Free Credit Report Repair Guide

I wrote a post yesterday, commenting on Congress’s decision to inquiry into the practices of the Banking and Credit Card industry. In the article I posted a link to a story on Yahoo in which Citibank came under fire. I was glad to see the heat, because I have a Citibank credit card and they are charging me loan shark rates because I was late once 9 months ago.

I have called almost every month to see if they can reduce my interest rate. The answer was always “no.” For the last 9 months I have paid their high interest rates and paid more than the minimum. So after yesterdays news broke, I decided what the heck I will give them a call today to see if I could get my rate lowered.

To my surprise when I asked the customer representative he said my interest rate was “too high” and he would definitely reduce my rate. 10 minutes later my interest rate was cut in half. Thanks Congress for putting the heat on! Even though Congress has not legislated the credit card industry, at least it has changed the attitude of the bigger card companies.

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Congress is taking the credit card companies to task over fees and interest rate practices. Sen. Carl Levin, Chairman of the Senate Homeland Security subcommittee, said an investigation by his panel found “abusive” and confusing practices by credit card companies that can increase financial pain for many families.

What Sen. Levin is doing is trying to get the credit card companies to take action on their own. They would be smart to take action because the last thing the banking industry wants is congress to start legislating their business.

Citibank has already made changes in their fees and interest rates to make a good show to congress.

Read more here

All American families who carry credit debt appreciate the effort of Senator Levin, but let’s hope this is a first step in getting real control of the Credit card industry. Debt is not good for America. When Americans are strapped with debt they can spend less on the economy, their quality of life suffers, and we also know the number one cause of divorce is finances.

Stay tuned America. Let’s hope this congress goes to battle for us. Until then keep paying of your debt!

Technorati Tags: Congress, credit card companies, fees and interest rate, Sen. Carl Levin, Chairman of the Senate Homeland Security subcommittee, , banking industry, Citibank, Debt, paying of your debt

Every financial advisor and debt reduction expert will say you need an emergency fund. Some like Dave Ramsey say you need $1000 in the bank before you start your debt reduction snowball plan. Others like Liz Pulliman Weston will say $500 is good. I agree with Ramsey in principle but the reality is most can only afford to find an extra $500, so I say anything you can put into the emergency fund will help when “Murphy’s Law” hits.

Take it from me when you don’t have the money is when “Murphy” will show up. So Weston gives a couple of great ideas on how to start up and fund your emergency fund:

• Tax re-fund
• Don’t buy any thing accept for the necessities for a month and put the saved money away
• Sell your stuff. Yard sales, e-bay, sell your stuff for cash!
• Save your change. A penny saved is a penny earned
• Go through your bills and cut out services you don’t need.

We have done all of the above to get more cash into the house hold. The most recently I called my cable company and was able to cut $20 a month or $240 a year. We are looking at the cell phone next.

Again when there is a will there is a way. So make it happen.

Technorati Tags: financial advisor, debt reduction expert, emergency fund, Dave Ramsey, bank, snowball plan, Liz Pulliman Weston, Murphy’s Law, money

So a co-worker of mine mentioned that February tends to be a slow month for retailers because most Americans are recovering from the “hang over” spending they did during the holiday. Credit usage during the holiday is as much apart of the holiday season as the Christmas tree itself. This is unfortunate.

I say this because our family used to be one of the millions of American family’s who bought gifts that weren’t in the budget and relied on Credit to get what we wanted. This year 2006, would be different. We had a game plan. Start saving early and start shopping early.

The game plan, put $50 a month aside for Christmas. In theory we would have $600 to spend on gifts. We tried to look for “deals” through out the year, particularly at Costco. We started buying gifts in late summer. By the time December rolled around we had 95% of our gifts purchased! And it was all done with cash no credit!!

What did we learn? Reduced stress by planning ahead. We didn’t go into debt for the holidays. Established a game plan for next year, which worked. We already have a couple things we want to buy at Costco next week for Christmas gifts.

This post wasn’t meant to be we are better than you at all. In fact we are just like you but this year we really wanted to make a change, which started with a spending plan. This rolls into the biggest part of having good credit, create a livable budget where you can afford to pay off debt and not just pay the minimums. This allows for timely payoff of credit and fosters responsible spending.

Technorati Tags: February, retailers, Americans, Credit, Christmas, American family’s, gifts, deals, Reduced stress, Costco, livable budget, pay off debt, responsible spending