Credit Card Solution

The majority of credit card offers sent out in the mail today promise a 0% APR (annual percentage rate) introductory period which lasts anywhere from three months to a year, depending on the credit score of the potential applicant, the credit card issuer and the specific terms of the product on offer. Interest-free introductory periods can be used to repay existing outstanding balances without incurring additional interest charges and they can also be used to save money on new purchases. The following information discusses several ways 0% APR credit cards can help to save money on existing balances and new purchases.

0% APR Credit Cards for New Purchases

The amount of money which can be spent on new purchases during an introductory period, without incurring interest charges, depends on a variety of factors like the introductory period and the overall credit limit available to the cardholder.

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This card is best for consumers that have a large balance to transfer that they don’t expect to be able to pay off immediately. It is also good for consumers that want to earn cash back with no annual fee, and do not plan to increase their debt.
Discover® More – 24 Month Promotional Balance Transfer

A just-published 2010-2011 survey by the consumer rights group Consumer Action confirms what all too many credit card users already know–today’s rates are extraordinarily high. The average variable rate was 13.20 percent in 2009, but jumped to 15.06 percent in 2010. The ri Read all post…

The lesser known VantageScore made another inroad in its battle with the almighty Fico score, grabbing a patent for its system of “characteristic leveling.”

In short, characteristic leveling provides consistency among the 3 major credit bureaus, something the traditional Fico score has struggled with (why credit scores are different?)

So if the same data is presented by different credit bureaus, it should yield the same result, or credit score.

“The ability to use a common score across the three CRCs minimizes consumer and lender confusion,” said VantageScore Solutions President and Chief Executive Officer Barrett Burns, in a press release.

“Because of VantageScore’s consistency across all three CRCs, lenders who use it will be better able to delineate risk in a predictive manner.”

This is pretty important because many banks and mortgage lenders currently rely on the middle of our 3 credit scores when making a decision to extend credit.

And borrowers have to worry about disparities between their credit scores, which are often the result of different reporting by bureaus using the same data.

In fact, many consumers have such a wide range of scores that they may be deemed excellent by one, and only average by another.

The hope is that with characteristic leveling in place, differences in credit score will only be attributable to different data sets, as opposed to differing scoring algorithms.

This increased consistency could lure more creditors over to VantageScore, which is currently a small fish compared to the all-powerful Fico score.

Recently, Fico also lost the trademark on its 300-850 credit score range.

With credit card companies desperately vying for the attention of prospective customers, there have never been more rewards credit card offers available on the market. Fortunately, the majority of rewards credit cards provide some form of benefit or discount which can be extremely advantageous when one is planning for or is enjoying a vacation. The following are five ways that a rewards credit card can save money on a vacation.

1. Gasoline Discounts

Some credit cards, commonly known as gas rewards cards, provide a specific rebate percentage for each gasoline purchase. At the end of the rewards period, a check or certificate is mailed to the cardholder for the total amount of all of the rebates applied to the account during that year. Other cards may provide these rewards in the form of a balance credit, while others may send out rebate checks on monthly basis rather than annually.

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