard.
  6. In 1984, to prevent fraud, MasterCard uses a hologram on their cards for the first time.

History of Discover Card

  1. Sears introduced the Discover Card in 1985 and gained popularity because it has no annual fee.
  2. At the time, Brokerage Dean Witter Reynolds Organization was also owned by Sears and Discover brand was joined into the organization. When Dean Witter merged with Morgan Stanley in 1997, Discover went along for that ride also.

Practice the Useful Things, That Make You Go

  • If you are wondering that why there are low, minimum payments? It allows the consumer to get more debt while the minimum payment is kept low. You can give a person the ability to pay $100 per month, a credit limit higher than $ 5,000, if they only had to pay 2% per month. They could not have a credit limit of $ 2,000, if the minimum payment was 5%. Plus the minimum payment could be deeper debt not being.
  • It is against trade agreements of MC, Visa and American Express for a seller to ask you to provide your phone number, address or other personal information for credit card transactions. In fact, some states make it illegal to demand all that information. But if there is a problem in transaction, then you have to provide this information.
  • It is not necessary to submit a license to complete the transaction of credit card in accordance with the contract of merchants of MC, Visa, Discover Card and American Express.
  • Under trade agreements, MC, Visa and Discover Card, minimum purchase amount may not require by the sellers. Under AMEX is an indication that the seller is not a barrier to use, but American Express has a policy of discrimination, if there is no minimum number of MC / Visa cannot be an AMEX’s minimum amount.
  • Under the trade agreements of MC, Visa, and Discover Card, sellers may not charge fees for using the card but it still applies for AMEX by anti-discrimination rules. In some states it is actually illegal to charge for purchases by credit card. This rule does not apply to the authorities of government.
  • On the other hand, it is authorized by all card companies to offer a discount for a cash payment.
  • A trader may take a personal check requires that you provide a credit card number. It is against trade agreements to charge a credit card for exercising Express.
  • You can reduce your interest rate by a phone call. Corporate credit cards are as mobile phones and cable companies are afraid that you go to join the competition. Use this to your advantage by comparing offers of credit cards and others with this information to your credit card company.
  • When you use your card, you accept all the agreement of credit card holder; you do not need to sign anything. You also accept the updates when you use your card after you receive an update in the Agreement.
  • Within 15 days of notice, fixed-rate credit cards can be changed. Fast is not fixed in the sense that a mortgage is fixed, this is the credit card company can be changed with only 15 days’ notice.
  • If you have multiple balances the various interest rates on one card, payments are generally lower than the interest rate applicable to the budget. You do not have a choice in this matter and cannot claim that they have to pay more. So if you have a balance of $ 100 to 19.99% and a balance of $ 5.000 to 4.99% may apply for a $ 5.000 to 4.99% in the first. It should be noted in your agreement.
  • The process of Credit cards sales works as follows:  To authorize the transaction value, seller sends the request. The credit cards company reduces the limit of credit after checking the previous card limit. It then sends the conformation about the cards health to the respective vendor. Money is sent to the users by the credit card companies after checking the deposit transaction sent by the seller. This is a very easy and fast process but still it some exceptions are implemented on it to get the better from it. Those exceptions are given below:
  • A request has been sent by the Hotels and car rental companies, which is usually used to approve the estimated cost of a vacation or rent and it maintains a “lock” on your ticket within 10-15 days; either you pay for something other.

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10 Things You Never Knew About Credit Cards

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Many people believe that credit scores, credit cards and credit history is very boring topic. Nowadays a plastic card that is credit or debit cards are present in almost all the wallets. Here are some of the most interesting and fun facts that will be shocking for you.

1. Visa Logo on the Credit Card

Credit Card Logos

This is an amazing fact about Visa logo on the credit card. A visa logo’s Blue and gold Portions on a credit card represents the color of the California sky and California hills respectively, which is the state where Bank of America was founded.

2. Americans Fear of Debit or Credit Card Fraud

Americans are full of fear not because of terrorism, computer viruses, heath or personal safety. They are frightened because of the credit and debit card fraud according to a source: Unisys Security Index: United States, March 2009.

