Credit cards are pretty sophisticated financial instruments. What this means is that one must be responsible if they wish to carry a credit card in their wallet. The seemingly innocuous pieces of plastic can get you into trouble if you aren’t careful, and the last thing you want is a missed credit card payment. Aside… Continue reading Statement Balance vs. Account Balance

Credit card Q&A: “How are credit card payments applied to balances?” Back in the good old days (as far as credit card issuers were concerned), credit card payments applied to balances with the lowest APR first, followed by higher APR balances. This practice was known as negative payment hierarchy, and essentially allowed credit card issuers… Continue reading How Are Credit Card Payments Applied to Balances?

Have you ever stopped to take a hard look at your credit card? Aside from the cool design, shape, and colors, there are lots of numbers emblazoned on the front (unless it’s the Chase Sapphire Preferred). And those numbers are pretty darn important, as they are necessary to process your transactions to ensure everyone gets… Continue reading What Do the Numbers on Your Credit Card Mean?

It seems everyone is always looking for results overnight, whether it be a new diet or a get-rich quick scheme. Unfortunately, meaningful results take time (and work), and the same is true for your increasingly important credit score. While making on-time payments is the most important factor behind all credit scores, including both FICO and… Continue reading The Average Age of Open Credit Lines Is Extremely Important!

While many businesses are beginning to ONLY accept plastic as a means of payment, there are still some companies that do not accept all types of credit cards for one reason or another. For example, most airlines only accept credit cards for in-flight purchases nowadays, but some big-box stores don’t even accept major forms of… Continue reading What Credit Cards Do the Big Box Stores Accept?

A reader recently asked, “When does my credit report/credit score get updated?” This is a great question, and one that causes plenty of confusion and debate. The best way to tackle this question is to first differentiate credit reports and credit scores. I’ve already written an entire post comparing and contrasting the two, but I’ll… Continue reading When Are Credit Reports and Credit Scores Updated?

You can shun credit cards all you want, but understand that more than half of consumers get things started with a credit card. That’s right; a new study from FICO, the brains behind the ubiquitous FICO score, revealed that 50.1% of the population (in the study) opened a bankcard before any other type of account.… Continue reading For Most Consumers a Credit Card Is Their First Line of Credit

These days, credit card issuers allow their cardmembers to do all sorts of neat stuff, though much of it isn’t advertised or widely known to the public. One such feature many issuers offer is the ability to choose your own credit card due date, or change your existing credit card due date. Why Change Your… Continue reading Changing Your Credit Card Due Date