Did you know that your credit card may be hiding some quite interesting and beneficial perks that you might be missing out on?

The following perks are from Citi:

- You have dedicated “concierge” staff to assist you. – There is a 24 hour personal concierge service that is around to make dinner reservations for you, get tickets to events, locate hard to find items, and even coordinate business arrangements worldwide. They can also assist you with gift selections and other requests that are said to “simplify your life.”

- You also have extra car rental insurance. Citi provides up to $50,000 in secondary coverage against collision or theft when you get a rental car and charge it on the card and decline the rental company’s insurance.

- There is also retail price protection. – This protects your stuff if it gets stolen or is accidentally broken up to $500 for the first 90 days of purchase when it’s put on the card.

- You have a price protection. If you purchase something with your card, except for online purchases and some excluded items, you have 60 days to find the same item for a lesser price you will get refunded up to $250 of the difference.

- You are not liable for unauthorized purchases online or offline.

- If an airline looses your luggage, you are eligible for up to $3,000 in lost luggage coverage for not only you, but also your dependents, when you charge your fare.

- You also have roadside assistance.

There are other perks that other companies may be willing to give you for just asking. Now that credit cards are charging more fees, however, it may be more difficult to come across any real rewards.

While many employers take the approach that their employees do not have to be motivated or that their salary should be enough motivation, there are small things that employers can do to get their employees to go above and beyond what is expected of them just by offering small employee incentives.

Rewards Programs have been successful for credit card companies to get customers to sign up for cards based on what they purchase the most. In most cases, the credit card companies have seen a lot of success through rewards programs because customers will spend more money on the credit cards to get the rewards rather than using cash or debit cards.

Incentive programs have been used with success for more than just credit card companies. I remember being offered incentives for fund raising programs while I was in elementary school. Everyone always wanted to sell the most candy bars so they could get the “big” prize. People will work for something if they think they can get it for free. Even recently, Disney is offering a free day pass to one of its parks if a person signs up to donate a day of their time to one of the sponsored charities listed by the company.

An employee program could be based on a similar structure as the credit card program. It works for employees that are compensated with commissions. The more that the employee does, the more money he or she can make. If an incentive program is used, you may be able to entice your employees to do more work or be more productive with their time for a minimal cost.

Here are some pretty common things that people tell themselves right before they find themselves in credit card debt:

1. It’s an emergency.
2. We deserve it.
3. It’s a bargain.
4. It’s not that much money.
5. The payment is small.
6. The card rewards make it worth it.
7. There’s an offer of zero percent APR on purchases.
8. Balance transfers are zero percent APR also.
9. Its for my business.
10. I’ll pay it off after graduation.

Here’s some truths to these lies that people tell themselves:

1. First of all, many times credit is not used in emergency situations. Sometimes we convince ourselves that credit cards will only be used in emergency situations and some people are able to stick to that rule, but not most.
2. No one deserves anything that they haven’t earned and later in life, they will be happy when they can afford something nice with the money that they’ve made working instead of paying interest on a splurge when they were younger.
3. A credit card is never a bargain. You will always pay interest. If you have an interest free card, it won’t remain that way forever and you HAVE to pay it off in order to keep from having to pay the interest. Did you know that even when you go to the furniture store and they say “no interest for 24 months!” or something like that, if you don’t have the furniture paid off by the end of those 24 months, you will have to pay interest on the entire purchase price,  not just what you owe.
4. It’s not that much money on the purchase maybe, but over time, the interest adds up and it becomes a lot of money.
5. The payment is small because it is meant to ensure that the credit card companies get the most amount of money they can from you. The smaller payment you make, the more interest the company will earn from your money.
6. The rewards are never worth it. Haha.
7. See number 3.
8. See number 3.
9. Businesses sometimes need loans to start up. However, if you’re going to take out money for your business, perhaps you should consider small business loans first. The interest rates are much smaller. However, if you can avoid it, why would you want to start your company in debt.
10. Haha. College procrastination at it’s greatest. I paid my credit cards off before graduation because I knew I had a crazy high student loan bill. Not everyone will have such an outrageous loan payment, but if you do those credit cards will likely be put on the backburner for awhile.

