Best credit cards of 2009
Despite cutbacks in credit card reward promotions and significant increases in rates and fees during 2009, credit cards are still available that offer attractive terms and strong value.
CardRatings.com, a for-profit organization that educates consumers about credit cards, provides these top picks for 2009:
Best cashback credit cards of 2009
Schwab Bank Invest First Visa Credit Card
If you open a Schwab One brokerage account, you may qualify for a Visa Signature card that offers a straight, 2 percent cash rebate on all purchases. With no limits and no restrictions, this hard-to-get card provides real savings all year long.
TrueEarnings from Costco and American Express
Costco members earn a dollar for spending $100 at most merchants who accept American Express. Cashback rewards grow 3 percent for annual gasoline purchases of up to $3,000 (1 percent thereafter), 3 percent for restaurants, 2 percent for travel, and 1 percent for other purchases.
Card Debt Options – Will Switching to a Fixed Rate Credit Card Help?
Let us get one thing straight- A fixed rate credit card does not mean that interest rates charged on the card will remain fixed forever. Rather, the rate is fixed to an index. Once the index changes, the rate will also change. The duration and pattern of change varies as compared to variable interest rate cards. If you are planning to switch to a fixed rate credit card to ensure your interest payments remains stable, chances are high that you will still not succeed.
Whether you should switch to such a card or not depends on the seriousness of the problem. If interest payments are beginning to pinch but you feel that you can manage things better if the interest rate fixed, then you should think of a switch. On the other hand, if you’re finding it difficult to repay your debts on time or if you’re finding it difficult to make ends meet, then a fixed rate will not make any difference. You will continue to face problems irrespective of whether the interest rate is fixed or variable.
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British Airways credit card promotional offer
What’s the deal?
British Airways has a promotion to entice people to sign up for a new Visa Signature affinity credit card. First-time cardholders with new accounts will earn 50,000 miles with their first purchase and another 50,000 miles for spending $2,000 in the first three months after the account is opened.
That’s 100,000 miles, enough for two coach round-trip tickets or one business-class round trip to parts of Europe, including Belgium, France, Germany, Ireland, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Switzerland and the U.K. You also can redeem miles for flights on codeshare partner American within the continental U.S., and to Canada, Hawaii and Mexico.
What’s the savings?
Potentially, a lot – especially if you rack up that $2,000. (Think about going cashless and using the card for last-minute holiday shopping, groceries, gas, bills and restaurants.)
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Cash is king for holiday shoppers
CHICAGO (Reuters) – Cash was king for consumers who shopped over the Thanksgiving weekend, according to survey results released on Sunday, and that factor could have cost retailers additional sales.
Only 26 percent of people who shopped over the weekend said they used credit cards for their purchases, according to a poll conducted for Reuters by America’s Research Group.
“That’s an amazing shift in consumers’ habits,” said Britt Beemer, founder of America’s Research Group.
A total of 39 percent said they used cash, while the remaining shoppers used debit cards, the survey showed.
Consumers shunning credit cards is a bad sign for retailers, since people who buy gifts with a credit card tend to spend anywhere from 20 to 40 percent more on the gift, Beemer said.
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Budget and You
Budgeting is one of the options for you on how to keep tracks of your money and your expenditure. This is what we call planning a device and then setting your own mission on your budgeting. Recording is the version for you to choose for your budgeting whether you want it to be in hard copy or soft copy. You can plan budgeting by writing your budget in book that you create especially for your future. For soft copy, you can use Microsoft Excel; build up your own budget worksheet on monthly basis. With Excel, you can add or subtract of the expenditure that you have spend or what you get. With the worksheet, you can keep a good track of what you spend every month and you can even cut a cost to where you wish to cut. You can even compare and make progress of your spending every month. Here are two types of spending:
Fixed Spending
Fixed spending is for the expenditure that fixed every month. That’s mean you know that fixed payment that you need to settle. For example, your ‘house rent’, ‘insurance bill’’, pay your personal loan, car loan and etc. By recording all these fixed item expenditure, you can see a glance how much your income committed to future expenses.
Variable Spending
Variable Spending is the expenditure that not fix every month. This variable needs a good eye to keep track because the expenditure for every month will change. It will help you to analyze whether you can cut your cost vice versa. For example, utility bills and etc. This may trouble you if your record keeping is careless
