If you think that you know everything there is to know about your credit card, then you could be in for a rude awakening. Credit card providers make untold billions of dollars annually because of several closely guarded secrets that they won’t easily share with you. By keeping you in the dark they can make money at your expense. Don’t be beaten down as I am about to shine the light in the darkness to expose trade secrets that they hope you will never learn about.

Congratulations, you have been approved for a new major credit card! However, do not let the headiness of having a better than average credit rating skew your judgment: now is the time to get very familiar with the credit card agreement that came along with your new card.

Firstly, are you being charged an annual fee? If so, you are paying for the privilege of using a card that should not cost you one red cent until you actually buy something. The prestige of that platinum card is all smoke and mirrors; chances are the same card you are holding in your hands didn’t cost your neighbor anything. Contact the credit card company and ask them to waive their annual fee.

Secondly, an introductory annual percentage rate [APR] of 0% sound great on the surface. However, how long will that low introductory rate last? Will your new purchases automatically climb to the inflated regular rate once the honeymoon period is over? Or, will the initial APR stay the same until your balance is paid off?

Thirdly, balance transfers are a great thing to have but only if the credit card company offers to you two things:

1. No transfer fees on balance transfers. Look closely at your statement and you could discover that a 3% transfer fee has been charged on your $5000 transfer — that’s an extra $150 you must shell out for the privilege of moving your money from one credit card to another one!

2. Low APR, but for how long? If you transfer your funds to the new card will the transferred balance stay at the fixed rate or evaporate once the introductory period has ended? On the surface, a 2.9% APR on balance transfers sounds good, but if that rate jumps up to 17.49% once the introductory period is over it becomes a good deal that has gone bad. Unless, of course, you pay off the debt before the jump in the card’s interest rate occurs.

Fourthly, you do have a grace period with your card don’t you? If you purchase something today will interest begin to accumulate immediately or will you get up to 25 days to pay off your balance interest free? Some credit card offers are reducing or even eliminating the grace period.

Fifthly, what sort of rewards program is attached with the card? What, you didn’t know that they offered to you a rewards program? Chances are you may have to sign up for this program separately. Big note: no rewards program is worth it if you run a monthly balance, which is how the credit card companies make big money off of you. The value of your rewards will quickly be cancelled out if you don’t pay off your card every month.

Sixthly, are you paying your card through online banking? If so, make sure that the funds are paid to your credit card company several days in advance of the due date. Otherwise a $39 penalty charge could be assessed to your account. If paying by mail, send out payment 7-10 days before the due date. You may think that your payment is going to your Virginia bank’s local payment center when it will, instead, be sent to a South Dakota post office box. The two day difference in mailing time could spell the difference between your card getting their on time or being late.

Seventhly, will one late payment to your account change the original terms of your agreement? That 11.9% interest rate you enjoyed could suddenly jump to 23% even 30% or more if you are late just once with a payment. Don’t take a penalty APR lying down; contact the credit card company and politely insist that they remove the penalty interest rate at once.

No credit card is worth it to you if the credit card company socks you with a huge APR, annual fees, penalty fees, and the like. Read the updated terms of agreement that will come in the mail with your card from time to time to learn what terms they changed unilaterally. If something has been changed that works against you, contact the credit card company and tell them that you reject their changes. They may threaten to close your account, but if they do simply move on to another hungry credit card provider as there are thousands of them out there.

Finally, pull your free copies of your annual credit reports at AnnualCreditReport.com. Take care of the errors and make certain that no unwarranted negative reports are included with your report. Pay a few extra dollars and you can obtain your credit scores too. Your credit score is the ultimate number that determines the interest rate you will pay on every loan.

You don’t have to let industry secrets cause you financial hardship; fight back by becoming a fully informed consumer today!

(c) 2006; You may republish this article to your website with the following author resource information and link left intact.

Matthew C. Keegan invites you to discover some additional articles he has written by visiting his blog today!

Are you making plans for a summer vacation or your next winter get-a-way? Are you seeking to observe Fall’s many splendored colors in the Appalachian foothills or warm your heart as the first Spring breezes flow ashore in southern California? If so, you can save money on your next trip by making some of the arrangements yourself. Book a hotel room directly and you could save 50% off of your accommodations. Let’s take a look at some nifty options for you!

Travel Sites: Some of the big travel sites on the internet can really help you find low rates for high quality hotel rooms. Travelocity and Priceline are two popular sites, but visit Hotels.com for the widest selection and the lowest prices. You can book a hotel room right online and receive a confirmation to your email address.

Hotel Sites: Even better than some of the travel sites is to simply book a hotel room on the hotel chain’s site. Yes, they have the best information about room availability, specials, packages, and the like. Some will let you enter a AAA or senior citizen number for further savings.

Business Associations: Your business group may work out a great rate for you at one of its favored chains. Simply visit your business association site, click on the book a hotel link, and select the room of your choice. Make certain at check in that you let the front desk know that your are affiliated with the business association; it could result in a free room upgrade!

Rewards Cards: Do not underestimate the power of your credit card in helping you to find the best deals, the lowest rates, when you book a hotel room. Depending on your card and the “affinity” relationship you could save 5%, 10%, even 20% or more off of already discounted rates. At the very least you can accumulate points toward a free night when using your special credit card.