Lies, Lies, Lies….

An article written by Ethan Trex for Mental Floss brought up a few really interesting items that, over the years, Wal-Mart has banned from its aisles.

The first thing on the list was Midge, Barbie’s pregnant friend. Midge was part of Mattel’s “Happy Family” set. It’s not like she was trying to promote some kind of immoral family life either; Midge came with a husband and a son. When people started to complain that there was a pregnant Barbie, the doll got pulled.

A pair of underwear also found itself under fire when a cheeky saying on the pair “who needs credit cards…when you have Santa” got people fired up. Wal-Mart pulled the panties soon after they were released around Christmastime in 2007. With this one, yea, I can see how this could be particularly awful. Like the original poster said, this would be better on a t-shirt; harmless. But on a pair of Juniors’ underwear it’s a bit too much. It’s like seeing “sexy” costumes on Amazon for pre-teens (those get pulled as soon as people start noticing).

Even though 1995 was nearly 15 years ago, it’s not like it was before the Women’s Movement. In the Miami area, there was a shirt with Margaret from Dennis the Menace on the front. The shirt said “Someday a Woman Will Be President” and it was pulled from shelves of the Wal-Mart stores. Luckily, after some idiots got it right, the shirts were put back out on shelves, but not until they had been sitting in stock rooms for months.

Wal-Mart has always been known as a family-oriented store; or at least it has tried to be known as a family friendly store. So, it censors albums and even some movie titles (they required that Zach and Miri Make a Porno be shortened to simply Zach and Miri). Well, for reasons other than the movie being a bit raunchy, Wal-Mart did not sell the movie Superbad in Hawaii. Why? They pulled the movie from shelves after the governor asked them to because the movie came with a little fake ID like “McLovin’” had in the movie.

Wal-Mart really has some strange rules and while trying to maintain the company’s family friendly persona it has really made some interesting choices as to what it will and won’t stock. You can find some other really interesting things that the store has decided are too risque for its shelves at the source.
Source

Also, don’t forget how to learn the easy way to make fantastic posters for various occassions.

A spendthrift is someone who spends money; a lot of money and it can be considered wasteful the way he or she spends it.

Have you watched the movie Confessions of a Shopaholic? I watched it a couple of weeks ago, and while my shopping habits haven’t really gotten THAT out of control I have made a couple of splurges in the past that I know haven’t been the best shopping decisions.

It can be difficult to go from being someone who buys what they need and picks up a few extra things as well to someone who buys the bare minimum of what they need from the grocery store, often foregoing their favorite brands for the cheaper, generics, brands that are on sale, or the brands that have the coupons out that week.

The best, and easiest way, in my opinion, to go from someone who spends money to someone who saves money is to watch the flow of cash out of your bank account, closely. If you can watch that balance drop, then you are going to be far more likely to put down the debit card and head for the door.

Of course, there are times when shopping is more of a habit than a hobby and sometimes you may actually need to talk to someone about your “problem.” In the movie I was talking about earlier, there is a scene toward the beginning when the main character, who has maxed out her credit cards and can’t pay the bills, sees a really expensive green scarf on a mannequin and the mannequin starts talking to her (in her mind). The mannequin tells her that she needs the scarf and somehow she pools the money together to get it.

Thiis is just one example, even though it is a fiction example, of how shopping can actually become an addiction.

My biggest tip that helps me though, and I know I’ve said it a million times, is to MAKE A LIST. If I have a list, I won’t spend as much. If I have a list, there is a lesser chance that I will bring home things that are not on the list. If I make a list and arm myself with coupons, my savings are even greater (however, you have to remember not to buy something just because you have a coupon, make sure that you need it).

So you’re trying to take out a loan, get a credit card with a reasonable APR or trying to buy something, anything on credit, but your credit score is too low for your liking? Well, the first place to start when trying to rebuild that score is to find out what exactly makes up your credit score.

35% of your credit score is from paying your bills on time. To help improve this part of your score, start marking due dates on your calendar. This is the single largest section of your credit score. Setting up automatic bill payment is also another way to ensure that your bills are paid on time. This also keeps you from getting interest rate hikes on credit cards and loans. Someone who pays their bills on time, every time, has an average credit score of 706. Someone who pays 99% of the time on time’s average score is 658.

