Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with finance and creditcard

Can I make an effective dispute of my credit report?

b_thinky — Tue, 09 Dec 2008 21:31:01 -0800

A creditor and I disagree on the amount I owe. Not paying what they say I owe will negatively affect my credit. Do I have any options? I could write two pages on all the lies I've been told on the phone and all the times I've tried to use their website to make payments (for which I received email confirmations for) that weren't charged. As a result, this creditor is billing me for about $3000 interest which I shouldn't owe.

They will not budge and nor will I. I simply don't owe the money and won't pay it. Eventually, this will hurt my credit, which is my only concern at this point. My question is this: can I dispute their derogatory report of me, and will my dispute make any difference in my credit whatsoever?

My credit score is currently down to 700 because of some other negative reports earlier this year. Basically, I moved overseas and didn't pay off a power and phone bill which were mailed out after I left. I never knew about the bills until they went to collection and even though the total amount was just $300 my nearly perfect credit was dinged substantially.

I should note that I actually don't need any credit nor do I anticipate needing any for a few years. I live in Hong Kong, pay for everything with cash and don't need to buy a house, car, appliance or anything that requires credit. I make a substantial income and have access to a low interest margin account through my brokerage in case I need extra cash.

In a couple years, I'll move back to the USA and buy a house and a car, at which point this account could come into play. Does anyone have any advice on what to do or not to do here?

Credit Card...REVOKED!

jefficator — Sat, 18 Oct 2008 22:35:01 -0800

How will my credit be affected now that Wachovia has revoked my student credit card? With Wachovia tightening its belt--and with my payment timeliness never approaching spectacular--I've just received word (when I called to ask why the card that carries NO BALANCE was declined) that my credit card has been revoked. I have two questions

1) The most information I have gotten about this online says I must receive a certified letter from Wachovia. I have not received this letter. What does that mean?

2) How will this affect my credit rating? (Not that it matters, since the only people who can get credit anymore are the ones who don't need it!)

Has the credit crunch made it impossible to do credit card balance transfers?

jason's_planet — Fri, 03 Oct 2008 10:12:50 -0800

I want to transfer a credit card balance to another card that would offer me a 0% interest rate for a few months. But I'm worried that the credit crunch has made it difficult or impossible to do such balance transfers. Is this the case? A little bit about me:

Citizen and resident of the USA. I have one card with a few thousand on it. I'm pretty close to maxed out; I only have a few hundred left before I reach my limit. My credit is OK but probably not excellent -- it's been a while since I've checked. I worked very steadily in the past but the situation is shaky right now. Nowadays, I get work in bits and pieces and supplement that with unemployment insurance. I have always paid my credit card bill on time and I have never exceeded the limit. I'm holding my own but not prospering.

So . . . has the recent credit crunch made it impossible for people in my financial position to do such balance transfers? What have your experiences been over the last few months? What kinds of deals are the banks offering? Are there any cards that haven't tightened their standards in the last few weeks? What would be my best options?

Many thanks in advance.

Help me find good options to help my sister get out of debt

Chuck Cheeze — Tue, 19 Feb 2008 13:02:27 -0800

My sister and her husband are in serious debt. My wife and I are going to act as their financial advisors to help them get it together. Can anyone recommend any programs/products we can look into? My wife is a financial genius and helped me get out of severe debt when we met. We need to do the same for my sister, KC. KC and her husband are totally on board and have seen the light once my wife laid all their bills out on paper for them. They are prepared to change their spending habits and work hard to get turned around. However, there are some challenges.

The tally was basically this:
- they make about $150K
- they put a lot into their corporate retirement plans pre-tax
- they have 3 car loans and a 5th wheel trailer loan that total $1800/month
- they have store and major credit cards totaling about $68K

They have about 50K put away that is liquid, of which 20K is available to use for paying off debt. The rest is untouchable for their own reasons. Unfortunately.

So the 20K will be used right away to pay off all the store cards and some of the major cards. I think the best course of action for the rest of the majors is two 25K debt consolidation loans. They already have a 2nd on their house that has basically been used monthly to cover about a $1500 monthly gap between their income and bills.

I know the best course it to liquidate the other $30K and not get one of the loans, but that money is off limits, this is their choice and its final.

So I am looking for other options, or, if you have a good source for these loans, point me to it. Their local CU can give them $25K over 4 years at 13.49%. Not bad - what else is out there?

They have good credit (~680), never missed a payment, but they just have a ton of debt. I'm looking for options here that may be better than what is above.

The catalyst for this was that KC said she was going to cash in $40K of her retirement, which would be a $27K net after penalties and taxes- but obviously that is a horrible cost and way worse than even the 20%+ rates they are paying on this debt. When I heard of this I decided it was time for help. Needless to say she has no clue where to start and was relieved that I offered.

The scenario is that they aren't selling any cars, the trailer, or touching the account with $30K in it. We have to work with this situation. I would do things differently, but since this is what we have to work with, I am looking for options given these challenges.

Fun with banking call centres (not).

