Closing a credit card: let’s get the facts straight

Posted on by Richard the MBA

There are so many myths surrounding the issue of credit card closing I thought it’d be helpful to dedicate a whole blog post to this topic.
Why should you close a credit card? Well, there are several reasons:

  1. The credit card is pure junk, such as one of the worst credit cards in America which are listed here: http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/business/2012/10/6-worst-credit-cards/ – No questions about this.
  2. The credit card carries an unsustainable annual fee, such as most loyalty and transferable points cards (if you’re not familiar with reward credit cards, check this post out). Many cards of these types waive the first year’s annual fee, and many consumers don’t find them worth keeping beyond the first year.  Continue reading Closing a credit card: let’s get the facts straight

Chase, finally!

Posted on by Richard the MBA

The first time I spent an extended stay in New York, I was amazed by a lot of things. In the mind of a recent college graduate with a bachelors’ degree in economics, New York was a finance kingdom, a prosperous land for financial institutions. This impression was enhanced by the presence of millions of banks and offices in tiny, packed Manhattan. It didn’t take long for me to realize though, that there is one bank that seems to have offices and ATM’s on every street corner? When I hang out with friends in New York and come out of a bar non-sober and see everything as patches of color like an impressionist painting, the most prominent color I observe is blue. It is the same kind of blue on emergency posts that I was used to at Colgate. It is the blue of Chase.

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Continue reading Chase, finally!

The credit card APR: why this number is misleading

Posted on by Richard the MBA

I have two principles in credit card management, one “hard” and one “soft.”  The hard principle, never to be violated under any circumstances, is:

“Never miss a payment”

Failing to follow the hard principle would damage my credit profile to an unimaginable extent and therefore is not allowed to happen.

The soft principle goes:

“Avoid carrying a balance except under special circumstances”

The soft principle, serves the purpose of avoiding wasting money on interest payments. From time to time there will be a credit card promotion with an introductory 0% period offer, and in such a situation carrying a balance until the end of the promotional period doesn’t do any harm unless your balance is so high that it implies bankruptcy risk.

Anyhoo, you should never have to pay credit card interest, for the simple reason that it is too expensive. The lowest credit card annual interest rate, or APR (Annual Percentage Rate), that I have seen, is 9.99%. The highest I’ve seen? Around 30%. And worse yet, these rates do not reflect the actual interest you get charged. This blog post explains why, by showing you the math used to compute the APR.

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Credit cards for credit builders: what are your options? – Part 3

Posted on by Richard the MBA

Option 3 for credit builders: secured credit cards

I have previously described my personal experience with Bank of America’s Bankamericard Cash Rewards secured credit card. A secured credit card is a risk-free way for financial institutions to extend you credit: the money you deposit is also your credit limit. In other words, you spend your own money; the bank doesn’t lend you anything. Yet you still have the opportunity to build up your credit profile by making on-time payments which would be reported to the Consumer Reporting Agencies (CRA’s). Continue reading Credit cards for credit builders: what are your options? – Part 3

Credit cards for credit builders: what are your options? – Part 2

Posted on by Richard the MBA

In my last post: Credit cards for credit builders: what are your options? – Part 1, I talked about the option of being added as an authorized user to someone else’s credit card. Unfortunately for international students like me, this option rarely exists. The next best option is to try to obtain a credit card through your bank.  Continue reading Credit cards for credit builders: what are your options? – Part 2

Credit cards for credit builders: what are your options? –Part 1

Posted on by Richard the MBA

When I opened this blog, I had in mind the picture of myself back in January 2012, half a year out of college, and having no credit. Today, it is about a year from that, and many from the next generation of college graduates are probably having the same credit situation as I was. I was lucky to be well-guided by knowledgeable friends, and I thought it’d be my turn to provide a mini-guide for those looking to obtain their first credit card.

To recap what I wrote in my most popular post to date: Introduction to personal finance, here are the 3 main reasons you need a credit card in order of importance: Continue reading Credit cards for credit builders: what are your options? –Part 1

Visa, Mastercard, Discover, American Express: What are they really?

Posted on by Richard the MBA

Many years ago, before I came to America, I was studying for the IELTS test. The IELTS is a test of English language skills that students coming from countries where English is not the official language have to go through if they want to study in an English-speaking country. For the listening portion of the test, exam-takers listen to an English conversation to answer questions related to the conversation. The conversation topics are sometimes specific to the country that administers the exam: either the UK or Australia.

One of the questions from the listening portion left me really confused at the time, so confused that I still remember it today. Actually the question was easy to answer; it was the content of the question that was not understandable to me. The conversation occurs in a store where the guest is asking whether the store accepts Discover or American Express, to which the waitress responds that they only accept Visa or Mastercard. I had never heard of these names before, and would not until years later when I actually set foot on a country where credit card use is the norm. My reaction at the time was something like: What? What’s American Express? A newspaper? OK, Mastercard is probably a card, but what about Visa? Is it the same sort of thing as a tourist visa?  Continue reading Visa, Mastercard, Discover, American Express: What are they really?