Archive for June, 2008
3 Crazy Nights in Chicago - Chapter 1: Chicago Swallows my Phone
June 30, 2008 12:24 pmSo much happened this weekend that I need to write it up by chapter to organize my thoughts. And so, I bring you tales from the city streets. Enjoy.
Chapter 1: Chicago Swallows my Cell Phone
Hot as an oven, vibrant, pulsating with life and music and smelling familiarly industrial like rubber and asphalt, Chicago in the summer infuses my soul with life, heat and passion. Maybe it’s because I was born here on a steamy July day, but walking downtown this weekend, I felt one with the city. We are jersey dresses and flip flops and iced coffee and open fire hydrants and sunburns and sweat and ponytails and baseball caps. We are Cubs and Sox. We are proud, tall buildings that stand up to winds and storms. We are families and sisters and brothers and lovers and fighters and friends and everybody and nobody all at once.
It’s enough for a girl to get caught up in, swallowed whole by the romance of a sunny day when the world is free and open and bright and anything …can happen. Well, I didn’t get swallowed up. But I was so ennamored with the city this weekend, serving as a guide for friends from afar, that I lost track of time, I lost track of my responsibilities… and I ultimately totally lost my phone.
I first noticed it was missing Saturday morning, apparently discarded somewhere between late night McDonald’s and our hotel around 2 a.m. I wondered: Is it somewhere on a street curb, lonely? I wonder if it was karma - The City’s way of balancing out the perfect evening with a little unpleasantness to remind me that like the seasons, Chicago’s mood can change at any time.
Unfortunately, and much more pragmatically, turns out that someone else has it. They tried calling my parent’s house in the morning before turning off the phone for good. Sadly, this means I won’t get it back. This also means all my cell photos… including California sunsets, Wrigley Field from the top balcony and my mother dressed in a banana suit… are lost.
So on Saturday morning I went to the Sprint store, where I spent two hours negotiating a new contract (mine was up) and cell phone. I ended up with a pricey BlackBerry Pearl (I had planned to buy one for work, just not at that moment) with an added service pack and insurance for an extra $37/month, but my work will cover the BB pack so the monthly costs aren’t bad.
While I didn’t enjoy loosing my perfect afternoon and precious time with friends to the Sprint store, I was grateful to have a rainy day fund to fall back on. You don’t plan to loose your phone with out-of-town guests in your city. But you should plan to have some extra cash in case you do. My rainy day fund turned out to be more than a cliche — after I got my new phone, it poured most of the evening, cooling down temperatures but serving as yet another reminder to be prepared for anything at any moment. Because what saves you today might be that layering sweater or the small umbrella you keep in your bag, but tomorrow might be far more costly.
Chapter two coming tomorrow.
By Mike Killian, CardRatings.com Debt/Credit Management Reporter
Age of Majority is considered “the year a person acquires all the rights and responsibilities of being an adult”. In most states this is 18. For example, a teen cannot be drafted before age 18. Yet contrary to popular belief, an adolescent can have a credit card… BEFORE the Age of Majority!
The stats regarding high school card usage may surprise some. According to the JumpStart Coalition for Personal Financial Literacy, a nonprofit educational organization, nearly a third of high school seniors reported having a credit card of their own or one co-signed by a parent. Also, according to surveys conducted by nationally recognized credit expert Dr. Robert Manning, the number of incoming college freshmen with credit cards tripled between 1999 and 2002.
Dr. Manning is the Director of the Center for Consumer Financial Services at Rochester Institute of Technology. He is also author of Credit Card Nation and has testified before congressional hearings as a consumer advocate on issues related to credit and credit cards.
In a phone conversation, Dr. Manning offered some very revealing and even startling points.
“A credit card can be issued before the age of 18. A creditor simply cannot force a minor to pay the debt. 
Approximately 1/3 and possibly as much of 40% of all High School Seniors AND Juniors have a credit card today. Possession of a credit card has been a simple migration from older brothers and sisters in college to younger siblings in high school and the advertiser naturally follows this migration.
But in addition to normal consumer purchases, availability of the high school credit card can easily lead to issues of secrecy. An emergency room treatment to pump a stomach after a night of drinking can now be kept from a parent. A traffic ticket is paid by credit card and the parent never knows. All of these issues and more are easily handled with a credit card. So targeting the high school age consumer is not this societies only concern with younger credit card holders.”
