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The world economy is just horrible. Everything around the world is rising in price and most of us are not able to keep up with the ever-changing prices of items and daily necessities. When in need of money, we seek for loans, but almost all of us use these little tiny plastic cards known as, credit cards. Some call these the root of all evil and hell, but others call it lifesavers. Depending on how you use it and what you use it for decides whether or not a credit card is what you need. Lets just say that all of us has one and require it shall we?

Credit cards usually solve all problems when we seek for a problem-solver and that is why they’re there. I’m sure ALL of you over the age of 18, with few exceptions under 18, receive spam mail from credit card companies asking you to sign up. Receiving more of these type of letters does not mean you have a good credit score or anything like that. Credit card companies seek out the ones that need money the most and mail out these applications to get you more in debt. It’s just weird how all starts out, so I’m going to explain a bit and go on to my own experience.

Financial Needs

The need of applying for credit cards and charging them all starts out because you need money to pay off certain things. The thing about a credit card is that you can use it to charge and purchase many items or pay off many bills without having to worry about it. Doesn’t that just sound great? You can pay off all your debt within a few weeks without having to worry. WRONG!

Monthly Minumum Payments

Charging up your new plastic will only allow you about 30-45days of grace period before you have to pay “the bill“. Some of you may even receive a lower grace period, but the period I stated is usually for new applicants. After you receive the bill, you will be able to see your total balance, but right under it, it usually would state the minumum payment, which is usually a minumum of about $15, but goes higher depending on your total balance. The first sight at the lower minimum payment usually relieves your pain of knowing you owe so much money, so you probably will decide to pay only the minumum.

Credit Line

The larger your credit line is, the more you could charge. I’m not going to be sexist, but females usually receive a larger credit line than a male applicant. Why, do you ask? I have no comment and I’m going to leave it at that. A start out applicant’s average starting credit line is $700, but it rises as you start using the card more. This actually decides how many credit cards you’re going to sign up for. Take for example you have a debt of around $10,000, but your credit card credit line is $1,000. This would mean you would have to sign up for 10 different cards and the applications usually get approved.

Never Ending Payments

If you sign up for credit cards because you’re in debt, you would usually stay in debt. You would have to send out never ending payments because that is how evil these companies are. They will find you and they will need your money.

• APR (Annual Percentage Rate) - The higher you APR is, the longer it’ll take you to complete all your payments if you are paying the minimum. I personally have family members that owe $10,000+ to credit card companies and paying minimum or any amount under the total balance, does not solve the problem. If you still have a total balance after the end of the monthly credit card bills, they will charge you an APR, which is daily percentage of the leftover balance you have. Paying a $25 minimum for a $3,000 balance will bring back that $25 next month because the APR is adding on. It has been said that it takes usually up to 30 years to pay off a balance if you were to pay only the minimum. If you think about it, that’s a lot of lost money…

Find The Best Rates

If there is no other choice but credit cards you should find the best rates. An average credit card for a new applicant without a credit history is about 25-35% APR. That percentage is considered VERY VERY high and it usually attacks students because students are usually clueless and splurge on almost everything (my wife and I are students too). Because of that, you must find the best rates and promotions out there when you are applying for credit cards. This is pretty simple because the Internet is where most of these hidden deals are

• Promotions - Seek for promotional credit card applications. There are some that get sent to your mail box, but they only offer about $20-50 in credit for your first purchase. I suggest you guys pay a visit to iCardBonus to find all the latest credit card offers with low to nothing on fees. My wife and I used that site when we were running into financial problems. We applied for 2-3 0% balance transfer cards and it works wonderfully! Promotions usually last from 6-12months and that gives you a lot of time to figure out a different strategy on paying off your bills. The only thing you gotta make sure about is not to spend more when you sign up for new cards.

• Credit Score - An applicant’s credit score most definitely affects all the rates and promotions. It usually takes about 2-3 years after your first credit card to receive higher better offers. It takes time, but it’s worth it in the long run. Your score lives with you the rest of your life.

Missed Payment Madness

Forgetting a payment is like hell, but worse Credit card companies are very automated and a small missed or late payment can do so much to your credibility in real life. Lets take a look at 2 points and examples shall we?

• Intentional - Lets say you have a $15 minimum bill amount due in two days, but you don’t want to pay for it. The reason you don’t want to pay is because your total balance is over $3,000. Paying minimum won’t do anything because the APR usually kicks in to put that $15 back onto the total balance. With this said, I’m sure you wouldn’t want to pay your bills and some people really don’t.

• Not Intentional - There are also non-intentional missed / late payments and it’s usually because of an emergency or a quick brain fart. I just so happened to have missed my Washington Mutual payment completely for this past month and wow did it suck. These things just happen to anyone a least once in a lifespan. So what happens after these problems?

Rates Alter

If you initially received an APR rate of 10%, a missed payment could bump the rate up to 20-30% without you knowing. It really does suck because credit card users usually do not know about this until the next bill statement comes. Not to mention, your promotional rates or offers also end if a payment is late or missed. A fee or finance charge is usually put into place for this problem and it ranges from a flat rate fee of $20 to a % of your total balance.

Rebuttal Against The Problem

Whether you intentionally or unintentionally missed or paid a late payment, you should also rebuttal against it. Never give into the evil TOS (TERMS OF SERVICE) that credit card companies put onto you. Most credit card companies put customers first and you could call or e-mail them about the problem. If the first few answers deny your request, you must keep trying. Try again and again until they give in and credit you back for the late payment. I recently forgot about my bill, but I mentioned in my message to Washington Mutual that I did not receive my paper statement. It took 3 e-mails, but they took my lie and said they valued me as a customer, so I received credit. Sometimes a lie is worth it especially when credit card companies scam almost everyone one way or the other.

Disputing the problem through the online e-mail/messaging console usually works better than calling If your credit card is one of those “off brands”, you might have a tougher time getting this done.

List Of Companies

There are thousands of different credit card companies in the world, but many of them link back to the same parent company and I’m going to list 3 of them that own almost all the sub-companies.

1. Bank of America
2. Washington Mutual
3. Chase

Fraud?

May this be considered as fraud? Yes, it can be considered as that, but I don’t care. I’m sure a lot of you are with me on this matter since credit card companies do steal from us. It may not get you, but it may get your family or friends. It’s time to take back and gain control.

My Experiences

If you ever have some sort of emergency, you should always plan things out ahead of time. I understand that emergencies usually happen at the last minute, but there are signs to tell you ahead. I’m talking about financial problems here and if you ever hit a point where you have no money, what are you going to do? Signing up for new credit cards are going to put you in debt unless you do it correctly. A loan is usually more difficult to obtain, so credit cards are your only choices, unless you have parents :D. Sign up for those promotional credit cards early in time, so you could get that free $100 credit or that 0% balance transfer to stablize your debt for a half a year or a full year.

Work Out A Plan

If you never want to run into these type of financial or credit card problems, you must make sure you plan things out first. My wife and I worked out a plan to stabilize ourselves even though we are $5-6,000 in debt. But our debt isn’t that bad because we utilize a 0% balance transfer to pay off the initial amount first and now we have 1 year to make money or plan out something else. We even have $1,000 in a savings account that we’re not using unless we absolutely need it. Maybe you guys have plans too, so why not mention it to all of us in the comments below?