1. Welcome to SportsJournalists.com, a friendly forum for discussing all things sports and journalism.

    Your voice is missing! You will need to register for a free account to get access to the following site features:
    • Reply to discussions and create your own threads.
    • Access to private conversations with other members.
    • Fewer ads.

    We hope to see you as a part of our community soon!

Credit cards

Discussion in 'Anything goes' started by Corky Ramirez up on 94th St., Jan 14, 2010.

  1. Corky Ramirez up on 94th St.

    Corky Ramirez up on 94th St. Well-Known Member

    OK, I need some help in trying to find a new credit card. I'll be honest, I'm not too up on these things.

    I've had just one card since 1997 (Mastercard); however, my APR is through the roof. Do you have any advice as to which ones have low APRs (like zero or close to it), and don't have a fee for transferring balance?

    Thanks.
     
  2. imjustagirl

    imjustagirl Active Member

    Good luck finding any. They've all cranked up their interest rates to like 29.99 percent on everyone in advance of whatever the new law is.
     
  3. Corky Ramirez up on 94th St.

    Corky Ramirez up on 94th St. Well-Known Member

    Yikes. Mine's at 25.99 percent already.
     
  4. Ace

    Ace Well-Known Member

    Go online and search. There are different cards for different situations. Depending on your credit, maybe you could find one that would give you a balance transfer with a rate of 0 percent for six months to a year.

    (Note: On most of these, they may charge 3 or 4 percent off the top to do the transfer but it's still better than paying 25 or 30 percent or whatever the jacked-up rate is))
     
  5. Inky_Wretch

    Inky_Wretch Well-Known Member

    Go here ... http://www.cardratings.com/
     
  6. JackReacher

    JackReacher Well-Known Member

    If you travel a lot, get the Marriott card.
     
  7. TwoGloves

    TwoGloves Well-Known Member

    I just got offered one today from Spirit Airlines at 14.9 percent. I applied to get the 15,000 free miles when I use it the first time, which will be for something very inexpensive. (Providing I get it, which I should.)
     
  8. TwoGloves

    TwoGloves Well-Known Member

    If you belong to a credit union, check with them. I've got one from mine that's 13 percent interest.
     
  9. Corky Ramirez up on 94th St.

    Corky Ramirez up on 94th St. Well-Known Member

    This is a good site. I'm not sure if it's available but I'd like to find one that has some kind of gas rewards, as that's why I primarily use the card.
     
  10. Inky_Wretch

    Inky_Wretch Well-Known Member

    Have you considered just getting American Express? Yes, you have to pay it off each month (except for travel charges like hotels and plane tickets), but there's no interest.
     
  11. Wenders

    Wenders Well-Known Member

    I've got a card through Chase that is 0 percent for the first six months and 13 percent afterwards.
     
  12. The Big Ragu

    The Big Ragu Moderator Staff Member

    I can't answer your question well. My understanding is that the card companies have tightened up, so killer deals might not exist, even if you have sterling credit. I have a few cards. I had this Chase card that was making these insane offers for a few years. They sent me solicitations offering to advance me money (and the card had a healthy credit limit) at a 2.99 percent APR for life. I figured what the hell, deposited one of their checks into a FOREX account, made more than 2.99 percent with some conservative trading. I then just made minimum payments on the card to try to stretch out the "free money" as long as I could.

    Then last year, they reneged on the deal. Targeted me for milking them and not paying back fast enough (even though I had met all the terms of THEIR offer and made my payments on time. Just paid the minimum I had to). They changed the terms so that there was suddenly a $10 monthly fee on the card and you had to payback some insane amount of your balance every month (to get out of the loans). Even if I paid them back, they told me my APR was going up, presumably as punishment for getting the better of them. I paid them back, closed the account and told them that they lost a customer for life (not that they cared). When I researched, I saw that there were several thousand customers like me and there are a couple of class action law suits now.

    For purchases, I really only use one card: My American Express Blue Rewards. I ran just about everything I could through it last year and that sucker paid me back a $400 dividend on my last statement. For the first $6,500 you charge, they give you 1 percent back on gas, grocery, &
    drugstore purchases. They give .5 percent back on all other purchases. After $6,500, it goes up to 5 percent for gas, grocery and drugstore and 1.25 percent for everything else. Given any choice between cash or running it through that card, I just whipped out the card.
     
Draft saved Draft deleted

Share This Page