How do the new credit card rules affect you?

By Jim Sloan

In recent months Americans in general have been making a determined effort to pay down their credit card debts. Maybe you've been part of this, changing your spending habits, and using your paycheck to pay down your credit card debt along with your student loans. That effort will only be helped by new legislation passed last year to combat some of ham-fisted habits of credit card companies.

How do these new regulations affect you?

New financial regulations to limit customer exposure to fees and rate hikes

New restrictions on credit card companies--and credit card users, for that matter--come from a combination of the 2009 Credit Card Accountability Responsibility and Disclosure Act and new Federal Reserve regulations mandated by the law. The Fed's rules, according to the law, must make sure that late charges and penalties--a major source of taxpayer headache and credit card company income in recent years--are "reasonable and proportional." The rules apply to many types of credit cards, from high interest credit cards to zero balance transfer cards to even the best cash back credit cards.

Just how effective the new law and regulations will be remains to be seen. But as a consumer, it's important for you to keep in mind what your rights are.

Credit cards and credit scores

Some of the new regulations are related to not only to credit cards but also to your

By Jim Sloan

I drove by one of those sign wavers dressed up as the Statue of Liberty this morning. Maybe you've seen one or two of them in your town. They wear green costumes and direct people to the offices of their employer, Liberty Tax Service, which prepares tax returns for people.

Weird thing was this particular sign waver had a beard. The Statue of Liberty endures some pretty harsh conditions there in New York Harbor, but last time I checked things weren't so bad that the towering lady had grown a beard.

Other changes expected in your federal income tax return

There are some other things about this federal income tax season that are off kilter, as well. For one thing, outfits like Liberty Tax Service and other businesses that figure out your tax deductions for you are not likely to be making as many refund anticipation loans as they used to.

Those loans are attractive to many people who can't afford to pay to have someone prepare their return. With a refund anticipation loan (RAL), though, they can have their return completed and e-filed and the company will give them a check right away--minus the "processing fee" and the tax preparation fee.

The tax preparation companies' RAL business has been handicapped this year by the IRS's decision to stop providing tax preparers with "debt indicators," which let the companies know when their client's refund might be withheld for

By Jim Sloan

Editor's Note: Thank you for your interest, this offer expired and is no longer available.

For those just out of college or starting fresh, a break in the form of traveling to another state or country is usually near the top of wish lists. Finding ways to fund traveling however, can be a significant barrier to actually realizing this. If you're good with credit cards, though, a new promotion from Capitol One may be able to help you with your travel ticket.

Traveling in reach?

Capital One has rolled out a new Venture Rewards credit card promotion with a "Match My Miles" promotion that will match the number of miles you have accumulated on another airline credit card up to 100,000 miles.

You earn the additional 100,000 miles--the equivalent of $1,000--if you put at least $1,000 on the card in the first three months.

The offer is good for new Venture and Venture for Business primary account holders. Current Capital One cardholders who want to upgrade to the Venture Rewards card or swap their existing Capital One card will get the mile match if they get approved, said Sukhi Sahni, a senior communications manager with Capital One.

The company will continue the offer this until they've given away a billion miles or until May 13, 2011, whichever comes first--it's a first-come, first-served proposition.

Miles on top of miles: How does it work?

If you have airline miles on one of 13 airline credit cards currently on the market, Capital One will match

By Ryan Hurlbert

When I was starting out, a wallet full of credit cards was a sign of success--if you had five or six cards, you were obviously doing well. Like so many others, I got myself into a bit of a payment crunch; each minimum payment by itself was small, but when I lumped them all together each month, well, it was more than I had! I consolidated as many together as I could, took a second job, and paid, and paid, and paid.

Eventually, I paid everything off and now carry one general credit card and one gas card, although I have another account at a men's clothing store I use occasionally. In today's society, you can't buy anything on-line without one, can't rent a car without one, and try and find an airline that will let you write a check for a ticket!

It's easy to get caught up in the excitement of getting a credit card, and not read the terms. Luckily for you, the Credit Card Accountability, Responsibility, and Disclosure (CARD) Act of 2009 makes understanding your credit card easier than ever. Now, credit card companies have to post their disclosures on-line, and they have to be written in "plain English".

Now that understanding credit cards is made easier for you, here are five terms that you should be sure to understand when evaluating credit card offers:

• Grace period. You have to have at least 21 days from the

By Kelly Richardson

The topic of financial scams is one I'll never grow tired of researching or reporting, because I was a victim. A little over two years ago I went through one of the darkest financial chapters of my life--and it all started with a seemingly innocent email. Here's what happened.

I bank with one of the majors. It's not important which bank I use because the dangers are present with even the best online banks. Because I do most of my banking online, I'm used to seeing frequent emails from this bank. And the email in question was no different. It looked perfect. The bank's logo in the top right corner, legalese in fine print at the bottom--everything I, and you, would expect in an email from the bank.

And after clicking on the hyperlink requesting a verification of my account information, the damage had been done.

Why we fall victim to financial scams

While no one really knows precisely why we're lured by the empty promises and cardboard facades of financial scams, recent research has pointed to an entire range of physiological reasoning behind our actions. Research by the University of Exeter revealed these fascinating findings:

• Previous victims of a scam are more likely to show interest in responding again
• Recognizing and understanding the subject of a scam has shown to actually increase the risk of 'over-confidence'
• Victims aren't necessarily poor-decision makers but might be easily persuaded and less
  

By Richard Barrington

The words "IRS audit" are enough to send a chill down the spine of even the most conscientious taxpayer. They evoke Kafka-esque images of a relentless bureaucratic inquisition, but are they really as bad as all that?

Since most people have never been through an IRS audit (after all, only about 1 percent of all individual returns are audited), much of the fear of a federal income tax audit is simply fear of the unknown. To ease that fear by removing some of the unknown, here are answers to four fundamental questions about tax audits:

1. What does it mean to be audited? An audit is not an accusation of any wrongdoing, but just a request to review the numbers and supporting documentation of your tax return. While a tax audit is popularly thought of as a face-to-face process, most of them take place through the mail. Of 1,425,888 audits of individual tax returns in 2009, 326,219 took place in the field, and 1,099,639 were handled via correspondence.

2. What triggers a federal income tax audit? Lest you feel unfairly singled out if you receive notice of an IRS audit, keep in mind that some returns are selected for audit randomly. Another trigger might be computer analysis that shows your return to be an outlier from the norm in terms of things like the level of tax deductions claimed. A real red