Mark Carolin

Posts Tagged ‘Consumer Credit’

The consumer credit field is a big one, and it seems that every day more and more credit card issuers are fighting for the right to loan you money. In order to attract the most customers, many credit card companies have resorted to offering rewards in exchange for your business. Depending on your particular situation, some rewards credit cards may be genuinely useful, while others may just be gimmicky wastes of your time. This article provides a brief overview of some of the more common types of rewards credit cards.

Rewards credit cards affiliated with air lines are becoming increasingly popular. Customers who use airline rewards credit cards automatically convert part of the amount that they spend on purchases made with the card into airline miles. Since most airline rewards credit cards are affiliated with a particular airline, these rewards credit cards are most suited to travelers who frequently take trips on the same airline. There are often stipulations regarding when and how free airline miles can be redeemed, so it is a good idea to thoroughly understand the policies and procedures of the credit card before signing up for airline rewards credit cards.

Gas credit cards are rewards credit cards that offer customers special incentives to purchase gas from the issuing company. These rewards often take the form of a cash payment or specific percentage of purchases made on gasoline being applied to the account as a credit. Gas rewards credit cards are particularly useful in recent years as more and more consumers begin to feel a financial pinch resulting from increasingly rising gas prices. While the savings are generally fairly modest per gallon, they can add up over time.

Perhaps the most common type of rewards credit cards are those that offer cash back on purchases. From the customer’s point of view, this makes great sense. Cash is the easiest of all rewards to spend. While air miles, hotel and rental car discounts, and other benefits commonly found offered by rewards credit cards are always nice, the truth is that nothing can compete with cash in terms of pure usability and flexibility. Those who are interested in rewards credit cards but do not feel that any of the specialty rewards credit cards meet their needs may be interested in investigating cash back credit cards.

Do you know what business credit card – no personal guarantee means? The concept of a business card with no personal guarantee has to do with applying for and being approved for a business card without having the business credit history that most business credit cards require for approval. This requirement can be daunting when it comes to business card applications, because if you cannot personally guarantee your application for your business card by proving that you have personal good credit or good business credit, then you may have difficulty getting the credit help that you need, preventing your business from getting the funding that your company requires. The chances of obtaining a new business card was once slim to nothing if you were not able to personally guarantee your credit, but things have changed now that you can obtain business cards with no personal guarantee.

There are a few things that you will be able to do regarding finding a business card even if you do not have much of a personal credit record to speak of. First and foremost, you should make a point to get your business registered with all of the credit reporting bureaus such as Dun and Bradstreet. While you are automatically reported to personal consumer credit bureaus, the same is not true when it comes to businesses and the accompanying credit bureaus. Dun & Bradstreet does for businesses what Experian, Equifax and Trans Union do for consumers.

Since you are just getting into the industry, and because your business has a direct link to your personal credit until you can build up your business credit, it is absolutely vital that you keep your personal credit in good shape. There are credit opportunities out there that offer business card no personal guarantee offers. Since you are new to the industry, if you can find one of these offers, it will likely benefit you quite significantly, but only if you make sure to read the fine print in order to make sure that you understand what the card has in store for you.

One of the best ways to get a business card without requiring a personal guarantee is to work with the bank that you are already doing business with when asking for a credit card. Keep in mind, however, that any new business cards that you get will probably come equipped with higher interest rates because businesses without any credit are risky borrowers. If this is the case, just worry about getting a modest credit line until you can build up some credit. When you cannot personally back or personally guarantee your credit, then you will need to make small sacrifices for the purpose of getting the business credit that you need, even if it does mean larger interest rates and smaller limits until the point where you can back up your credit worthiness when dealing with a lender.

When thinking about credit cards many people focus solely on the advantages of being able to pay for goods and services now and not having to repay the money until much later. While this can come in handy and will give you the confidence that you will always have something to fall back on when unexpected events happen there are also some disadvantages to having traditional cards. If this type of consumer credit is not used properly or responsibly a person can end up in serious trouble with more debt than they could ever repay. This will not only hurt their budget, but can negatively impact their creditworthiness or in the worst cases end up with legal proceedings.

Introduction of Prepaid Cards

To help consumers prevent these bad things from happening there is a solution that is being issued by many banks in the form of prepaid visa cards. The way this usually works is that your prepaid card is connected to your bank account. This means that the only money that you are able to spend is the money that you already have, this will solve the problem of incurring debt. A prepaid visa credit card can be used like the more traditional cards with the only difference being that the money that you spend today is taken out of your bank account and not something that you will need to pay back later. This means no monthly bills, no interest payments, or late fees.

Being Conscious of Your Finances

One of the major advantages of a prepaid visa card is that you will focus more on your spending habits. This can make you a much more responsible person when it comes to your budget. Your prepaid visa card will allow you to truly look at what you are spending, and because it is connected to the money you have now you will spend it more wisely than if you had a more traditional credit card. This type of card will prevent you from splurging too much on unnecessary items, and will let you truly think about where you can cut your spending. It will also help you think more seriously about items that you want that can be purchased at a later date.

No Additional Fees

One of the best things about a prepaid visa card is the lack of extra fees. Since the money you are spending comes directly from your bank account there are no monthly statements. This will keep you out of debt, and the monthly reminder about how much you are overspending on products and services purchased with more traditional credit cards. Just like using a more traditional card there is a right way and a wrong way, but a prepaid visa credit card is much easier to master than a more traditional card. The consequences for misusing your prepaid visa card will not affect your credit score like making a mistake with a real card. As long as you keep an eye on your money and cut out some of your overspending you will be able to keep your budget completely under control.