30% of your credit score is how much you owe. You need to make sure that you keep your balances from equaling up to 30% of your total credit line. Your credit score is partly based on the credit utilization ratio. If a credit card company ends up reducing your limit, what you owe actually becomes a larger percentage of your credit line. So, if this happens try to get in touch with your creditor and get the limit reversed to avoid a negative mark on your credit score.

15% of your credit score is the length of your credit history. In this case, someone who has had a credit history for 20 years is going to obviously be doing better than one who just graduated college. A trick to utilizing this 15% is to keep the first credit card you ever open, open. Use it a couple of times a year and pay it off.

10% of your credit score is credit expansion. Here’s a problem, when you apply for too much credit your credit score can be harmed, however having new credit accounts can also help your credit score. Open new accounts over time rather than trying all at once. This will help your credit score in the long run as long as you’re paying your bills on time.

The last 10% of your credit score is credit diversity. If you have all your credit in cards then you’re credit isn’t diverse. However, if you have a variety of credit cards, mortgage, car loans and pay the bills on time while keeping the accounts active, then you’re diversified in this aspect of your credit. The key is to keep the accounts active because not using the accounts won’t help your credit at all.

What would you give up to have a highly customized credit card?

Question:

Perhaps the real question is what kind of concessions would you be willing to make on things like APR and benefits to have a card that is uniquely you?

Answer:

I would rather have an ugly card than to have to worry about my 30% APR or not having any kind of benefits from the card. I have seen where people have to pay higher APR’s on the cards that have a cute picture of their cat or dog or kid just because the credit card company went through the “trouble” of putting a customized picture on the card. This isn’t always the case, but, like I said, I would rather have an ugly card.

So the truth is, I would not make any concessions when it comes to my credit cards and how they look. I never see my credit cards anyway because they’re always stuck in my wallet. If I’m at the gas station, I use the blue one. If I’m at the grocery store, I’ll use the red one. This is how I know my cards.

What you can learn from this booklet

As always it pays to shop around, whether you are a first time credit card user or have many. It is always a good idea to keep up to date with the best methods to use and save with credit cards for any purchase that you make.

To download this e-book, or any of our current e-books, please visit the ebook page where you may choose the e-book(s) you wish to download. *Download an e-book by clicking on it’s title.*

So you’re trying to take out a loan, get a credit card with a reasonable APR or trying to buy something, anything on credit, but your credit score is too low for your liking? Well, the first place to start when trying to rebuild that score is to find out what exactly makes up your credit score.

35% of your credit score is from paying your bills on time. To help improve this part of your score, start marking due dates on your calendar. This is the single largest section of your credit score. Setting up automatic bill payment is also another way to ensure that your bills are paid on time. This also keeps you from getting interest rate hikes on credit cards and loans. Someone who pays their bills on time, every time, has an average credit score of 706. Someone who pays 99% of the time on time’s average score is 658.

30% of your credit score is how much you owe. You need to make sure that you keep your balances from equaling up to 30% of your total credit line. Your credit score is partly based on the credit utilization ratio. If a credit card company ends up reducing your limit, what you owe actually becomes a larger percentage of your credit line. So, if this happens try to get in touch with your creditor and get the limit reversed to avoid a negative mark on your credit score.

15% of your credit score is the length of your credit history. In this case, someone who has had a credit history for 20 years is going to obviously be doing better than one who just graduated college. A trick to utilizing this 15% is to keep the first credit card you ever open, open. Use it a couple of times a year and pay it off.

10% of your credit score is credit expansion. Here’s a problem, when you apply for too much credit your credit score can be harmed, however having new credit accounts can also help your credit score. Open new accounts over time rather than trying all at once. This will help your credit score in the long run as long as you’re paying your bills on time.

The last 10% of your credit score is credit diversity. If you have all your credit in cards then you’re credit isn’t diverse. However, if you have a variety of credit cards, mortgage, car loans and pay the bills on time while keeping the accounts active, then you’re diversified in this aspect of your credit. The key is to keep the accounts active because not using the accounts won’t help your credit at all.