3. Worse Interest Rate

Suppose you are having it worse with a matched up 29.9% interest rate? Retail giant Argos rocked out with a branded credit card with a ridiculous 227% APR, UK in 2008.

4. Credit Score

1/3 of American adults do not want to check their credit score. Moreover, 2/3 of American adults who are 144 million people have not even checked their credit balance for many years. Don’t be the part of this list, which are unaware of their credit result from a long time, so for getting your score free as soon as possible contact at Credit Karma.

5. Credit Card Marketing

Each American family gets an average of six credit card offers per month in the mail. You can stop those irritating deals by going to ‘OptOutPrescreen’ in your mail. However, now you can save trees while reviewing credit cards on Credit Karma.

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Top Ten Fun Facts about Credit Cards

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The first “Modern Credit Card” that can be used for paying parties other than the card issuer was started in 1950. It was issued by Diners Club in New York City. Initially they were issued to about two hundred people, most of them known to the owner. These were used mainly at the restaurants and were accepted at 14 places initially.

Discover Credit Card

Since then there have been many developments in the credit card industry. Here is a choice of 10 interesting facts about credit cards.

1. Most Expensive Credit Card

Black Centurion Card offered by American Express is the most expensive credit card at the moment. It has an annual fee of $2,500 and requires the cardholder to spend at least $250,000 a year through credit card transactions. In some countries it also requires a
one-time joining fee.

2. How Visa Card Came Into Existence

In 1958 a credit card was issued by Bank of America. In 1970 the other American banks also joined and its control was handed over to a joint financial venture. In 1976 the name Visa was given to this operation.

3. Cash Back Bonus

Sears introduced its Discover Card in 1985. It was a big hit not only because it did not charge any annual fee, but it also actually offered an up to 5% Cash Back Bonus.

4. Is Low Minimum Payment Good For You?

The answer is a big NO, because that means more of the unpaid debt, which ultimately means more INTEREST.

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Most Popular Cash Back Credit Cards

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Credit cards are becoming popular now-a-days. It is easy to pay through them. When we pay through credit cards some percentage is deducted. This can be now shared between the issuer and holder of the card. This share is given by the credit card issuer. It can be in the form of points which are added in the credit card. It can also be in monetary form which is given back to the holder through cheque or credited in the credit card account. This is about 0.5% to 20% of the net expenditure. In monetary form it is called “cash back”. Cash back cards are liked by the customers. Some popular cash back credit cards are:

Credit cards

Discover More Card

It gives 5% cash back on various items. Online purchase on it gives 5% to 20% cash back. Its low interest rate, less fee and high functionality and wide customer support make it popular among customers. It is helpful in fraud prevention and unauthorized purchases. Its drawback is the customer gets notifications when the deadlines are near. It comes in few categories among which customer can choose. These are:

  1. No Balance Transfer Fee: There are no annual charges, no transfer charges but is only for limited time.
  2. Limited time offer: Only for the first year there are no transfer fee later charges 3% for balance transfer.
  3. $100 cash back bonus: If $500 spent in 3 months then gives cash back of $100.

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Online Savings Accounts

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During the preceding ten years quite a few online saving accounts have been cropped up. These offer high profits and without condition of minimum account balance. It is really tied up with the requirements of individuals and what percentage they would like to save for investment sake. There are multiple choices that suit to individual needs.

Online Savings

 Online savings

There are few online services that provide the facility of online savings account with no pre-requisite of any minimum amount. They also charge no fees and offer a high yield percentage. They have the possibility of connecting their online savings account to a present checking account of any bank. Their CDs (Certificates of Deposits) also provide better returns. It is somewhat nice to make your investment with little risk involvement.

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Best cash-back Reward Credit Card

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If you have control over your expenditureCash-back cards can provide you with a way of getting small returns on your shopping expenditure. But in either case, the interest charges can adversely affect your savings if you don’t pay-in full each month.

Survey

At 12 data points, 30 cards were examined carefully. The features that were given considerable importance were;

cash-back ratio

  • A payout cap
  • If a card had an annual fee
  • Reward tires
  • Expiry date

A cash-back ratio was also computed for those cards that used points in the reward formula. This made the comparison extremely easy and saved much of the time.