I also made contact with Laura Levine, who is the Executive Director JumpStart Coalition for Personal Financial Literacy. According to Laura,
“In our 2006 Survey of Financial Literacy Among High School Students, 12.9 percent of the survey participants already had credit cards of their own. (We survey 12th graders, only, so a lot of them are already 18.) Fourteen-and-a-half percent said they used their parents’ credit cards and 4.8 percent of them said they used both their own card and their parents’ cards. Of the 5,775 students we surveyed, 67.7 said they did not yet use a credit card.
Although I personally believe that some companies are marketing a little too assertively to teenagers and I would prefer they didn’t, I think it’s more important and more effective to educate our young people about using credit cards wisely rather than to try to stop the marketers. Especially if we’re talking about teens, they’re just a few years from being able to get a credit card on their own anyway, so I’d rather see them be better prepared to handle it.”
I think Laura and Dr. Manning both make some very good points. Part 2 of this article series addresses how to best educate the future leaders of our country about credit cards. A lot is at stake here folks, not the least of which is the future success or failure of our nation.
We welcome your comments about credit card and other money issues in our popular credit forum!
Mike Killian has been writing about credit and debt management issues that are of importance to consumers for over 8 years. His articles have been referenced by various members of the media, including MSNBC and The Motley Fool. Mike has also offered debt elimination seminars to businesses and community colleges for many years.
Mike offers free consumer advice on the CardRatings.com Credit Forum as well as on his own site, FreeMoneyTraining.com. While at his site, you can view additional articles as well as his schedule of upcoming seminars.
CardRatings.com is the most comprehensive source for comparing credit card offers. CardRatings.com is pleased to offer consumers free credit card ratings.
Please Note! You are welcome to republish this article as long as you state that CardRatings.com is the source for the article. You must also include a link to our website if you republish the article online. Click here for more details about using our articles and thanks for your interest!
By Mike Killian, CardRatings.com Debt/Credit Management Reporter
In part one of this article series, the extent of high school credit cards was discussed by Laura Levine, Executive Director of the JumpStart Coalition for Personal Financial Literacy. Similarly, Dr. Robert Manning, author of Credit Card Nation, shared some very startling and revealing facts about younger teen credit card usage.
The facts were scary but is it right to keep a card from a teen until age 18 when he/she can get one on their own anyway? A credit card for many adults is an adventure in disaster at best. How can we as responsible parents allow our unsuspecting youth to enter the “world of plastic” completely unaware and without a shred of experience?
In 1997, I wrote an article called Credit Cards… Just Like Drugs. In it I said there was no better analogy. We use it (credit) and use it and use it until we can’t live without it. Yet we live in an “age of plastic” and our youth must be taught to use plastic responsibly, even if we as parents have not. Sounds reasonable, right? But how exactly do you we go about doing that?!?
I don’t have all the answers but I have tried to put together some ideas which might help.
Laura shared a few clarifications on these tips that I think are very important:
“Parents who get pre-paid cards or debit cards for their kids, as well as parents who co-sign a credit card for them, need to remember a few things: If your son or daughter is under 18, then you, the parent, are responsible for that card, not your teenager. A debit or pre-paid card is not perfect “training” for a credit card; they are good money management tools, but don’t teach your child about interest rates, making payments, accruing debt, etc.–and these are the things that new credit card users seem to struggle with. A teenager isn’t going to learn–or isn’t necessarily going to learn the right things–simply by getting and using a credit card. I often use the analogy of a musical instrument. We don’t buy our kids violins and hope they’ll just plunk around until they learn how to play it. Why would we think kids will learn how to manage money simply by being given a credit card?”
Consider the alternative. If your teenager had a credit card at this moment, would you be willing to drop them off at the mall with their card? If not, perhaps parental training before they reach 18 is in order.
We welcome your comments about credit card and other money issues in our popular credit forum!
Mike Killian has been writing about credit and debt management issues that are of importance to consumers for over 8 years. His articles have been referenced by various members of the media, including MSNBC and The Motley Fool. Mike has also offered debt elimination seminars to businesses and community colleges for many years.
Mike offers free consumer advice on the CardRatings.com Credit Forum as well as on his own site, FreeMoneyTraining.com. While at his site, you can view additional articles as well as his schedule of upcoming seminars.
CardRatings.com is the most comprehensive source for comparing credit card offers. CardRatings.com is pleased to offer consumers free credit card ratings.
Please Note! You are welcome to republish this article as long as you state that CardRatings.com is the source for the article. You must also include a link to our website if you republish the article online. Click here for more details about using our articles and thanks for your interest!
