Unsecured credit card

Federal Credit Card Legislation Goes in Effect Next Month!

by Vincent Polisi on January 15, 2010

Today, I was doing research for another article I was writing about credit cards for people with bad credit I landed on the site of First Premier, which is a company that specializes in working with people with bad credit.  I was trying to find some of their qualifications for an unsecured credit card, and landed on their application page.  I was surprised to see a big sign at the top that said “Due to Federal Credit Card Legislation this offer is only available until January 31.  Apparently their credit card violates the new laws that are designed to protect consumers.

There has been a lot of debate over these new laws which are designed to protect consumers but many say they are just going to cost them money.  These new laws will particularily impact unsecured credit cards for bad credit and credit cards for people who are carrying a lot of credit cards debt.

More on the new credit card legislation from around the blogosphere!

Reforms Considered for Hidden Credit Card Processing Fees

Merchants paid just shy of 60 billion dollars in interchange fees in 2008, an increase of 24% over 2005, according to a December 2009 report issued by the Federal Reserve Bank fo Kansas City, “An Update of Interchange Legislation in the … It’s unclear to me if this kind of legislation would help or hurt merchants. I accept credit cards, and I pay pretty heft fees for the privilege. If the legislation passes, do I want to lose sales by limiting which cards I would accept …

Fed Finalizes ‘Milestone’ Credit Card Reform Rules | ecreditdaily.com

The Federal Reserve today approved a final rule restricting interest rate hikes in the first year of credit card agreements with consumers, and unexpected increases on existing credit balances – except in the case of variable-indexed interest rates. … The Fed said it is a landmark rule – the core of the legislation signed by President Obama in May and dubbed the Credit Card Accountability Responsibility and Disclosure Act of 2009, or Credit CARD Act. …

Why Federal Credit Card Rate Caps Will Burn Consumers

Why Federal Credit Card Rate Caps Will Burn Consumers. Posted On: December 31, 2009. Consumers have been up in arms over escalating rates on their credit cards. They’ve complained to lenders, researched options on other credit card terms, … (CARD) Act of 2009 last May, and, in response to the promise of tighter restrictions, credit card companies scrambled to boost revenues by establishing rate increases prior to the February 2010 date for enacting the legislation. …

Credit Card Law Adversary Poised to be Senate Bank Panel Leader …

With regard to Johnson’s disapproval of the new credit card law in May last year, Ely expressed that the senator was “obviously sensitive” to the situation in his home state. … The bill, which was passed by the lower chamber in December last year, involves an overhaul of federal regulations of financial institutions. Johnson, on the other hand, is expected to protect the interest of community banks from falling under the weight of stricter laws. …

Joe Krier on the New Credit Card Legislation for Consumer Protection


By the way, if you are paying high interest rates on your credit cards, it is probably time you focused on repairing your credit.  Why not enroll in Credit Repair College?  It is the most affordable credit repair around! Let us teach you how to fix bad credit! If you find yourself saying, “I need to repair my credit!” we are here to help!
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How Does an Unsecured Credit Card Affect Your Credit?

by Wendy Black Polisi on December 10, 2009

An unsecured credit card is one whose available balance is not secured by actual money,  A secured credit card works largely the same way as a debit card, in that the entire balance available is backed by cash you already have, so when most people think of having a “credit card” they think of unsecured ones.

Does having one or more unsecured credit cards help or hurt your credit rating?

After the payment history factor (looking at whether you make your payments in full and on time), the second most important factor used in calculating your credit score is credit utilization. This is basically the ratio of your current credit balances (the amount you currently owe) to your credit limits (the amount of credit you have available).  Both unsecured credit card debt and secured credit card debt are factored in this calculation.

Credit utilization accounts for some thirty percent of your credit score in most FICO based rating systems. The less of your available credit that is being actively used, the better this factor is and the higher your credit score is. This factor relates primarily to revolving credit accounts, so credit cards, both major ones and store-specific charge cards, play a big role.

For example, if your Visa card has a limit of $10,000 and you have an outstanding balance of $1,000, your credit utilization ratio is 1:10. When calculating your FICO score, a similar calculation will be made for each of your revolving credit accounts and these totals will be combined to determine your credit utilization. So, even if three of your four credit cards carry no balance, but the fourth one is at the limit (“maxed out”), your combined ratio will still be significantly lowered regardless of how good of shape the other cards are in.

It should also be noted that paying off and then closing a credit card account can hurt this part of your credit score. Paying off the credit card balances each month, and thus carrying no debt forward provides the best possible scores. (You just need to pay before your statement cuts – not on the due date!)

However, if you pay off and then close the account, the second part of the ratio – the amount of credit currently available – is reduced, which in turn lowers your average. People working on credit score repair should consider keeping their revolving credit accounts open, even if they do not actively use them and keep their balances paid off. Doing this significantly increases the amount of revolving credit available and therefore increases the total score for this factor.

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The Difference Between an Unsecured Credit Card, Prepaid and Secured Credit Cards!

October 29, 2009

If you have challenged credit and are looking for a credit card, you may be wondering what type of credit card you should get. You have three options. You can get an unsecured credit card, a secured credit card or a prepaid credit card. Each of these has it’s advantages. To be approved for an [...]

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