Are reward credit cards worth the effort?

Question:

I have recently tried to book a flight though my credit card reward system, and I didn’t know that it couldn’t be partially be paid for with reward points. I really didn’t know that you couldn’t do that. I have had this Citi card open for more than 4 years and have yet to see any “real” rewards from having it and spending thousands of dollars on the card. So, are reward cards really worth the effort?

Answer:

Yes and no. If you were going to spend that money anyway, then the card is worth it, but if you were going to carry a balance on the card then no.

After looking into Citicard practices, I noticed that they charge $25 for 1,000 “Thank You” points. It takes 22,000 (minimum) to book a flight anywhere. So, they expect you to spend a whole lot of money to take a flight that would cost you $200 on Orbitz or Priceline?

Again, if you were going to be using this card for purchases anyway, then go ahead, but if you’re using this card simply for the rewards and carrying a balance then…well check your APR.

Credit card holders feel they just won, but the new credit card legislation that President Obama signed into law Friday does not mean that you can start racking up those purchases worry-free. The rules will mostly go into effect in nine months from when Obama signed the bill, while others will kick in as early as 90 days afterward. As the new rules kick in and banks halt the abusive practices this legislation saves consumers from, you are likely to see more practices that are not against new policies that will hurt consumers just as badly, maybe worse. This may have been harmful to the balance we once saw. The banks have to respond to these changes in a way that is financially beneficial to them.

Not every response is positive. When you change a situation someone against you is banking on (pun intended), you often do not like their response. Whether you hold credit cards in order to rack up free rewards points or a debt you hope to one day pay off, you should watch out for several things: new fees, higher interest rates, less generous rewards and fewer promotional offers. It seems a few tips cannot hurt anybody.

Watch out for new fees. The new federal credit policy prohibits over-limit fees unless the cardholder agrees to allow transactions that exceed their limits. To make up for the obvious financial loss, banks will likely introduce other fees, possibly fees the “baby boomers” paid on their first cards but now thought were past history. As an example of the fees cardholders should watch out for, expect fees for rewards programs and possibly even fees for checking your balance.

You should expect annual fees to make a comeback. A few decades ago, annual fees were standard but dropped as competition among card issuers heated up. If you are anything like this author, you looked for cards with limited fees and an annual fee could be the deal breaker. Some issuers will attach annual fees on all their credit cards, while others will tie the fee to spending thresholds, so that only big spenders get away with fewer fees. It may be necessary for you to start racking up those reward points!

Prepare for higher rates. The current industry universal default allows banks and credit agencies to increase rates if a cardholder’s credit score drops or if they make late payments on other accounts. Once the new policies are in place, credit issuers will lose this powerful risk-management tool. Without the ability to act upon perceived risk level, card issuers will just start charging higher rates to everyone. Interest rates will likely go back to the 19% to 20% range for most people. The average variable-rate credit card today charges a low risk consumer 10.79% APR. (This information comes from BankRate.com, a leading industry analyst.)

Grace periods will become a thing of the past. The new legislation requires card companies to give consumers at least 21 days to pay their bills, but it doesn’t require them to offer a grace period, which isn’t the same as the cardholder’s due date though the two usually coincide somewhat. While the due date designates the day by which a payment must be received for the cardholder to avoid a late-payment fee, the grace period is the time during which the cardholder isn’t charged interest. Card issuers may get rid of grace periods altogether so that cardholders who pay their balances off each month will start paying interest immediately after making a purchase. Issuers have for many years wanted to get rid of the grace period on convenience users. It has become a bargaining tactic you will likely not see anymore.

Expect higher introductory rates. Low or 0% introductory APR offers have attracted consumers who posted a balance-transfer or opened up a new card. For example, this author is currently using a card that has three months left of a 0% introductory APR, one of many reasons it was such a wonderful credit move. Banks were able to offer those deals thanks to all the money they made on card users who made a late payment before the offer expired, invoking the bank’s penalty rate of 20% or more. Now that banks will no longer be allowed to increase interest rates on existing balances and all promotional offers have to last for at least six months, these promotions will likely disappear. Even those with perfect credit will likely see introductory rates no less than 6%.

