Archive for the 'credit card debt' Category

Do You Carry A Balance On Your Credit Cards?

Pretty much every newspaper article offering tips on using credit cards recommends that you pay off your credit card debt every month.  But two recent surveys have found that some Americans don’t know whether they are following this oft given advice.
A survey of 1,000 Americans sponsored by CreditCards.com found that 5 percent didn’t know whether [...]

Is Low Self Esteem the Cause of Credit Card Debt Problems?

A recent study published in the Journal of Consumer Research by Derek Rucker and Adam Galinsky of the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University suggests that the cause of Americans consumer debt problems is low self esteem. The study found that individuals who felt powerless were willing to pay a premium for items [...]

Small Business - The Next Credit Victim?

Credit cards are a popular source of financing for startup ventures.  They don’t require a business plan and they offer readily available credit - either through personal credit cards or business credit cards.  A survey by the National Small Business Association found that 44 percent of small and mid-sized businesses are financed through credit cards [...]

Thrifty Group Charges To Learn About Debt

The Institute for American Values and the Initiative For a New Thrift have just released their book, For A New Thrift: Confronting the Debt Culture. I went to their website after reading a news article about how the group should be getting more publicity - only to find out that I couldn’t read the [...]

Credit Card Companies Increasing Efforts to Collect on Credit Card Debt

The San Francisco Chronicle noted that credit card companies are sometimes taking the collection of credit card debt that is in arrears into their own hands.  No longer waiting for consumers to bring the account up to date on their own because of the threat of a damaged credit report or litigation, the credit card [...]

FSU Sells Out Students to Credit Card Companies

While Congress is examining the practices of credit card marketing toward college students, they should be examining the actions of the universities as well.
The Consumer Warning Network noted that Florida State University is profiting from the marketing of credit cards to its students, alumni, and supporters through an exclusive relationship between its athletic fundraisers and [...]

A Culture of Silence - The Credit Card Debt Taboo

A poll by CreditCards.com released recently found that Americans are more likely to talk about sex with someone that they have just met then they are too talk about credit card debt. Of the 1,000 individuals polled, 80% declared they were somewhat or highly unlikely to discuss credit card debt with someone that they [...]

Will the Global Banking Crisis Spread to Credit Card Companies?

It was a chaotic time on the stock market last week with rumors that Lehman Brothers would be the next investment bank to succumb to the credit crisis a la Bear Stearns, the closing of IndyMac, and the collapse of the stocks of mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddy Mac after the announcement that they [...]

Credit Card Debt Rises in May

Credit card debt (or so called revolving credit) grew by an annual rate of 7.14 percent in May, while consumer debt grew by an annual rate of 3.64% in May, said the Federal Reserve - according to Forbes.

Interest Rates on Citibank Credit Cards No Longer Safe

In its effort to save itself from the credit crisis, Citibank is risking alienating the majority of its customers and federal legislators and regulators as well.  Citibank started with a controversial new student loan policy announced after the Federal Reserve proposed regulations that would prohibit the announced practices.
Now, Citibank feels comfortable reconsidering promises made to [...]