Why College Students Should Apply For Student Credit Cards

By MoneyBlueBook

An Updated List Of the Best Student Credit Card Offers Provided Below

It's remarkable how much the Internet has changed how we manage our finances today, and the sheer amount of information and knowledge it affords us. With a few keystrokes, we are now able to instantly access a wealth of reviews and consumer opinion pieces to better educate ourselves on the workings of all financial products and services. One of the best things to grow out of it is that it's also helped college and university students to become better informed and educated consumers when it comes to dealing with credit cards and the credit application process.

Don't Succumb To Bad Credit Card Offers Just Because Someone Is Giving Away Free Stuff To College Students

Back during my early student years as a college freshman, the Internet was only just getting popular, and many things were still being done the old fashioned way. At the time, my first encounter with credit card temptation was at one of those free credit card promotion booths on campus. I remember walking past the campus student union one day and noticing an attractive girl standing behind a fold out table adorned with a large promotional banner and colorful balloons. On the table was all sorts of prizes - everything from free T-shirts, free Frisbees, cheap alarm clocks, to free squishy ball stress reliever "thingys". Naturally, as a bright eyed and bushy tailed (not to mentioned gullible) young college student, I was ready at a moment's notice to sell my credit card

By MoneyBlueBook

Updated List Of Citi Thank You Codes For Free ThankYou Network Points Below

Back in the day, cash back credit cards were all the rage as their rebate offers provided the highest purchase incentives for cardholders. But as the U.S. economy has soured in recent years and the mortgage backed credit crisis has worsened, credit card companies have joined the legions of credit-related industries hurt by the downturn. Despite the need to make changes in the new economical climate, credit card issuers still continue to offer lucrative incentive rewards and rebates to attract new customers and encourage continuous credit activity. However, such riskier times have compelled them to modify and scale back their credit card purchase incentives to greatly favor point reward programs over straight cash back. By offering purchase reward points redeemable for free merchandise, free airline tickets, or free gift cards, credit card companies are at least able to lessen their promotional losses by plowing some rebate money back to merchants that they have special partnership agreements with instead of just giving money back to the customer. This shift towards promoting reward points instead of cash back has lead to a rise in rebate earning percentages for reward programs offering points, and a gradual decrease in earning percentages for credit card programs offering cash back.

However, over the years, Citibank has consistently remained one of my better credit card reward issuers. When they came out and started promoting the Thank You Points Network for their banks and credit cards, I did my research and

By MoneyBlueBook

According to the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA), a consumer reporting company is officially permitted to list accurate negative information on a consumer's credit report history for seven years (7) and bankruptcy information for ten (10) years.

Information regarding a lawsuit or judgment against you can be reported for seven years or until the statute of limitation expires, which ­ever is longer. There is no time limit on reporting information about crimi­nal convictions, information that is reported in regards to a job application for a salary of more than $75,000 a year, nor is there a time limit on information reported because of an application for $150,000 worth of credit or life insurance. Thus, unless the reported information is otherwise determined and proven to be inaccurate, incorrect or downright fraudulent, negative information on your credit report can only be removed or marginalized through the passage of time.

It's the job and duty of the credit reporting agencies to store and maintain accurate information about consumers by collecting data from credit granters and public records, including bankruptcies, judgments, and liens. Potentially negative information or remarks, such as missed payments and most public recordations, generally remain on a personal credit report for 7 years, with the exception of Chapters 7, 11 and 12 bankruptcy filings, which remain for 10 years. Unpaid tax liens remain for 15 years while paid tax liens remain for 7 years. Positive information may remain on a report indefinitely, and paid-for closed accounts generally display for 10 years. Requests

By MoneyBlueBook

Have you tried out the Capital One Card Lab program from Capital One credit cards yet? It allows you to build your own custom credit card using a pretty nifty online gadget. This novel web based feature from Capital One represents a promising shift and emerging trend in the credit card business towards providing customers more control and choice over the credit card selection process - by allowing them to create and set the terms and conditions of their credit card rewards and promotional offers. This is a growing movement that I hope is ultimately picked up by the other top credit card companies like Citibank, Chase, American Express, and Discover as well.

While credit cards and financial services in general have a history and reputation of being dry, complex, and frequently confusing, Capital One's new Card Lab online tool tries to make the application and selection process more entertaining and engaging, while still staying informatively functional at its core. The company's improved workshop tool gives customers a glimpse at the future of credit card creation, personalization, and customization. Through its convenient Card Lab website, users and prospective customers are given full informational control of the online application cycle, as the site offers interactive tools that permit them to select from a menu of credit card interest rate terms and rebate rewards to build their own unique credit card program to meet their needs. By providing consumers greater control and manipulative access to all card variations and reward terms in a way that is accessible

By MoneyBlueBook

Instant Approval Credit Cards

These days, with the emphasis towards quicker and more convenient methods of transacting business (contact-less radio frequency credit card scanners, for example), credit card companies are constantly researching ways to improve the speed of credit transactions and the expediency at which they acquire new customers. Currently, most standard online and paper credit card applications take upwards of 2 weeks to a month or longer to get reviewed and approved. For the vast majority of people, this is no big deal since most people are usually not in any particular hurry to get a new credit card. Most people apply for credit cards because they want the long term purchase convenience that they offer, or they want the ability to save money on ordinary purchases by earning credit card rewards and rebate discounts. But there are consumers who simply don't like to wait weeks to find out whether their credit applications were approved or denied. For those who intend to use their new revolving credit account to pay down debt as soon as possible or make an emergency balance transfer, having to wait up to 4 weeks or longer is often a pretty significant inconvenience. For those types of people, choosing to go with an instant approval credit card offer may be the way to go.

Generally, instant approval credit cards benefit those with exceptional credit scores and credit histories the most. For credit cards that offer or advertise the instant approval option, once the online

By MoneyBlueBook

Airline Credit Card Rewards and Offers

I have a friend who is absolutely nutty about frequent flyer miles. Because he has family and relatives who live all over the place - in New York, Chicago, India, and England to name a few, he travels by airplane quite frequently. It's not just him either. His new wife and immediate family members always seem to be on the go, and over time they've become quite the experts at taking advantage of discount airline tickets and cheap airfare deals. One of their smartest moves was to make sure that they always purchase their airline tickets using an airline miles credit card - to leverage the cumulative cost-saving power of frequent flyer miles. Not only does this have the added benefit of protection against airline bankruptcy risk (a real possibility these days), it also affords them the opportunity to earn substantial amounts of frequent flier miles redeemable for future free flights. By focusing their ordinary credit card purchases to earn airline miles, they've been able to fly for free many times - both domestically and internationally. These international airline reservations to fly across the oceanic pond definitely don't come cheap either - each coach class international flight can cost in excess of $1,000 - so getting some of the airline tickets by redeeming earned reward points or miles has definitely been a nice bonus.

Despite The Common Annual Fee and High Interest Rates Involved, Frequent Flyers Who Pay Off Their Credit Card Balance Every Month Will Benefit Greatly From