Also expect lackluster or non-existent reward programs. Some companies have already been lowering rewards programs. Once they see lower revenue from penalty fees and interest charges due to the new legislation, they’ll become even less rewarding. Spending thresholds will likely go up so you will have to spend more to earn airline miles, points or cash back. Your creditor may also adopt more stringent rules, such as returning your rewards balance to a lower amount, maybe even wiping it out completely, if you make a late payment.

What can you do as a cardholder? Examine credit card statements and change-in-terms letters carefully. Issuers can currently change terms at any time with 15 days’ notice, but once the new law is in effect, they will have to give 45 days’ notice. You will be notified ahead of time that rates are increasing and you will be given the option to cancel your card prior to the rate hike. Remember that the vast majority of changes in terms are to the benefit of the creditor. If they send you a notice that terms are changing, read over it and find out if there are any changes that impact you in any negative way and act accordingly. When you receive any mailing from a creditor, look over every inch of every slip of included paper. You have heard of fine print. Do not assume that the fine print will be easy to find. Frankly, assume nothing.

Consumers who carry a balance will have to shop around for lower rates, perhaps in exchange for paying an annual fee in order to avoid high interest rates. Cardholders who pay their balances in full each month should not be affected. There is only so much interest that can be charged on purchases that are seventeen days old. To compare rates on new card offers, even preapproval offers, use sites like CreditCards.com, CardRatings.com or CardTrak.com. The only way to avoid interest charges upon disappearance of grace periods would be to stop using credit cards altogether or make sure credit card payments are on time and you have plenty of available balance on your card. In fact, experts advise that you keep half of your card balance unused because future creditors will not be inclined to think you are overextending your finances or living beyond your means.

If you have a low APR offer right now, do everything right and make no mistakes. Send payments in on time and do not do anything to trigger a penalty rate such as exceeding your credit limit. If you can acquire internet access via an SSL secured website, do it. It allows convenience and reduces mistakes. This author prefers internet access to credit accounts and has never had one problem.

If you have any significant miles, points or cash back and worry that your card may scale back its program, it may be smart to redeem your rewards now while there is still such a thing as a free lunch. (My apologies, Mr. President, but you made it the best cliché to use at that moment.)

The Senate passed a bill today to overhaul the way credit card companies work and how they interact with their customers. The measure passed the Senate yesterday at a 90-5 vote. It is expected to quickly pass through the House of Representatives and be on the President’s desk by the end of the week.

If enacted into law, credit card companies will have to change the way it does business, and many of the “shady” practices will have to end.

If the bill is enacted, some of the biggest issues that the credit card companies will have to begin allowing customers to pay their bills online, and even on the phone, for no extra fees. This has always been a big turn off for me. In my earlier years at college, I was the bad kind of customer that would pay the minimum balance when I couldn’t afford to pay more. My minimum balance was $15 all those years ago. I clearly remember this one time when I had to pay my bill over the phone because I had switched bank accounts and it was no longer linked to the account and I had simply forgotten about it. I called to pay the bill and the fee was $15. So, it cost the same amount to pay the bill over the phone as it did to pay the minimum balance. I have since, not used the pay by phone “feature.”

There is a bill set to take effect July 2010, but the new bill would cause changes much sooner.
Seeing as how July 2010 is so far away, that would give the credit card companies a lot of time to do some damage to customers’ accounts and balances. Until that point, the companies can change APR’s and other fees to even good customers.

When and if this bill goes into effect, the credit card companies will have to give 45 days’ notice to customers for raising interest rates; they will also have to give an explanation as to why the rates were raised.

I have yet to have any experience in that field simply because I am still building my credit history. I only have two “real” credit cards, one from Bank of America and one from Citi (I know, lucky me). Luckily for me, I have been able to fix any issues I’ve had with either card and the cards have been raising my limits and lowering my APR for the last few years.

However, it is quite shady when the companies raise APR’s and/or lower limits just to charge extra fees because they don’t know how to run their business and keep it in the black.

I hope that the government can work together to get this into effect as soon as possible to make sure that the credit card companies stay in check.

