My New Credit Card

For the novice or aspiring cardholder, credit card applications and offers can be quite confusing, considering all of the seemingly esoteric terminology used by financial institutions. Without the proper understanding of the terminology, cardholders can be persuaded into applying for credit cards that charge unfair fees and interest rates. Before applying for a card, applicants should understand the following important credit card terminology:

Balance

Since credit cards are actually ongoing loans, the term “balance” can be somewhat confusing, as the money within the credit card account does not technically belong to the cardholder. The credit card balance is defined as the total sum of all purchases, cash advances, card fees and finance charges. In basic terms, the balance is the amount of credit that has been used. Higher account balances lead to higher credit utilization rates, which eventually lowers the credit score.

Grace Period

The grace period is the time given to the cardholder in which they can repay their card balance in full before interest is charged. If

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A cash back bonus credit card with rotating categories offers a percentage back in certain categories that are determined by the card issuer. One way issuers offer this is by having rotating categories which change periodically, for example each quarter. If a credit card refers to rotating categories, the card offers extra rewards for purchases made in the assigned category of that quarter. Different categories consist of grocery stores, drugstores, gas, hotels, airfare, home improvement, charities, restaurants, department stores, movie theaters, health care, fitness, amusement parks, etc.

For example, the Discover More card offers a 1% cash back bonus for any purchase made with your Discover card. However, because this card has rotating categories, card members will earn a total 5% cash back bonus on any purchase made under a rotating category.

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Sports fans who fail to secure any Olympics tickets after the deadline closed on Tuesday night will have a second chance of buying tickets, the organisers have said.

The deadline to book seats for the London 2012 games was at 23.59 on Tuesday night and the London Organising Committee of the Olympic Games (Locog) spent large amounts of money and time persuading consumers to order tickets by the end of the Easter Bank Holiday.

However, it has admitted that many tickets – possibly as many as 1 million – will be released later this year. Most will be for less popular events that have failed to attract much interest in the initial application process. These are expected to include handball, basketball, indoor volleyball, hockey and particularly football, an event which is being played in large, premiership grounds with plenty of seats to fill.

Locog hopes to have raised about £400 million of its target of £500 million from selling about 80 per cent of the 6.6 million available tickets by Tuesday night.

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  Here’s one gift that I received from the recession: A profound fear of excessive debt. Before the financial crisis hit in 2008, I cared more about molding my life into what I thought it should be than about building a secure foundation for the future.     I thought nothing of paying for grocery bills with my credit card so that I could “afford” the rent in a tiny shared apartment in New York, and I came dangerously close to signing up for $60k in student loans so that I could hang a fancy graduate degree on my threadbare wall.   It wasn’t until I was seriously shaken by the Great Recession that I began to reassess my rocky relationship with debt. Nothing is worth a lifetime of restricted choices and unremitting financial fear. But the psychology that leads a person to accumulate excessive debt so that they can live a life more closely aligned with what they imagined is easy to understand.    A new study that is set to appear in the Journal of Consumer Research in December came to a similar conclusion. The study pro Full Post…