Figures…
June 27, 2008 2:22 pmNote to self:
Cheap shoes = shoes held together with packing tape when the strap breaks.
Turns out, you DO have to spend more than $20 if you want to look professional at work. Sigh. Still, you can’t blame a girl for trying to save a few dollars.
Wednesday News Round Up: I’m a total YAWN! (…Awesome)
June 26, 2008 3:03 pmSorry all, been in UP Michigan with my dad, brothers and boyfriend on our annual fishing trip, and we had no Internet there. (Yes, I am Midwestern..It was fantastic cheap fun.) Until I can catch up, here are a few helpful articles to help you pass the time. Enjoy!
Young, Prosperous and Frugal
Kiplinger.com
By Erin Burt
What you can learn from millionaires on a budget.
TOTAL BB shout-out for this fantastic article! Read it and learn how we roll.
I am a beliver in the YAWN philosophy (just without the W).
Living together while keeping money unmarried
US News and World Report online
By Kimberly Palmer
Welcome to my world, yo.
Using your tax rebate: What’s good for you vs. the economy?
USA Today online
By Mindy Fetterman, Alex Newman and Juan Thomassie
It was interesting to see how what’s good for you isn’t really going to help the economy. Yeesh, that’s a head scratcher.
What the Fed’s decision means for you
CNN.com
By Jessica Dickler
This was helpful, so read it.
By Mike Killian, CardRatings.com Debt/Credit Management Reporter
Operation Hero Miles was created by Congressman Ruppersberger(D-MD) in October, 2003. The program allows troops stationed in Iraq or Afghanistan to fly home on leave for free. It also gives family members of wounded servicemen and women free plane tickets to visit their loved ones recovering at military hospitals across the country. If you ever wanted to support our troops, this is a marvelous opportunity to do so and what better time to do so as we remember the 5-year anniversary of 9-11.
Now operating through a partnership with the Fisher House Foundation, the program seeks and issues badly needed free tickets to our service men and woman and their families.
I spoke with the Fisher House Vice President of Communications, James D. Weiskopf, about the innovative program. According to James,
“With your support, we have provided nearly 6,500 tickets to Iraqi Freedom and Enduring Freedom hospitalized service members and their families, worth more than $8 million (average savings per ticket is currently about $1,300).
Fisher House™ is proud to partner with Hero Miles in support of our wounded and injured service men and women and their families. We do not yet have access to all frequent flyer miles donated through Hero Miles, but do have partnerships with the following airlines: AirTran Airways, Alaska Airlines, American Airlines, Continental Airlines, Delta Air Lines, Midwest Airlines, Northwest Airlines, United Airlines, US Airways.”
Fisher House takes care of all associated airline ticket taxes, security fees and administrative fees. Furthermore, they handle the first trip for a non-accompanied minor. It is worth noting, though, that Fisher House agreements with individual airlines only permit airline tickets for military (or DoD civilian employees) hospitalized as a result of their service in Iraq, Afghanistan, or surrounding areas, and their families. These tickets can not be used for R&R travel, ordinary leave, emergency leave, or other travel not related to a medical condition.
Fisher House is involved with numerous programs but offers a specific page for donating frequent flyer miles. It is appropriately named Hero Miles. Be sure to scroll down to view the PDF file entitled Quick Reference Guide To Donate Miles. This file offers a concise procedure for each participating airline.
Cardholders who have travel rewards credit cards can participate in the program by following a two-step process. First of all, you must transfer the miles that you’ve earned on your rewards card into an airline frequent flyer account. Then once the miles are in the airline account, simply ask the airline to transfer the miles following the procedure listed above. Please note that some reward cards, particularly those that are not directly affiliated with an airline, will not allow you to transfer miles into an airline frequent flyer account.
If you ever wanted to support our service men and woman and have frequent flyer miles available, then please seriously consider this deserving program. Regardless of your personal feelings about the war that we’re waging, you will be helping some very deserving individuals and their families who are doing a very difficult task on behalf of their country.
The Hero Miles creator, Congressman C.A. Dutch Ruppersberger, sums up the beauty of the program best by noting that,
“Whether you are for or against the War in Iraq, we must support our troops. When I visited BWI-Thurgood Marshall Airport greeting the servicemen and women coming back from Iraq and Afghanistan, I was shocked to learn they were forced to pay their own way home from there. I got together with the airlines and set up a website, HeroMiles.org, creating a way for Americans to donate their unused frequent flyer miles to military personnel, and Operation Hero Miles was born.