It is simply your riches to rags story. A man goes to UCLA for his MBA, gets married, gets “the job,” gets greedy and thinks he can run his own hedge fund to make more than his current salary of $750,000, he can’t make the amount of money he thought he could. So, to make up for the loss in income, he and his wife put all their expenses on credit cards and don’t pay the mortgage for 2 years.

Now he is working at a pizza restaurant for just over $7.00 an hour.

Here’s the whole story from ABC News:

Unfortunately, the scenario above is becoming a reality for more and more people as the world continues to struggle through a very tough recession. In the third quarter of 2008, individuals filing for insolvencies have increased by 8.8% compared to the previous quarter. Moreover, bankruptcies have increased by an alarming 12% versus the previous quarter, a clear indication that more and more people in the United Kingdom are feeling the somber effects of the economic crisis.

Debt Free Direct discusses personal insolvencies and its relation to the current economic crisis at http://www.debtfreedirect.co.uk/news/personalinsolvencies-8276-13012009.html. The article shows current statistics on the issue and demonstrates how the effects of the current economic crisis trickle down and influence the lives of regular folks. And the picture the article paints is one that a lot of people will surely be able to relate to – from working longer hours in a bid to protect jobs, to carpooling in order to save on fuel and gas consumption.

If you are considering filing for personal insolvency, you must remember that doing so will have an effect not only in your present but also in your future financial matters, your employment opportunities (should you be currently out of work and looking for a new job), and your current living situation should you be renting. And while it is a solution to your current financial problems that will pretty much allow you to start over with a clean slate financially, there will also be some disadvantages to this action in different aspects of your life in the future.

And perhaps the idea of losing the house you and your family live in is the most somber demonstration of all, and one that a lot of people these days unfortunately have to face in these financially-troubled times. By the third quarter of 2008, around thirteen thousand homes in the United Kingdom had been repossessed, according to the Financial Services Authority, showing an incredible increase from previous years. Such an increase in home repossession was brought about by the increase of mortgage possession orders, which are up by 4% from the previous year.

And while it may seem like the ordinary folks don’t have control over their financial fates, especially when presented with such depressing facts and figures, there are some ways to avoid the risk of having your home repossessed. Here are a few pieces of advice to help you and your family hang on to your beloved home:

Immediately get in touch with your lender at the onset of major financial changes. In the unfortunate event that you are made redundant by your employer, it is best to contact your lender immediately to inform them of your situation. Your lender may be able to adjust your monthly payments to a lowered amount that would be easier for you to meet in these troubled times.

Put your mortgage first before other loans! Your credit card bill and other personal loans can wait – in tight situations, you must learn to prioritize your loans and decide on which one to address first. More often than not, an individual would be most concerned with being able to keep his house, and if such is the case, he must make the call to allot his resources to his mortgage payments before attending to any other loans.

Be well-informed. Being knowledgeable on how mortgage possession orders and home repossessions work will allow you to strategize and devise a plan to avoid them. Visit a site like http://www.debtfreedirect.co.uk for more information and for useful advice on how to avoid getting a mortgage possession order, or how to prevent a mortgage possession order from ending into a home repossession. With constant vigilance and the right knowledge and guidance, hopefully you and your family will be able to keep your home.

The new rules will prohibit payments not be late until the borrower is given a reasonable period of time to pay, playing “too-high” fees for exceeding the credit limit because of a hold on the account, double cycle billing, and making deceptive offers.

The new rules will require lenders to give consumers 45 days notice before changes are made to the terms of a credit account. That includes increasing the interest rate or giving higher rates for penalties.

If you’re just getting started with your financial future, these steps can be useful. I really enjoyed the part about paying off debt by the time you’re 30. I was recently able to pay off my credit cards and am pretty happy about it…just in time to start paying tens of thousands in student loans!

To protect yourself through the holiday season (and throughout the year) here are some tips from the AP about how to keep your identity and credit cards safe while shopping online and offline.

