http://www.creditcardguide.com/creditcards Fri, 20 Nov 2009 19:33:45 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en By Eva Norlyk Smith, Ph.D. Consumers hoping for relief from credit card interest rate hikes will have to wait a few months longer. On Wednesday, Senate Republicans put a "hold" on a bill to freeze credit card interest rates immediately, in order to avoid further rate hikes before ... http://www.creditcardguide.com/creditcards/uncategorized/credit-card-rate-freeze-holidays-127/ By Eva Norlyk Smith, Ph.D. It is as certain as death, taxes, and Florida hurricanes in the fall: Come January, millions of consumers will be struggling with a bad case of holiday hangover as the pile of unpaid credit card bills begins to heap up. For stores, credit cards and retailing is ... http://www.creditcardguide.com/creditcards/news/5-ways-dodge-holiday-credit-card-hangover-126/ By Eva Norlyk Smith, Ph.D. The latest data on credit card defaults and delinquencies show few signs of improvement. Several major U.S. credit card companies are still facing double-digit defaults, suggesting that the high rates of unemployment continue to weigh down consumers. While credit card defaults came off their highs of the ... http://www.creditcardguide.com/creditcards/news/unemployment-rates-continue-haunt-credit-card-issuers-125/ By Eva Maria Norlyk Beginning October of this year, Discover and American Express cardholders can breathe a sigh of relief as their credit card over-the-limit fees are laid to rest. Amex and Discover took the plunge to eliminate the fee in response to the Credit CARD Act of 2009, which mandates ... http://www.creditcardguide.com/creditcards/credit-cards-general/cardholders-good-riddance-costly-credit-card-fee-124/ By Eva Maria Norlyk Most pundits saw it coming: a wave of frenzy as credit issuers scramble to get their ducks lined up before the new provisions called for in the CARD Act of 2009 kick in. Once the provisions of the new law steps into effect in August of 2010, card ... http://www.creditcardguide.com/creditcards/credit-cards-general/worse-terms-fall-credit-card-reform-123/ By Eva Norlyk Smith, Ph.D. Credit card and identity theft strikes in all sorts of places, ranging from the mundane to the bizarre. One of the more peculiar instances of stolen credit cards involved a Nashville, Tennessee man who hired homeless to dig thru the garbage dumpsters of hotels near the ... http://www.creditcardguide.com/creditcards/credit-cards-general/credit-card-identity-theft-strikes-home-122/ By Eva Norlyk Smith, Ph.D. Every year, identity theft strikes almost 9 million Americans. The theft is most typically discovered within the first three months, but in some cases it takes much longer; the victim might only find out when he or she is declined for a new credit card application. The ... http://www.creditcardguide.com/creditcards/credit-cards-general/report-identity-theft-121/ By Eva Norlyk Smith, Ph.D. January is a month dreaded by all. T’is the season after the Season, a time of reckoning, when we’re left with long dark days, woefully expanded waistlines, and a mounting pile of credit card bills. Every Holiday shopping season, we Americans go through the same ritual, wowing ... http://www.creditcardguide.com/creditcards/credit-cards-general/holiday-shoppers-plan-leave-credit-cards-home-120/ By Eva Norlyk Smith, Ph.D. One of the most common credit card mistakes that cardholders make is to get seduced by the beguiling option of paying only the minimum monthly payment on their credit card. It’s easy, it’s simple, and it endlessly postpones the pain of facing up to what we ... http://www.creditcardguide.com/creditcards/credit-cards-general/law-aims-credit-card-statements-user-friendly-119/ By Eva Norlyk Smith, Ph.D. Senator Christopher Dodd, the head of the Senate Banking Committee, on Tuesday introduced new legislation, which aims to strengthen consumer protections by creating an independent watchdog agency to oversee financial products, including credit cards and mortgages. If passed, the bill would strip the Federal Reserve of its ... http://www.creditcardguide.com/creditcards/news/senate-bill-strip-fed-credit-card-oversight-118/