by Joseph Kenny

Deflate Your Credit Card Rate
State PIRGs did a survey to show a simple action consumers can take to lower interest rate of their credit card and saving them up to thousands of dollars paying the balances. Volunteers who took participation in this survey had to call their credit card issuing company and ask do decrease annual percentage rate. Read more...
It can be disheartening when you apply for a credit card and get turned down. However, in the vast majority of cases, it really is not anything that you need to worry about. While there are some people out there who would be approved for virtually everything they could think of applying for, for the vast majority of us, applying for a credit card can take a little time and some trial and error.

Dealing with Negative Information and Errors
The only way to find if you have some negative information or mistakes in your credit report is to order a copy and check it very carefully. For a better review, you should take your credit report from all three credit reporting agencies since you may find some variations in the file of each CRA maintained on you. Read more...
Credit card providers generally have pretty strict criteria that they are looking for from applicants when they launch a new credit card. They will be targeting the card at a specific segment of the market and will have a credit score range that they are seeking from applicants. If you do not fall within this score range, you will not be in their target range and will be refused the card. But this does not mean that you will not be successful when you apply for another credit card that is targeting your section of the market. And it is important not to take the rejection to heart.
Determining Your Credit Score
You may feel that you are trustworthy and always pay your bills and that you should not be turned down for credit, but remember that credit approval is no longer a personal exercise but is by and large automated and subject to computer credit checks and the like. A computer will look at your credit score and give a yes or no answer, and no individual attention will be paid personally to your application at all. It is a necessary way of running the system for lenders who have literally thousands of clients and applications to manage as efficiently as possible.

Credit Cards: Security and Fraud
Countless opportunities for fraud are the consequence of the low security of the credit card system. It creates a huge black stolen credit cards numbers market, which generally are used before the cards are reported to be stolen. The goal of the credit card issuing companies is not to eliminate fraud, but to "reduce it to manageable levels", when the total cost of fraud and fraud prevention are minimized. Read more...
The Next Step After Rejection
If you are refused for credit, then apply to a couple more companies. You should try not to rush the process and apply for one card at a time. You usually receive your answer within a couple of days. The reason for this is that if you apply for too much credit too quickly, it will show up on your credit report and may cause lenders to turn you down. So be patient and if possible, ask the lender why they have rejected you.
Patience is a Virtue in Credit Card Applications Too
The chances are you are simply applying for the wrong type of card, for example, if you are a student, you will really only be approved by companies that make a point of providing credit cards to students and most other will reject you as a matter of course. So by a little patience, and taking the time to make your application to a credit card company that targets the segment of the market that you fit into, you should be able to get your hands on a credit card before too long.

Credit Reports
There are three valid and equally important reasons for keeping tabs on your credit report. 1 know your financial situation; 2 check it for mistakes; 3 prevent your id theft. Read more...  |