How many times do we need to be told not to max out our credit cards, after the fact? I’m a 5th year senior, of course my credit isn’t as great as it would be if I was a graduate and paying off my student loans…I have to live with my decisions in these hard financial times, and when I graduate (sometime this summer) I have to go out and find a job that will cover my expenses, or hopefully (at least) cover my loan payments.

I have lived within my means, but at the same time, I will graduate college with a large amount of debt.

I guess I’m just tired of every time I go to Yahoo it tells me that I should live within my means when I know I have such a large debt facing me.

At the same time, I don’t carry cash, I can’t carry cash. When I have any cash on me (more than $20) I don’t feel safe. And if someone were to take my cash from me, there is no way to get it back…there is no protection associated with cash, unlike credit cards or most Visa or MasterCard backed debit cards, which can get your money back if your card is stolen or a charge shows up that can be disputed.

If you are going to be using cash for now, be careful, because there are stories coming out about how customers aren’t using cards anymore and I’m sure this will lead to some unsavory behavior by some members of society.

Remember, there are no obligations for companies that have filed for bankruptcy to redeem gift cards. So, now that Circuit City has filed, you would think that they would no longer sell gift cards, but they do. So, any day the remaining stores could decide to no longer accept the cards.

I went to a Linens-N-Things last week to check out the liquidation sale, and all over the registers, doors, and other surfaces said that they were no longer accepting not only gift cards, but also store credit cards.

Good luck with gift cards this year if you decide to give them to your friends and family, and keep an eye on the news to get a heads up as to which stores are in trouble.

The company said that it plans to scale down marketing, development, and technology advancements to help with the budget cut. As a result, most of the 7,000 employees to be laid off will be management.

Here’s another big company that has to reduce their workforce to cut the budget. It seems like this scenerio is happening more and more. With retail sales down and people more focused on not using their credit cards, American Express is likely not to be the only company to resort to huge layoffs.

When the economy is good, people run up their credit up and there are always those who refuse to pay old doctor bills or credit card bills. There will always be those who write bad checks or even accidentally go over a balance and bounce a few checks…

But, when the economy slows down, people begin to default on loans and credit cards. With this particular slow down, (I am careful with the word recession) people are also defaulting on their houses.

Debt collection agencies are always looking for new people. They pay minimum wage plus commissions. Turnover can be high in a debt collection agency, after all who wants to be yelled at all day while they’re at work? Not only that, but it’s nearly impossible for most people not to bring that frustration home.

Now, while the economy is slow and default is high, more debt collectors are needed. This makes work for those who are losing their jobs…the lowest paying jobs anyway.

Well, as long as you are being responsible with your spending and paying off the balance, not just the insane interest rates, credit cards offer several benefits.

First, it helps you build a credit history and improve your credit score. Both of those things are important. Poor credit can make your insurance go up (auto and home owner’s) and can even keep you from getting a job. Employers are looking at credit scores now and having a low score could keep you from getting a job or even a promotion.

Second, credit cards offer a lot more protection than a large wad of cash. If your wallet is stolen, all you have to do is call a number and go through a process and all of the money is restored. If you do a lot of online shopping, they are necessary, not only for the ability to purchase items online, but also for the protection they offer.

Also, some credit cards offer rewards that you would not otherwise get. I don’t spend a lot of money on my credit card, but I have built up enough rewards to get a CD or something, but it is a CD I would otherwise not have.

It isn’t only the pretty card that draws in the freshies, it’s also the free pizza or t-shirt they give away when you apply. When I was a freshman they were basically giving these cards to anyone who would take one. I will say freshmen, because AFTER you’ve been in college for a while you realize what’s going on. They write about it in the university newspaper.

So as we embark on a new school year, I’d like to give a piece of advice to the income freshmen and anyone else who wants to listen:
Go to the Union, buy your posters. Go to half.com (or amazon or wherever online), buy your books, and don’t give these credit card pushers the time of day.

Next week we’ll see the reports from Washington Mutual (woohoo) and Wachovia. They are expected to report losses as well. Of course, you know why everyone is reporting losses? I won’t default on my credit cards because I’m working hard to build my credit.

I’d like to see how my creditors are doing. I can’t think of who they are off the top of my head, but I think I’m keeping them in business with my student loan debt. It could be worse I suppose.