The patience is of course to wait for the payments that will never arrive.  Call me cinical, but i know students and i know how unlikely it is to get them to pay their bills (it’s about as unlikely as it is to get them to tidy up after themselves sometimes.)  So the type of college credt card you want is one that is prepared to offer you a low(ish) interest rate and allow you to make the minimum payments without hassling you until such time as you graduate and are able to pay off more and more.  The credit card company of course will charge an extorionate amount of interest on the money in an attempt to try to prevent it every being paid off; they want a constant meal ticket you see and you’ll never be able to pay them off unless you make significant and regular offers.

It’s called the football credit card and it’s a relatively new type of credit card that has been born from the charity credit card types and things like that.  If you can donate money to your favourite charity through using your credit card then there should be no reason you can’t donate to your favourite football club either should there?  Well that’s what the credit card companies have thought, and in a rather clever move they have decided to offer credit cards with your favourite football club as primary beneficiary of any rewards you might get from spending money on your card.

That’s right, every time you spend some money your football club will get some cashback!  This is a great way to support your football team withouth even trying; in fact when you go to buy your overpriced football strip, do it with your football credit card and you might just help that little bit more!  It has to be worth it doesn’t it?  Especially if your team isn’t doing so well!

Why they wouldn’t apply for one because of this i don’ t know, perhaps it’s because they can’t handle rejection?  Or perhaps it’s because when you get refused by a credit company the details of your credit scoring are recorded for future use by other credit card companies.  This is more than likely it isn’t it?  But it’s not all doom and gloom and you needn’t let this put you off.

Just because your details have been recorded, including your refusal, it doesn’t mean that a bank or credit card company won’t ever touch you again and they will certainly re test your credit score when you apply to them.  All it tells them is that you’ve attempted to obtain credit and been unsuccessful.  It doesn’t tell them to leave you alone or that you are a risk, and believe me these credit card companies want your business.  If you had been turned down twenty time and then applied to yet another company they would still carry out the credit score simply because they want you to pass it!  So don’t be afraid of your credit score so much, it’s not all bad; unless of course you have defaulted on payments recently.

It’s really a market for the 0% balance transfer crowds.  If you’re looking to transfer a balance then you’ll get a pretty good deal without a shadow of a doubt.  But if you need to get your first cridt card then you’re likely to struggle making your decision.  Cridt cards often offer the same sort of things so it’s important to look very carefully at them before you make a decision.  You will usually get the following when you’re looking for your first card:

• 16-18% APR
• 0% interest on purchases for up to 3 months
• Rewards

The last one is the one you want to look at really, and if you’re a new customer and you’ve never owned a cridt card then you’re likely to be able to take your pick of the reward cards that suit you the best.  There really is no need to go for the first cridt card that accepts you either.  In this day and age they want anyone they can get so you stand a good chance of getting the one you want; particularly if your credit score is clean.

Most of the credit cards that offer 0% interest on balance transfers for 13-15 months or more have a fee attached to them of about 2-3%.  This really isn’t worth the fee when you consider that you’re only get a maximum of 3 extra months interest free.  This is because you can nearly always get 12 months at 0% interest on your balance transfers from other credit cards, without a fee.

It’s best to go with a 12 month credit card and then if your credit rating is secure enough, you can tart your balance over to yet another 12 months interest free credit card.  This way you can settle your balance without paying any interest (and more importantly no fee) for two years.  Now that has to sound tempting for some people.  How much could you get off your credit card balance in two years if you were not paying any interest at all?  A good lot i’ll bet!

So what are you into?  Travelling?  Shopping?  Music?  Whatever you need there is a credit card for you.  The trick is not to go for the first one that accepts you (unless of course you’re really desperate and you can’t find many that will have you), simply because you’re not going to want a card that offers you free airmiles if you don’t go away anywhere are you; i once had a friend who had an airmiles credit card from Amex i think, and he was afraid of flying!

