Wednesday, January 27, 2010

Free Online Credit Card Debt Advice

Free Online Credit Card Debt Advice

If you have credit card debt and are looking for advice, you should first determine what your goal is concerning your credit card debt. Online advice runs the gamut, so it's beneficial to narrow your focus when searching for free credit card advice. Consider things such as whether you want to reduce your credit card debt, find out how credit card laws affect you or learn how your credit debt affects your credit score.

Considerations

    Government websites can be a good source for unbiased information on credit card debt since they're not affiliated with creditors and they don't have credit card ads on their sites. For example, the U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC) site lists things consumers should expect if they choose to work with a debt-settlement company. However, the FTC also cites other options people have for settling their credit card debts if they're having trouble making their monthly payments. Options include contacting card issuers yourself to negotiate a settlement instead of paying fees to a debt-settlement company to do it for you.

Laws

    The U.S. Federal Reserve Board has established a website that explains how credit protection laws affect consumers. The Credit Card Accountability, Responsibility and Disclosure (CARD) Act is one law that limits credit card fees that add to consumers' debt. With some exceptions, the CARD Act disallows charging cardholders a late-payment fee that exceeds their minimum monthly payment. Furthermore, credit card companies can't charge cardholders inactivity fees for not using their credit cards.

Function

    Some financial magazines provide information concerning how credit card companies operate, including how they determine interest rates. A "Smart Money" magazine article titled "10 Things Credit Card Issuers Don't Say" notes that a card issuer may decide to raise your interest rate if your recent credit history shows late payments reported by another creditor. Credit card companies see late payments as a sign that customers are at high risk for defaulting on their accounts, so they raise rates to protect their company from anticipated losses.

Potential

    A section of the Bankrate.com site is devoted to credit cards. Among other things, the section includes tips on how credit-card debt affects credit scores. The debt-management section of the website also provides information on how to organize credit debt, including balance transfers. Bankrate warns cardholders to determine whether transferring the balance of one card to another to get a lower interest rate will be beneficial. Some balance-transfer offers include a low introductory interest rate that could eventually increase to a level that's higher than the previous card's rate.

Effects

    "This Week in Credit Card News" is a feature on the Forbes website. It includes current information that could affect your credit card debt. For instance, one article on the site notes that credit card offers from some retailers have interest rates as high as 29 percent. The site also lists the weekly average for credit card interest rates based on offers from more than 1,000 issuers.

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