If you are concerned about the credit card interest rates you are being offered, or any other terms or conditions that you feel are unfair or less favourable than those to which you are entitled to, you may wish to familiarise yourself with the Fair Credit Reporting Act or FCRA as it is abbreviated. This law is primarily aimed at ensuring that people’s credit reports are kept accurate and up to date, as well as protecting your privacy in financial matters such as these. It is governed and enforced by the Federal Trade Commission, which, takes on the role of protecting consumers at a federal level.
Therefore if you feel that you are being cheated or there is something afoul with the credit card interest rates you are being offered, you may wish to get into contact with the Federal Trade Commission to see what exactly your rights are in this regard. You should always make a point of understanding and being up to date with these rights whenever you are negotiating for new credit, or an improvement in the terms of your existing credit, since such knowledge and information will improve your bargaining position and will help ensure that you are not taken advantage of by the big credit providers and banks that you will be dealing with.
With regard to your credit report, there is a free disclosure rule in the Accurate Credit Transactions Act that gives you a right to view your credit report for free. This right applies to the credit reports compiled by each of the three nation wide consumer credit reporting companies that operate on a national basis. There is a web site and phone number that you can use to get access to all three reports at the same time.
www.annualcreditreport.com is the website
1-877-322-8228 is the phone number.
You may mail a request to Annual Credit Report Request Service, PO Box 105281, Atlanta, GA, 30348-5281.
The companies must provide you with a copy of your report, free of charge, at least every 12 months and you can then ensure that all of the information contained in it is accurate and up to date. You may then be able to use this information to protect your right to receive the best possible credit card interest rate offers that you are entitled to. Simply ensuring that your credit report is accurate and being aware of your rights can significantly improve your access to the best credit card interest rates on the market so make sure you keep on top of these issues if you are considering applying for new credit in the near future.
So you just opened an envelope that contained a shiny piece of plastic with your name on it. Awesome ? a bank or financial institution just gave you a line of credit! Before you start joyously swiping it on just about any cash register, take the time to read this article to understand the credit card interest rates.
A credit card is an authority to spend the money of the company that issued it, in return for a promise that you will repay them in the future, called payment-due date. This date is written on your card's monthly billing statement together with the total cost of the items you purchased for that month (outstanding balance). Smart credit card users pay for the total outstanding balance on the payment due date. However, there maybe instances that you will not be able to. During these times, the card company let's you borrow the money longer, until the next month's payment-due date, for a fee. This fee is calculated based on the credit card's interest rate.
Usually, credit card companies quote the APR (Annual Percentage Rate) as the ?interest rate? for using their card. But, this is not entirely true. When you do not pay the total outstanding balance, interest is applied to it, called the monthly periodic rate (equals APR/12). This is added on to the unpaid amount and becomes next month's outstanding balance. Every month, the periodic rate is applied to whatever outstanding balance is unpaid. This process is called compounding interest. So, the total of the compounding interest is the Effective Annual Rate (EAR), which is in-fact bigger than the APR. This is the TRUE interest rate of the credit card.
An introductory rate is an interest rate that is offered by a card company for a limited period (say 1st year of using the card). This is usually very low, sometimes 0% to attract you to apply. After the limited time, the EAR will be the on-going interest rate. Be sure to check this before signing up.
Also, ask whether your rate is fixed or variable. Fixed interest rate does not change from month to month. A variable interest rate changes monthly, based on some industry rate (for example, Fed Rate or Prime Rate) from which your rate is calculated (your rate is 5%+ Fed Rate). It may be smarter in the long run to choose a fixed-rate card.
Now that you have a better understanding on credit card interest rates, it is still wise to settle the total outstanding balance monthly. Else, pay only for what you can afford, as if you did not have the credit card.
Both Peter Kenny & Nicky Pilkington are contributors for EditorialToday. The above articles have been edited for relevancy and timeliness. All write-ups, reviews, tips and guides published by EditorialToday.com and its partners or affiliates are for informational purposes only. They should not be used for any legal or any other type of advice. We do not endorse any author, contributor, writer or article posted by our team.
Peter Kenny has sinced written about articles on various topics from Credit Cards, Finances and Best Money Market. Peter Kenny is a writer for creditcards-gbFor additional articles and an extensive resource for everything about credit cards, please visit us at