More than 540 million miles have been donated - enough for more than 22,000 free flights for the troops. Operation Hero Miles was expanded to give family members of wounded servicemen and women free plane tickets to visit their loved ones recovering at military hospitals across the country. Sometimes the love and support of family is the best medicine to help a troop recover. It is an honor to give something as small as a plane ticket to our servicemen and women and their families who give so much and risk their lives for their country.”
We welcome your comments about credit card and other money issues in our popular credit forum!
Mike Killian has been writing about credit and debt management issues that are of importance to consumers for over 8 years. His articles have been referenced by various members of the media, including MSNBC and The Motley Fool. Mike has also offered debt elimination seminars to businesses and community colleges for many years.
Mike offers free consumer advice on the CardRatings.com Credit Forum as well as on his own site, FreeMoneyTraining.com. While at his site, you can view additional articles as well as his schedule of upcoming seminars.
CardRatings.com is the most comprehensive source for comparing credit card offers. CardRatings.com is pleased to offer consumers free credit card ratings.
Please Note! You are welcome to republish this article as long as you state that CardRatings.com is the source for the article. You must also include a link to our website if you republish the article online. Click here for more details about using our articles and thanks for your interest!
By Mike Killian, CardRatings.com Debt/Credit Management Reporter
Every now and then a film comes along which should be viewed by every single American. Such a film is the recently released In Debt We Trust- America Before the Bubble Bursts. This is a video by highly acclaimed documentary director, Danny Schechter. Among his more than 20 other recognized films is the award-winning expose Weapons of Mass Destruction.
His newest release, In Debt We Trust is inspired by the works of an individual who is no stranger to this site - Dr. Robert Manning, a Research Professor of Consumer Financial Services at Rochester Institute of Technology and the author of Credit Card Nation (Basic Books, 2000). The film gives great insight into the impact debt is having on young people and our society, and offers ways to empower the public with information on avoiding the traps of debt and dependency.
A frequently invited expert at U.S. Congressional hearings, Dr. Manning’s consumer credit research has influenced public policy debate on consumer debt issues. He has become one of the most outspoken critics of the nation’s consumer spending habits and lending practices.
According to Dr. Manning, the documentary helps expose several disturbing patterns, such as banking deregulation:
“…deregulation of the banking industry in the 1980s has unleashed powerful forces that encourage banks to over lend and seduce consumers to overspend….People could be managing their lives better, but the odds are stacked against them.”
I caught with director Danny Schechter. Danny’s comments were as hard-hitting as his film:
Most often, credit card abuses are examined in terms of individuals and consumer scams like identity theft. My film started with that approach but evolved into a much deeper look at what’s been called “financialization.” This is an institutional problem involving a growing debt-and-credit complex that threatens the very fabric of our nation, not just in terms of a possible financial crash in the future but how it is impinging upon our lives and livelihoods right now.”
As a fellow consumer action reporter and counselor, I strongly encourage every reader to look for this film in one of its 4 versions: 30 minute television production, DVD version, full length theater version, or international version. Regardless of which version you watch, be prepared for a strong call to action.
In the words of the director:
My film is out to prove them wrong. The American public needs to know why debt has become “the enemy,” in the words of one of the people we interviewed. All Americans need to know what we can do about it.”
I can only hope that the documentary garners mainstream media attention as it is a much-needed wake-up call. We simply can’t continue on the same course for very long.
We welcome your comments about credit card and other money issues in our popular credit forum!
Mike Killian has been writing about credit and debt management issues that are of importance to consumers for over 8 years. His articles have been referenced by various members of the media, including MSNBC and The Motley Fool. Mike has also offered debt elimination seminars to businesses and community colleges for many years.
Mike offers free consumer advice on the CardRatings.com Credit Forum as well as on his own site, FreeMoneyTraining.com. While at his site, you can view additional articles as well as his schedule of upcoming seminars.
CardRatings.com is the most comprehensive source for comparing credit card offers. CardRatings.com is pleased to offer consumers free credit card ratings.
Please Note! You are welcome to republish this article as long as you state that CardRatings.com is the source for the article. You must also include a link to our website if you republish the article online. Click here for more details about using our articles and thanks for your interest!
Discover’s New Business Credit Card May Transform Card Industry
June 23, 2008 5:01 pmBy Mike Killian, CardRatings.com Debt/Credit Management Reporter
Discover has launched a very unique and innovative business product simply called the Discover Business Card. While having some similarities to Discover’s standard Platinum Card that has been offered to consumers since 1985, the business card is customized to meet the needs of the small business market.
