Hello!
Welcome to my first Blog ever. I am currently developing a book Basic Budgeting Concepts (copy write 2006) and want to use this blog to post various topics that will appear in my book. My first topic to be explored here will be a discussion of credit card promotions. Some of these promos are for new cards, while others are for cards you currently have.
Credit Card Promotions
You undoubtedly get promotion material for new credit cards every month. First, I recommend that you in fact open each one and review the offer. Who knows, there may be something that really catches your financial eye. Also, these offers typically include your name and some type of “coded information”. I recommend that you shred or at least tear up any page that has your name on it before tossing the material in the trash or recycle bin. As detailed below, these promotions generally fall in to two categories: pre-approval and special rebates.
“You Are Pre-approved!”
You may receive promotions in the mail indicating that you are pre-approved for some type of credit card with a very low (could be zero) finance charge for a number of months. It also typically indicates that you are pre-approved for a limit up to some high dollar amount. In reality, this type of promotion doesn’t mean that you can get the card indicated or what your actual limit would be! A review of the fine print often leads to the fact that, you may only qualify of a lesser card (e.g. “silver” instead of “platinum”) which carries a higher finance charge for both the promotional and long term periods. Also your actual card limit may turn out to be much lower than the up to dollar amount quoted. If you were not currently looking for a new credit card, you should pass these offers by without a second thought. If you are in fact looking for a new card, read the offer over very closely before accepting it. Then, once you receive the actual card, check to see if it is the same type (e.g. “platinum exclusive”) that was in the promotion and if not, check the terms of the card actually received to determine if it is worthwhile keeping.
Stay tunned for additional Credit Card Promotion infomation
Welcome to my first Blog ever. I am currently developing a book Basic Budgeting Concepts (copy write 2006) and want to use this blog to post various topics that will appear in my book. My first topic to be explored here will be a discussion of credit card promotions. Some of these promos are for new cards, while others are for cards you currently have.
Credit Card Promotions
You undoubtedly get promotion material for new credit cards every month. First, I recommend that you in fact open each one and review the offer. Who knows, there may be something that really catches your financial eye. Also, these offers typically include your name and some type of “coded information”. I recommend that you shred or at least tear up any page that has your name on it before tossing the material in the trash or recycle bin. As detailed below, these promotions generally fall in to two categories: pre-approval and special rebates.
“You Are Pre-approved!”
You may receive promotions in the mail indicating that you are pre-approved for some type of credit card with a very low (could be zero) finance charge for a number of months. It also typically indicates that you are pre-approved for a limit up to some high dollar amount. In reality, this type of promotion doesn’t mean that you can get the card indicated or what your actual limit would be! A review of the fine print often leads to the fact that, you may only qualify of a lesser card (e.g. “silver” instead of “platinum”) which carries a higher finance charge for both the promotional and long term periods. Also your actual card limit may turn out to be much lower than the up to dollar amount quoted. If you were not currently looking for a new credit card, you should pass these offers by without a second thought. If you are in fact looking for a new card, read the offer over very closely before accepting it. Then, once you receive the actual card, check to see if it is the same type (e.g. “platinum exclusive”) that was in the promotion and if not, check the terms of the card actually received to determine if it is worthwhile keeping.
Stay tunned for additional Credit Card Promotion infomation
posted by Robert Ball at 5:11 PM
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