Flitcraft — Fri, 25 Jan 2008 15:58:11 -0800

Help! What 'eight digit' number regarding my Visa credit card are the Abbey National call centre trying to get from my fiancé? We're in the UK. I have a Co-op Visa credit card. It has two important numbers you normally need to know for paying money into the account: the sixteen digit account code (card number) and the six digit 'sort code' for the bank.

Fiancé, who banks with Abbey, is trying to transfer much-needed money to me using Abbey's telephone banking system, but they're being extremely unhelpful, and insisting that he must also give them an eight digit 'account number' for my card, which I've never heard of. They don't mean the card security number (it's not eight digit), and my account statement has nothing eight digit on it. Does anyone know what this number could be and how I would get it from my bank?

Or alternatively are the Abbey call centre just wrong about this? Their previous record doesn't inspire confidence.

Movement between credit card and home equity loan

tdabbott — Sun, 26 Aug 2007 13:27:28 -0800

Does this make sense? I'd like to use a credit card "convenience check" that is offering 1.99% APR for 12 months to pay down some of our home equity loan that is hovering at 8.25%. Assuming I am very diligent and do not miss any minimum monthly payments on the credit card, can't I just pay off the credit card balance in 12 months with the HELOC? That way I get 12 months of a lower interest rate? This seems so simple, yet I can't find good guidance via Google, etc.

Is there any reason NOT to apply for an Amazon Visa card?

the_arbiter — Sun, 22 Apr 2007 09:49:10 -0800

Is there any reason NOT to apply for an Amazon Visa card? A simple question, really: is there any risk to getting a credit card for a one-time discount and then never using it again?

I'm a student with a little (positive) experience with credit cards. My current card is set to expire in August, though I'm sure Citi will try to bring me back -- but this isn't really relevant.

Amazon will give me a $30 discount (as they offer everyone, I think) if I sign up for their Amazon Visa card -- Student or Regular type. Is there any reason not to sign up for it, get the discount, and never use the card again? Would it make more sense to start using this Amazon Visa card as my regular, everyday card? Its terms are among the best I could get as a student anyway.

Please don't preach to me about credit ratings unless you actually have a firm understanding of how they're assigned; I've gotten too much advice from people who don't actually have any more knowledge of the system than I do. Thanks.

I've paid off all my credit cards.... now what?

weiler63 — Wed, 07 Mar 2007 02:11:54 -0800

I've paid off all my credit cards.... now what? Over the past 6 months. I have managed to zero out the balances of all my CC's down from 10k.

Any help as to how long before this gets reflected in my credit score, and what if any tips you have for boosting that score.

If it helps, I'm keeping the lines open, and use them sporadically for small item purchases. Thanks in Advance. It is certainly a great day when you look online and see all zeros in the cc balances.

--Credit Debt Free

Any first credit card advice?

ckolderup — Sat, 21 Oct 2006 10:17:36 -0800

Applying for my first credit card soon. What should I be looking for? I'm currently in my last year of college. I have saved up some money and just received a job offer that starts next summer after I graduate. I'd like to start building credit by getting a credit card, buying a few large things that I have need for and paying them off promptly with money I already have.
However, I'm absolutely clueless about credit cards. Can anyone share some information or resources so I can learn about the different rates, limits, and other policies that I need to keep in mind when I choose what to apply for first?

Demand for payment on already-paid-off credit card

moss — Thu, 06 Jul 2006 23:49:02 -0800

SketchyDebtCollectionsFilter: Someone calling and demanding payment on a credit card that was paid off and cancelled in 2002. Fraud? Error? What can be done? Asking for a friend who wanted to remain anonymous. Their words follow:
Someone left a message for me today about an "overdue Mastercard" -- a "Very Serious Matter" that I needed to get back to him about immediately. I called the 800 number he left and spoke to him, at which point he brought up a Visa account I'd paid off and closed in 2002 to the best of my knowledge. I had a bad run in with credit card debt and international life and not getting mail back in the first two years of this century, but in 2002 I paid off and closed nearly all my accounts. This man wanted proof. I wasn't sure I could find any, but what I seem to have found in my credit history on my three free reports gotten tonight is that two of them say the account is open and in good standing and last reported in 2001 and the third says the account was charged off in 2002. If the account was charged off in 2002 did I not pay it? Is this guy legit or a scammer (he does not appear to be with the company the card was issued by, but he does know my old card number)? If the account was charged off in 2002 will this all disappear in 2009? What should I do?

Do I want a gold card?

commander_cool — Wed, 15 Mar 2006 15:13:04 -0800

Do I want an American Express Gold Card? I pay off my balances every month, and have for over seven years.

Right now I have a blue card that pays me cash back, and an Amazon card I use for Amazon purchases. I rarely use cash, and spend about $30,000 a year on my credit cards, including ten or so round-trip plane tickets a year and some business expenses. I make a comfortable income, but am not rich by any stretch.

AmEx wants to promote me to a gold card, free for the first year, $90/year afterwards. They've been mailing me monthly with this offer. Are the benefits really worth my while, or is it a pure rip off for people who want faux prestige?

Is my no fee, no interest Discover card too good to be true?