Results

  • No clear winner was found for every type of card user.
  • Investment card were found offering higher returns.
  • Some of the cards awarded larger payouts for big spenders.
  • Some of the cards also awarded transactions but in categories of special purchase.
  • Half of the cards, those were surveyed, provided only 1% return on purchases.

Cards having highest returns

Generous rebates were offered by the Investment credit cards which were offered by Fidelity. It had total four cards and three out of them awarded 2% cash-back on the purchases. Whatever you earn, will directly get deposited into your investment accounts that you have with Fidelity.

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Get a Credit Card with Bad Credit Score

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If you have bad credit score then it doesn’t mean that it can stop you from getting a credit card. However, it can make the entire process of getting credit card longer. Moreover, it is also capable of making things more difficult such as, larger purchases etc. Still there are certain ways by which you can get credit card and simplify this complicated process.

Tips to Get a Credit Card with  Poor Credit

If you are dealing with bad credit and still want to get a credit then following tips will help you in doing so, here you go:

Go for Smaller Retail Store

This is the important one. Try to apply for credit card at any of the smaller retail stores. That’s because sometimes smaller companies show willingness to work for you. Make small purchases after getting your application approved. Establish a habit of paying off at least minimum monthly payments on regular basis. Make sure neither you delay nor you miss any payment.

Contact your Bank & other Saving Institutions

If any of these institutions have already in business with you then they are more likely to give you credit card.

Consider Getting a Secured Credit Card

If every other option fails then consider getting a secured credit card. You will have to open and maintain a saving account in the term of security for your line of credit. This credit line will act as the percentage of your deposit. Read the full story

How to Find Lowest Credit Card Fee for International Traveling?

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Credit Cards is one of the basic and prior subject that matters while traveling to abroad. The utilization of credit card in foreign country is a common practice, thus involves many conditions with it. USe of credit card in foreign country is different from using it locally. Generally, when the credit cards are used for any purchase  made abroad, a transaction fee is also attached with the price, regarding the conversion of currency.

Transaction fee

Most of the banks charges 1 percent as well as including their own fee on any foreign transaction while using the credit cards like Visa card and Master card etc.  Some credit issuing authorities were introduced their own payment process like American Express and Discover but they still charge the fee on these type of transactions.

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Perfect Credit Card For An International Traveler

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Majority of regular international travelers are well aware of the sharp nature of their credit card companies that pick up their plastic pockets when they make overseas purchases. That particularly means that on using your credit card overseas all the internationally accepted credit cards, such as MasterCard, Visa, Discover and American Express, charge you 1% foreign currency conversion fee on each transaction you make.

300px-International_credit

This fee is the part of the 2-3% fee that all UK banks adjoin, and only few banks offer less than 1% fee for. If you want to know about what your network (MasterCard, Visa, Discover, and American Express) is charging you, then keep more.

What Are you Paying as a Fee?

Following are some fresh transaction fees for that are charged by some biggest US card issuers:

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Wisely Chosen Small Business Credit Cards Can Save Your Time & Money

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There are many credit card companies that sell credit cards, meant for small business-owners. They offer different credit cards according to the nature of the businesses. So the question arises, which type of credit card is best for you?

Small business credit cards offers plus advantages apart from providing feasibility of personal and business expenses. Small business credit card tracks and controls expenses and maintains an audit trail for tax season. The better credit card plan helps you to consolidate spending records, it means that it decrease paperwork and operating costs.

Small business credit cards

Same like consumer credit cards, there are many small-businesses cards that offer valuable savings or rewards plans. Business credit card helps more with the credit card history as compared to the consumer credit card. The rewards that are usually offered on small business cards are airline miles or cash-back rebates.

Important Features

No doubt, that credit card companies have found a new huge market in small business. Figures show that only 10% small businesses maintains its expenses on small-business cards, and only total 35% of small businesses use such cards. Though the small business credit cards are growing rapidly, but still a huge part of small business area remains untouched. Read the full story

 

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