Truly, the options have changed when it comes time for you to book a hotel room. Save time, save money, and get a rate much lower than the hotel’s published rate. Few people pay the full amount because as educated consumers they have learned that hotels are willing to sell rooms at a discount. Negotiate the lowest rate when you book a hotel stay and use your savings to pay for a night out on the town at your favorite restaurant!

Copyright 2006-2008 – For additional information regarding Matt Keegan, please visit his The Article Writer blog. Matt also invites you to check out his Christian devotional blog, WordJourney for words of inspiration.

Don’t let them fool you. All those solicitations you receive in the mail for credit card applications are meant to reel you in and hook you. Big time. In addition, new bankruptcy laws in the US and higher monthly minimum payment requirements are in place to help stem defaults on loans and to force consumers to pay down debt quicker. All of this sounds great, but credit card companies want to keep you in debt as long as possible. Please read on for all the stimulating details.

If you have had problems in the past paying down debt, do not think for a moment that you will have it any easier in the future. Thanks to legislation introduced by Congress and signed by the president earlier in 2005, filing for bankruptcy to escape debt has become more difficult. Much more so. In addition, credit card companies have raised your monthly minimum payment levels, in some cases doubling the minimum amount you must pay. Consider this last step a side issue related to the new bankruptcy legislation; the credit card companies are not legally obligated to raise minimums but they were pressured into doing so in exchange for passage of the new bankruptcy law.

Do not even think for a moment that credit card companies want you to get out of debt.

For starters, credit card rates have been rising steadily for over two years. As the prime rate goes up, your credit card interest rate goes up. Unless, of course, you have a fixed rate and you have been paying your bills on time. However, one late payment and, uh oh, you are in big trouble.

If you are late making a payment, even just once, you will likely be hit with a one time late fee charge of $29 or $39. In addition, that “sweet rate” you negotiated last year may automatically disappear. Zero percent financing can quickly turn into an 18.9% interest rate in no time and enforced retroactively too. Even “lower rate” cards with annual percentage rates of 10%, 12%, or more, can suddenly reflect rates of 24.9%, 29%, 35%, or even higher!

This is all perfectly legal too!

Read your credit card disclosure agreement – as if anyone even bothers to do so – for all the boring details. Exceptions and rules are the name of the game; there is a trap laying wide open for you to step on.

The next area of socking it to you is an old one: annual fees. Yes, they are back; for years, credit card companies — in order to remain competitive — waived annual fees. Originally, it was one small way for them to extract some cash from you: you paid them something every year even if you paid off your card monthly.

If you are like me, the whole concept of charging someone to access credit is absurd. Companies make a mint off of high interest rates as it is; throwing another fee on top of things is both apparent and transparent! Now, annual fees are back. Oh, sure, credit card companies must notify you in writing of these changes before they are put in place, but they certainly hope you won’t cancel your account in response to the “new” fee or that you will forget the notice completely and simply pay the fee. Do they think that we are stupid? I believe so!

There are two other areas where credit card companies attempt to pull a fast one on consumers: your payment due date and payment mailing address.

Your payment due date, which may have been “static” for years, could suddenly have been moved up. This means that if you are used to paying off your Visa card on the 24th of the month, it may suddenly have been moved to the 16th the following month. Without notifying you of the change either!

The address where you send your money may have changed too. Is this a big deal? It certainly is if you mail your payments in. Let’s say that you live in New Jersey and your XYZ Bank card payment goes to a South Hackensack post office. If you mail your payment in five days before the due date, you probably allowed enough time for your payment to get to the bank. Warning: Watch out that their payment address hasn’t suddenly been moved to Ohio. Your next payment will likely end up being late.

Oh, so you pay online? Don’t think that the bank credits your money immediately either. I have seen it take five days for money to electronically leave my checking account and be wired to another bank’s account. The post office moves a live check faster than that!

A moved payment due date and a changed payment address are designed to make your payments late so that the credit card company can charge you a late fee and raise your rates.

This is perfectly legal as well. Is it ethical? Hey, we’re talking about the financial services industry. What else do you expect?

Financial institutions make money off of consumers through interest rates and fee services. Please do not think for a moment that any credit card company has your best interests at heart. They don’t; they are in business to please their shareholders. Get informed and take action when one of these “perfectly legal” practices is pulled on you. You can get fees canceled and have your credit card rate lowered if you complain; back it all up in writing in order to preserve your rights.

A savvy consumer is an informed consumer; learn what tricks credit card companies use and fight back. Annually order free credit reports from Experian, TransUnion, and Equifax to make sure that unfavorable reports from creditors have not been unfairly tagged to your record. Visit the Federal Trade Commission’s site at http://www.ftc.gov/bcp/conline/pubs/credit/freereports.htm for the best way to obtain credit reports.

Copyright 2005-2008 — Matthew Keegan is The Article Writer who writes on a variety of topics including: advocacy, automobiles, aviation, business, Christian themes, family, news, product reviews, travel, writing, and more. Samples from his portfolio are available right online.