I spoke with Sastry Rachakonda, Director of Discover’s Business Card division, about some of the special features of this card. I was particularly interested in learning more about “PurchaseChecks”, a benefit which Discover has been touting in marketing efforts. According to Sastry,
“Fee-free PurchaseChecks are a unique feature of the Discover Business Card. Unlike convenience checks which many other institutions offer with their card, these checks are completely free with no hidden charges. They get similar benefits as the Discover Card, such as earning rewards, and the same APR and payment grace period as card purchases. This is especially useful if the business-to-business source does not accept credit cards as often is the case. PurchaseChecks provide a flat .25%, and the Discover Business Card provides 5% Cashback Bonus on office supplies, 2% on gas and up to 1% on all other purchases. There is still no limit on cash reward, it never expires and Cardmembers have the ability to increase — even double — their rewards (turn $20 into $40) by purchasing from any of the 70 brand-name partners.”
I must admit that I was impressed by this concept and could see that it could possibly create major ripples in the card industry. After all, many business transactions are still done without the use of credit cards. Sastry was quick to point out another unique feature of the card,
Sastry concluded the interview with a comment that I think is worth noting.
That evening I caught a competitor’s ad boasting about their cash back rewards program and was reminded that Discover is often credited with having created America’s growing addiction to cash back credit cards. My next thought was that in the not-so-distant future others will probably start mimicking the innovative Discover Business Card as well. 
We welcome your comments about credit card and other money issues in our popular credit forum!
Mike Killian has been writing about credit and debt management issues that are of importance to consumers for over 8 years. His articles have been referenced by various members of the media, including MSNBC and The Motley Fool. Mike has also offered debt elimination seminars to businesses and community colleges for many years.
Mike offers free consumer advice on the CardRatings.com Credit Forum as well as on his own site, FreeMoneyTraining.com. While at his site, you can view additional articles as well as his schedule of upcoming seminars.
CardRatings.com is the most comprehensive source for comparing credit card offers. CardRatings.com is pleased to offer consumers free credit card ratings.
Please Note! You are welcome to republish this article as long as you state that CardRatings.com is the source for the article. You must also include a link to our website if you republish the article online. Click here for more details about using our articles and thanks for your interest!
Simmons Bank Introduces New Low Fixed Rate Visa Card @ 7.25% APR
June 22, 2008 5:42 pmBy Mike Killian, CardRatings.com Debt/Credit Management Reporter
Why would anyone apply for a credit card from a bank located in Arkansas? The answer is simple. Cards issued by Arkansas banks have historically offered some of the lowest rates in the country.
The latest offering by an Arkansas based bank is no exception. I am referring to the new Simmons First Visa Platinum Card, which boasts a 7.25% fixed purchase rate (APR). It is refreshing to see a low fixed rate card offer in a rising tide of interest rates (the average rate on variable rate platinum cards is now about 14%). Considering the fact that cardholders have had to digest 17 interest rate hikes by the Feds in the past two years, this card is definitely “bucking the high interest rate trend”.
But having one of the consistently lowest fixed rates in the country is only one of the benefits of using the Simmons First Visa Platinum Card. Why? Because the card also provides benefits such as travel insurance, emergency cash and a customer service center that is always open. There is also no annual membership fee and no transaction charges for balance transfers (the balance transfer APR is also 7.25% fixed).
Simmons’ card offers have received much national recognition. Money Magazine has cited Simmons for having “one of the best [card] bargains in America”. Consumer Reports noted that Simmons has one of the ten most consumer-friendly cards in the nation. And the Wall Street Journal pointed out Simmons reputation for good customer service. According to the Journal,
“Once you’ve entered the low-rate club, you’re generally treated more like a neighbor and less like a number.”
So, what’s the catch? Well, Simmons does require that applicants have good credit. In other words, they don’t give their card out to just anyone that asks for it! If your credit is good, though, you definitely should consider Simmons. You’ll be hard pressed to find another card with a lower rate that is as consumer friendly.
We welcome your comments about credit card and other money issues in our popular credit forum!
Mike Killian has been writing about credit and debt management issues that are of importance to consumers for over 8 years. His articles have been referenced by various members of the media, including MSNBC and The Motley Fool. Mike has also offered debt elimination seminars to businesses and community colleges for many years.
Mike offers free consumer advice on the CardRatings.com Credit Forum as well as on his own site, FreeMoneyTraining.com. While at his site, you can view additional articles as well as his schedule of upcoming seminars.
