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A new report from credit bureau Experian revealed that the average consumer had 1.97 bank cards and more than $4,200 in debt as of the end of 2010.

This former number has fallen nearly 23 percent from 2007, likely due to credit card issuers tightening their grip on card holders by cutting credit lines and forcing them to pay off more debt.

This has caused credit utilization to rise, with card holders using an average of 30 percent of their total available bank card limit, a near 10 percent jump since 2007.

And if you didn’t already know, credit utilization plays a huge role in determining our credit scores, including both the popular Fico score and the lesser known VantageScore credit score.

The second most important factor in scoring as far as Fico is concerned is amounts owed, just slightly less important than payment history (how to raise your credit score).

In fact, it makes up 30 percent of your Fico score – for VantageScore, this utilization accounts for 23 percent of scoring, while balances make up another 15 percent of your score.

So it’s pretty darn important to keep both utilization and balances low.

Maxine Sweet, vice president of public education at Experian, warned that consumers could potentially hurt their credit scores by carrying credit card balances and utilizing a significant portion of their available credit.

If you’ve found yourself in such a situation, consider either making a payment plan to pay off the credit card debt, or consider a balance transfer, which can it make it a whole lot easier to pay off the debt without being hit with pesky finance charges.

When financial debts of credit cards and personal loans become exhausting and unbearable debt consolidation is a good variant. Everybody wants to save money on different financial payments, but sometimes we can’t control the debt amount. You can use the credit card debt consolidation to get out of money troubles. Missed bills, credit card debt and personal loan debt can rise over time if not done correctly and carefully. However, debt consolidation may be the answer to these financial issues. Don’t break down, you have a possibility to recover from debt and start a new financial perspective.

When someone has the idea of paying multiple debts debt consolidation is a capable option. Many times a person can be flooded with credit card debt, unpaid or overdue bills, and personal debt loan. A person can come to the conclusion that the payment of any debt is absolutely impossible. Read more…

Signed into law over a year ago, the credit card bill of rights was touted as protection against practices and fees imposed by credit card issuers on to consumers and which have long been considered arbitrary. Just to refresh your memory, banks must practice the following:

- No more arbitrary rate increases: cardholders must be notified prior to such a move.

- Periodic reviews and reduction of a cardholder’s annual percentage rate (APR) where it is warranted or requested: reviews should take place every 6 months.

- Allocate payments fairly: payments made should go towards balances accruing higher interest.

- No universal default: a cardholder cannot be penalized on Card B should he/she default on Card A.

- No double-cycle billing: banks cannot charge late fees on payment that has been made for a previous billing cycle.

- No phone-payment surcharge

- Elimination of due date gimmicks: payment made by 5 p.m. E

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Let’s forget credit card companies and the various ways they conspire to squeeze more money out of you for a moment. That’s a dead horse that’s already been beaten too many times with no resolution in sight. Instead, let’s focus our attention on banks. I can accept the fact that burying my money out in the backyard is not the acceptable way of “making it grow”. However, what I can’t swallow is all the sneaky, underhanded ways banks think up to use my money for their profit.

Fees for Foreign Transactions

Anyone would be excited to go on vacation, right? Most of the time, credit cards and travelers’ checks are sufficient to cover the cost of any expense incurred, and you won’t have to worry about not having enough money on you.

The bad news is, credit card issuers can charge up to 5% of the expenditure to grant you the convenience of using your own credit card outside the country. Not only that, th

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I have held a plain vanilla Capital One card for many years. At first, it was just a decent rewards card for merchants that did not take American Express.  Later, I realized that it was one of the only cards that you could use outside of the United States without incurring a dreaded foreign transaction fee.  Now that more and more banks are dropping their indefensible foreign transaction fees, the Capital One is less unique of a card.  Nevertheless, they do not charge an annual fee, so there was really no reason to cancel it.  The reward rate is 1%, which used to be the standard but is now just a little below average.  Without much annual spending at stake, I never worried about it too much.

New Cards From Capital One

These guys have been all over the airwaves with commercials, both good and bad, touting their new line of cards. I re

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