The best thing about getting a reward credit card that’s good for you is that you can practice safe and efficient account management with it and get the full benefits without paying a single penny in interest.  If you ensure that your balance is paid in full at the end of every month then you’ll never have a problem with your credit card.  This is what more and more people are doing these days and there is nothing the credit card companies can do about it except put up their interest rates in the even that some of these people fail to deliver on time; and this inevitably will happen.

Credit card companies simply won’t take the risk on people who cannot easily repay their credit card bills.  This is of course because they don’t want to be accused of lending irresponsibly.  This is of course the right thing to do, but sometimes customers can be penalised because their earnings aren’t really clear enough for an accuarate evaluation; and because of the massive amount of credit card applications that must go through each year there is no time to look at each case individually any longer.  All customers must go through exactly the same credit checks and meet the same criteria as each other.

The type of people who fall into this unfortunate zone are those who have irregular employment, or are perhaps self-employed and just starting out in business.  There is no easy solution to this either, what’s required is an improvement in your credit score.  This can be done by obtaining credit.  I know this sounds ridiculous but it really is the only way to get it done.  You could perhaps take a loan on a car or holiday, or perhaps get an overdraft facility.  As soon as you can show that other lenders are trusting you then you’ll soon be able to get that credit card.

The point behind it is to make the lenders think that you are capable of handling certainl levels of credit and applying only for what you can handle.  If you can show that you have paid off your debts and you continue to pay your bills on time and you are not in any bad debt programs or anything like that, then you may be able to proceed to build your rating again.

It won’t be easy, and credit card companies are not going to make it easy for you to regain your rating.  Where they didn’t used to mind if you defaulted before (simply because of all the interest they charged), now they can’t afford to let you get away with it.  This is the reason that most credit cards that exist to help you rebuild your credit rating have a very high interest rate.  The types of interest rates you’re looking at are as follows:  [these are from the leading credit building credit card companies at the moment]

• Capital One Progress Credit Card – 34.9% interest
• Barclaycard Initial – 29.9% interest
• Capital One Classic – 34.9% interest
• Vanquis Visa – 39.9% interest

They all have their individual pros and cons, but the object of this post is to simply tell you that you have to watch out for the interest rates on these babies because if you mess them up then you’ve missed your chance and that’s all there is to it.

It’s true that with the advent of Chip and PIN machines and the new contactless technology, credit cards are becoming even bigger business than they were before.  It is no longer a case of not being able to afford something so you put it “on the card”.  Now it’s a case of being forced to put it on the card because it’s easier than cash.

However, we’ve talked about the importance of paying off your balance at the end of every month and how you can get away without paying interest if you do this, so this is what you must teach your children.

You see, it’s still good to save up for things.  If your child wants something convince them to save their money at home.  This will also teach them discipline and patience as well as good money sense.  When they have saved up the money they need to place it in the bank before making a purchase with your credit card.  You need to explain that you shouldn’t really make a purchase unless you have the money in the bank beforehand, and this the best way of doing it.  Make the bank the one who needs to be paid if you’re going to teach the concept of credit and debit card payments, and explain that the money is taken from the bank when you put it in.

Your kids need to know how the credit card society works before it’s too late.

Barclaycard will provide all those offers that you’ve just read, but lets now have a look at Amex.  The American Express Card hasn’t always been synonymous with business use has it?  It’s usually been used as a premium card for rich folks and frequent flyers.  Well here are the jucy bits so you can compare it to the other big boy on the market in the business world:

• Up to 39 days interest free credit when you pay your balance in full at the end of the month.  This is only one day more than Barclaycard, but you can see that it’s already better.
• The Everyday Saving Programme allows you to save up to 30%.  Barclaycard don’t have this
• Free additional credit cards for employees.  Barclaycard don’t offer this.
• Annual management report every tax year.  Find out how the card is being used by employees etc.
• No annual fee for the first year; then £95 a year after this.  Barclaycard say nothing about fees so i can only assume they don’t charge them for annual membership.
• Membership rewards, not discount from suppliers like Barclaycard.  This can be seen as a pro or a con.  Personally i think that Barclaycard had it better in this area.