SuperNova — Thu, 22 Sep 2005 14:17:48 -0800

I've always heard that something "too good to be true" usually is, so I'm a little skeptical about the Discover card I just got. Long story about why I got it, but I intended to cancel it immediately. Customer service assures me there's no interest for the first 6 months, no annual fee, and a cash-back rewards program. They'd be paying me to use the card. Does anyone use Discover, and is there a catch? I only have one other card, a secured Visa I got because I'm young and have no credit (and because credit is safer than debit, which I'd always used before). I pay it off every month. I think I'm far more responsible financially than most of my peers, so running up massive debt isn't in the cards, so to speak. What I am concerned about is using my Discover a lot to get the cash back then getting hit for more than I expected.

Bonus question--Since there's supposedly no interest for 6 months, I'm thinking about paying the minimum and keeping the rest in my ING Direct savings account (at 3.3% interest or so) until the intro period ends, when I'd pay it all off to avoid interest while having made a small profit in the meantime. I can't believe I can do this, but I don't know why it wouldn't work. Do you?

Favorite credit card rewards?

sirion — Fri, 18 Mar 2005 18:46:57 -0800

What's your favorite credit card and why? I'm currently using a Bankone Amazon.com Visa, which corresponds to 3% back for amazon purchases and 1% back for all other purchases in the form of $25 amazon gift certificates. I pay off my balance in full every month. Anyone particularly happy with the rewards they're getting from their credit cards?

Fighting the Evil Credit Card companies

tuxster — Mon, 14 Mar 2005 08:42:02 -0800

My credit card company just pulled a quick one on me. Despite my best efforts to resolve the situation with their customer service, I am going nowhere. What should be my next step? In August 2004, I applied to a credit card online, through one of the well-known financial organizations. The offer I responded to was a 12 month 0% APR for balance transfers. The small text said that if I don't qualify for this offer, I might get an alternate offer of same rate for only 3 months, but I didn't think too much of it since I have a great credit history (FICO score of 775 with no late payments, no missed payments, etc. - except a new mortgage back in May 2004). So, I applied online and asked them to process a balance transfer from another credit card.

A couple weeks later I received a letter that says, "congratulations you've been accepted" and went on to say what my credit limit was and that my balance transfer was in process. Since the credit limit was lower than my balance transfer request, they said only an amount upto my limit would be processed. Nothing else. A week later, I received my welcome package which included my credit card, a benefits guide, and a generic terms and conditions legal statement. However, no new rate sheet that says what the APRs are, etc.

So I proceeded to make my monthly minimum payments and put a note on my calendar for 11.5 months to make sure I pay off the balance.

A few weeks ago, when I was doing my taxes, I had a chance to look over some of the past statements, and suddently noticed that they have been adding finance charges since November.

I called the customer service line. They told me that I was only accepted for the "alternate offer" which gave me only 3 months of 0% APR and not the original 12 months. They also told me since this alternate offer was included in the small text of the original application, they had no responsibility to inform me which offer I had been accepted under. After talking with a number of reps and supervisors, I, of course, got a number of different responses. A couple said they didn't have to let me know, another couple said it would have been in the acceptance letter, a fifth said I would have to had signed a statement accepting the new conditions, a sixth and a seventh said the conditions would have been in my welcome package. Of course, neither the acceptance letter nor the welcome package had anything in it, and I certainly didn't sign anything. One of the ladies (the one that said it should have been in the acceptance letter) told me that I should write to their "research dept.". So I did.

The research department essentially responded last week and told me that they don't care. They essentially didn't say anything other than the fact that that's the offer I was accepted under and thus I was responsible for the finance charges.

I have already transferred all my balance out (except for the disputed interest charges, which I left in the account). I know that I can pursue with BBB, FTC, State Attorney's Office, Small Claims Court, or Arbitration, etc., but will any of these get me anything? Is it worth my time or shall I just call the company evil, pay up the interest charges, and take my business elsewhere (I also have another card with them that I've been using for 10 years, so I would cancel that one too)?

If I should pursue, what is the best strategy? Do I pay off the disputed charges (since they continue to compound interest), or leave them there? Where do I send my complaint first? It's essentially a "I said, you said" situation. They are going to claim they sent me the new rates in the welcome envelope (the highest level supervisor I spoke to insisted that they would have sent it, so that will probably be their official line). I know I didn't get it (I'm pretty organized when it comes to filing things), but how do I prove I didn't get it?

Sorry for the long message, but I wanted to explain everything to make sure I get the best advice. Thanks in advance for all the advice.

First Credit Card

asterisk — Sun, 24 Oct 2004 18:10:25 -0800

Credit Card Filter. I’m a college student on the verge of graduating this spring. I have never had a credit card. Should I have one to start to establish a good credit rating for the future? [mi] I have gotten through college with student loans and working two part time jobs. I am good with finances and have never needed a credit card but now that I’m about to graduate and see a car and maybe a house in the next 5 years, should I start trying to establish a good credit rating or is that not necessary?

I have a $1k purchase coming up which I can afford to purchase outright but it seems like it would be a good first credit purchase to pay off in a few months to show a good payment record. I honestly don’t know much about credit cards beyond how they work, are there any neutral sources for good information?