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

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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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.

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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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

Students begin a new chapter in their lives when they enter college. Apart from the feeling of independence and freedom, for many, it’s the first time they’ve lived on their own. For the first time they are on their own to make all the decisions for themselves, whether it is about doing laundry, planning their own meals or some major advancements regarding their financial lives such as getting a credit card.

This new liberty sometimes overwhelms the student to sign on the dotted line for the credit card, just to get that feeling of being powerful to buy anything you want.

In order to get the students to sign up for the credit cards, the credit card companies offer many tempting deals to motivate the students such as, “Get a free T-Shirt when you apply for our credit card”; “Choose a free CD”; or “Free Pizza when you apply!” The little credit card “kiosks” are spread all over the campus in some cases.

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Debt is a major factor in your credit score. If you have too much of it (or none at all) or if you have trouble repaying your debts on time, your credit score will plummet. Keeping your debts reasonable and paid, on the other hand, will do more than almost anything else to improve your credit score. Here are a few tips that can ensure that your debts actually help you boost your credit score:

Consolidate your loans to make repaying them easier

Having lots of loans and debt is one of the biggest reasons leading to poor credit ratings. The larger your debts, the worse your credit rating and the more likely that you will find yourself with large monthly bills that are difficult to repay.

Consolidating your loans means that you take out one large loan to repay all your creditors so that you only have one large loan to repay. While the overall amount of the loan does not change – if you owed $20 000 to five different companies, you will still owe $20 000 but to only one lender – but the interest rates and monthly payments are usually quite smaller and this can help meeting your debt obligations much easier.

Debt consolidation can be an especially good idea if you have lots of high-interest debt and lots of bills that are hard to keep track of. One smaller monthly payment will be easier to remember and will help make bill time less painful.

Pay down your debts by making larger than minimal payments

If you only pay down the minimum amount on each of your loans, it will take you a long, long time to pay down your loans. This is because most lenders only require that you pay down slightly more than the interest amount on your debt each month. Even a debt of a few hundred dollars could take several years to repay this way.

Paying down your debts by putting down more than the minimum required monthly payment can help you pay down your debts faster and so can boost your credit score. Paying down more than you need to also shows lenders that you are in good financial shape and conscientious about your debts – two qualities that definitely make you an attractive credit risk to lenders.

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You can face number of problems if you default on your college loans.  As a general rule, you should be committed to payback each dollar along with any interest accrued before thinking about borrowing any money.

Education, especially college education costs a lot of money. In recent years decent college education cost has gone beyond means of ordinary American household.  Most of the students going to college these days take one or more loans in order to pay for the ever increasing expense. It does not matter which type of loan you take for your college education, you have to pay them back after your graduation.

So, What happens if you don’t pay back your loans? Defaults and bankruptcy is very common in current economic environment. Default on loans is a difficult and negative situation for those individuals who can not pay their loans or choose not to repay loans for any reason. Among the results, Financial difficulties, employment problems and relationship issues are common.

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You need to cut down your monthly expenses and live frugally if you ever want to get out of debt. Let’s assume you have a $20,000 in credit card debt and you current minimum payment is around $500 per month. Unless you really don’t want to pay your credit card bills at all. You have to pay it in full before you can cancel your credit card.

Let’s say you have $14,000 in credit card debt and your current minimum payment is $350. At 21% with a minimum payment of 2.5% it will take you 542 months to get rid of your debt. In that time, you will pay more than $32,000 in interest. this is not at all funny. but this is how this works.

If you keep paying a fixed amount of $350 dollars (which is your current minimum payment),It will take you 70 months to be rid of your debt. In that time, you will pay $10,290.27 in interest. Still Its unacceptable.

However, If you manage to reduce expenses by $200 each month and apply that amount to your credit card’s minimum payment, then each month you can payback $550. this way, It will only take you 34 months (3 years) to get rid of all your debt. during this time, you will pay only $4,692.23 in interest. this is also crappy but better than 542(45 years) ye and 70 months(6 years) and you will save some where between $6,000 to $28,000 in your interest payments.

Best course of action in this situation is to transfer your debt to a low interest credit card or apply for a debt consolidation loan

If you still doubt in what I say, You can use this Minimum payment calculator to find out how much money you will be wasting by not paying off your credit card balance as quickly as possible.

Indeed, there is no feeling like getting out of debt. Its always better than watching cable tv or dining out with friend. You will get more joy out of these activities when you are debt free.

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