Debt Hacker: Tools for a Debt-Free Life » Credit Cards http://www.debthacker.com News, information and talk about money and debt management, credit and personal finance Sat, 28 Jun 2008 07:00:00 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.6 en http://www.debthacker.com http://www.debthacker.com/wp-content/mbp-favicon/debthacker.ico Debt Hacker: Tools for a Debt-Free Life Credit Card Rate Caps ‘Interest’ Obama and Clinton http://www.debthacker.com/credit-card-rate-caps-%e2%80%98interest-obama-and-clinton/ http://www.debthacker.com/credit-card-rate-caps-%e2%80%98interest-obama-and-clinton/#comments Thu, 21 Feb 2008 05:31:32 +0000 Mark http://www.debthacker.com/credit-card-rate-caps-%e2%80%98interest-obama-and-clinton/ While both of the Democratic contenders for the November Presidential nomination have a lot of good ideas, here’s one that we, at Debt Hacker, really like: cap usurious interest rates on credit cards.Where the two could not seem to agree on what that cap should be (Clinton proposes the cap at 30% but Obama feels that is still too high), they are united in finding creative ways to help Americans get out of the many financial messes that have come about in our recent fool’s paradise of ‘no money down’ and ‘easy credit’.

According to a post on The Swamp, credit card interest rates aren’t the only thing Clinton and Obama are proposing pointing out that

Clinton also noted that the Ohio cities of Dayton, Toledo, Akron and Cleveland are among the nation’s top 20 cities for home foreclosures. She has called for a 90-day moratorium on foreclosures and a five-year freeze on adjustable rate mortgages for troubled homeowners.

Clinton used the home foreclosure issue as well as her support for a mandated universal health insurance program to contrast herself with Obama. Obama has called for tougher penalties for predatory home lenders. On health care, he has proposed a plan to mandate coverage for children, which he contends would help make all insurance more affordable.

There are many other economic areas in which the two are promising reformation, but in the short run, if they can get the feds to clamp down on credit card interest rates, that will be a great help for the many American families suffering from our country’s present economic malaise.

Read the full post on The Swamp.

]]> http://www.debthacker.com/credit-card-rate-caps-%e2%80%98interest-obama-and-clinton/feed/ Two Obvious but True Steps for Eliminating Credit Card Debt http://www.debthacker.com/eliminate-credit-card-debt-in-two-steps/ http://www.debthacker.com/eliminate-credit-card-debt-in-two-steps/#comments Wed, 31 Oct 2007 05:59:19 +0000 admin http://www.debthacker.com/eliminate-credit-card-debt-in-two-steps/ In a blog post titled 2 Steps to Eliminating Credit Card Debt, there are two (surprise) steps proposed to get free from credit card debt. These steps are:

  1. Control your urge to spend
  2. Debt consolidation

The two steps are simple enough and we’ve heard them before, but for many people, this is a lesson that has to be drilled in before we finally realized that the inability to do number one gets us in trouble in the first place and the failure to do number two keeps us caught up in the cycle for a lot longer than we need to be.

While the post advocates consolidating debts on a lower APR credit card, I would personally recommend Care One Credit Counseling for a well-managed, fairly automated, non-credit card option for debt consolidation. There are other debt consolidation companies, but in all cases, do read the fine print. Most importantly, when you begin any debt consolidation remember that you are not to incur any new debt. Many people lose sight of this small piece of information but it was unchecked credit card spending that got you in the situation in the first place. Read the full post on Everything Finance.

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