CardRatings.com is the most comprehensive source for comparing credit card offers. CardRatings.com is pleased to offer consumers free credit card ratings.
Please Note! You are welcome to republish this article as long as you state that CardRatings.com is the source for the article. You must also include a link to our website if you republish the article online. Click here for more details about using our articles and thanks for your interest!
Credit Cards Come to Vending Machines- Students and All Consumers Beware
June 21, 2008 6:23 pm
By Nancy Castleman, CardRatings.com Consumer Reporter
According to industry experts, cashless vending machines are coming our way, quickly. In fact, folks in Philadelphia will soon be able to use a credit card at 1,000 Coke machines. And it’s expected that by 2009, over half the vending machines in the U.S. will take credit cards.
That’s good news … if you are a careful budgeter, spender, and bill payer. It can only make life more convenient for you — whether you’re indulging in a quick sweet treat or making do, while you’re pacing around a hospital emergency room. Just think … quotations like this may soon be a thing of the past:
But if you already spend more than you should supporting this industry, which pulled in over $21 billion in 2004, beware! We’re expected to spend a whopping 50% more when we can use a piece of plastic to buy snacks, soft drinks, and what-have-you from vending machines.
As Elliot Maras, who is the Editor of Automatic Merchandiser Magazine, explains,
“The 50 percent increase in average ticket is similar to the increase seen at quick serve restaurants when card transactions were introduced two years ago, driving an almost overnight acceptance of cashless transactions by the fast food industry.”
New Ways to Encourage Impulse Purchases
Also coming our way soon, thanks to cashless vending, will be the sale of more valuable items … in snazzy new machines … in new places. For example, starting this fall, Macy’s will be selling iPods and other electronics that way. We’ll be able to use our credit and store cards to quickly get the latest “must-have” gadgets from nifty-looking, “cool” machines. Oh joy!
From Elliot Maras’s point of view:
“The fact that a prestigious department store such as Macy’s is willing to have a vending machine on its premises reflects the progress that the vending industry has made on the public relations front. Just a few years ago, no department store would have considered having a vending machine on its premises. The old perception that vending machines make for poor customer relations and are associated with cheap merchandise is falling by the wayside.”
Particularly Worrisome
Parents whose children have easy access to a “Snack Center” at school might want to be most concerned about cashless vending machines. According to Elliot Maras,
I ‘fess up to frequently frequenting the vending machines when I was in college. Yes, they had them, even then! (In fact, the fist vending machine is thought to date back to 215 B.C.)
But they weren’t in the public schools, where they no doubt already lead many a child into temptation. Still, there is some good news for parents concerned about vending machines: “better-for-you” products aimed at kids have grown by 31% since 2002, compared to only 7% for more mainstream food and drinks, according to a recent article in Automatic Merchandiser Magazine.
Three Tips for Parents
1. If you find yourself in front of a vending machine this summer with your kids, you might want to tell them a bit about “the olde days,” when vending machines weren’t quite so ubiquitous. It’d be a good time to talk about convenience versus cost — and how high that cost might end up being, if they use credit cards to buy soft drinks and then don’t pay off the bill when it arrives.
2. You can just say NO! to the use of credit cards in vending machines.
3. For young people going off to college with their first credit cards, it’s a good idea to limit their use to emergencies, only. David Hunt, the former president of AT&T Universal Card, put it this way, when he gave his daughter her first credit card:
We welcome your comments about credit card issues in our popular credit forum!
Nancy Castleman has spent 20+ years helping people get out of debt, save money, and live better on less. Along with her partner, consumer advocate Marc Eisenson, Nancy is known for her work on mortgage pre-payment, and for first explaining “credit card math” in her often acclaimed free e-letter, The Pocket Change Investor. Find it, along with many articles from back issues, special reports, link picks, and book reviews, on her Good Advice Press Web site. You can also see pictures of her 10,000 square foot organic garden and her nine grandchildren.
But what she’d most like you to do is read about her book, Invest in Yourself (Wiley, 1998, 2001), which she wrote with Marc Eisenson and Gerri Detweiler. Nancy considers this book, which discusses how to invest your time, energy, and money to create the life you want, to be her life’s work. Nancy’s books have received rave reviews in leading national publications, including USA Today and Money Magazine.
CardRatings.com is the most comprehensive source for comparing credit card offers. CardRatings.com is pleased to offer consumers free credit card ratings.
Please Note! You are welcome to republish this article as long as you state that CardRatings.com is the source for the article. You must also include a link to our website if you republish the article online. Click here for more details about using our articles and thanks for your interest!
