This is yet another post from the Suggest a Topic page, and this time I am going to talk about how to select a credit card. Radhika had asked this question once quite early on as well, but I didn’t feel that I have anything really useful to say on it so never got around to writing the post.

However, searching online made me feel that in general this is an area on which not much has been written about in an Indian context. So, I thought I’d write this post and at least start off the discussion, and present you views on how I would go about searching for a credit card if I had to do it.

The first thing I did was to look at cash back credit cards in India, which give you one percent or two percent cash back every time you make a purchase, but unfortunately I couldn’t find any good cash back credit cards in India. Some of them have a high annual fee, others make you jump through too many hoops, and a lot of them have some sort of a limit on them which considerably reduce their appeal.

In the US, people with a good credit history can get a good cash back credit card which doesn’t have any annual fee and to me that’s the best kind of credit card.

Let’s see what you can look at in the absence of such a credit card.

No Annual fee

The first thing to keep in mind is that your credit card should have no annual charges. There are a lot of good credit cards without any fee, so there is no reason for you to go and get a credit card which has an annual fee.

I believe this to be true for most people, however there will be some folks out there who feel that the benefit of a particular credit card outweighs the annual fee, and if you have such a credit card in mind then that’s fine, but if you are just looking out for a new credit card, then I’d say look for one that doesn’t have any annual fee.

No Renewal Charges

Another fee I see with some credit cards is renewal fee that has to be paid at the end of every year. So obviously this is nothing but a credit card with an annual fee, but the annual fee has been waived off for the first year.

You may want keep away from such credit cards also.

Convenience to pay off your balance

If you get a credit card from your bank then you will probably be able to link the credit card with the bank account and pay off your credit card online, and that is a big convenience. Making it easy enough on yourself to pay off the balance will ensure that you don’t miss any payments because your check reached late or you were out of town or something else like that.

Keeping no balance is an extremely good financial habit, and I’ve written about how I myself got into a bit of a credit card issue early on, and you must do everything possible to keep your credit card balance zero, and the ease of paying it off is just one factor that adds to it.

What do you spend the most on?

In the absence of a cash back credit card the next best thing to do is to look for a credit card that has no annual fee, and has good reward points in the area where you spend the most.

For instance if you are working away from your home town, and visit home say thrice a year then probably a good chunk of your credit card spending in a year is on air travel, and you should look for a credit card that has got good reward points. On the other hand if you don’t expect a lot of air travel but drive a lot then a card that helps you get rewards on petrol purchase will be beneficial to you.

Selecting a Credit Card

Given the criteria above, say you want to select a credit card now, here is an example of what you could do.

Say you have a bank account with ICICI Bank, and travel a lot. In this case go to Rupee Times Compare a Credit Card section, and select the Issuer as ICICI, Reward as Airline, Annual Fee as Zero Annual Fee, and search for your options.

In this search I got only two results, and if I don’t travel a lot by those two airlines (Kingfisher and Singapore in this case) then I will have to broaden my search by going back, and removing the issuer from the criteria.

That shows up some more options and you can see if any of them are of any interest to you or not. If you are still not satisfied then take another category and do a little more research.

Eventually you should find something that is of interest to you, and can explore that option more.

Why am I ignoring Interest Rates?

Because they are so ridiculously high.

Paying interest on a credit card should really be the last thing you do, and is the worst kind of debt because it can easily snowball into a much larger number, and is generally spent on stuff that you can easily avoid.

While it is preferable to have a lower interest rate to a higher one, you should make all attempts to have your credit card balance zero.

There is really not a lot of science behind this, and it boils down to evaluating a lot of options, and choosing one that suits you the best. I hope this post can help you give some ideas on that, and as always comments are welcome.

Oh, and since we are on the topic, Ask Mr Credit Card, who is a prominent US credit card blogger did a guest post on OneMint early this year about silly ways of using a credit card, and I highly recommend you read that post.

The following is a guest post by Michael from CreditCardForum.com. He has conducted hundreds of credit card reviews for his site (his favorite being cash back credit cards) and has been analyzing the credit industry for years. Today, he will be discussing the international growth of credit cards and where he believes India will fit into the picture.

One of the most lucrative investments ever made by Warren Buffett was in the Coca-Cola company. In 1988, he began gobbling up their stock. At the time, Wall Street thought he was insane; the consensus was that Coca-Cola had already saturated America and other Western countries, so there was no room left to grow. It was considered to be a fully mature company.

Buffett saw things differently. Even though the Western markets were already saturated, he realized that many international markets were largely untapped… that is where the future growth would be. So he bought $1.02 billion of their stock, which worked out to be 7% of the company at the time.

Well as it turns out, Buffett was right. Over the next twenty years growth flourished overseas. Today, Buffett’s stake in the company is valued at around $11 billion and pays nearly a quarter-billion a year in dividends alone!

What does Coca-Cola have to do with credit cards?
It’s astonishing just how quickly debit and credit cards have become of the payment method of choice in America. Nowadays, people pay for just about everything using them. Personally speaking, I probably only use cash five or six times per year, and credit cards the rest of the time. In today’s fast-paced, technologically driven world, we are seeing plastic replace paper currency at a rapid rate.

I see this situation as being similar to Coca-Cola in 1988. Today, Visa, MasterCard, American Express, and Discover have already conquered America… but what about internationally? In the majority of the world, debit cards and credit cards are still a rarity, but that’s quickly changing. The aforementioned companies are seeing double-digit annual growth rates overseas. Not surprisingly, it is the technologically-savvy, growing countries – like India – where credit card usage is increasing the most.

What will the future hold for credit cards in India?
China and India are the two most populous countries, with 1.34 and 1.18 billion people, respectively. Although the populations are similar in size, last year the Chinese spent nearly $24 billion on credit cards, which is 12 times more than the $2 billion spent in India. However this difference is rather insignificant at such an early stage, since both figures still only represent a trivial fraction of each country’s economy.

In order to gauge where India is heading we must consider the following factors:

Past Growth Rate: According to the Indian research firm RNCOS, the country saw a CAGR of around 40% between FY 2006 and FY 2009 for credit cards.

Short Term Future Growth: The aforementioned firm predicts a CAGR of 20% between FY 2011 and FY 2013. According to their press release “…the payment card market is highly untapped and is still at its nascent stage due to a very low level of penetration in terms of payment card usage.”

Long Term Future Growth: The biggest obstacle facing long term growth will be infrastructure. According to the RBI, approximately 40% of citizens still do not have a bank account. Increased adaption of banking will be a key component in how quickly card usage is adapted. Furthermore, businesses will need to have greater ability and the willingness to incorporate debit/credit card processing. Lastly – and most importantly – society must also be willing to adapt the transition from paper to plastic.

Government Participation: One factor we can be relatively confident in is that the government has and will continue to be supportive of the card industry. The RBI has proposed launching domestic payment card and a POS network for card payments.

How I believe credit cards will be different from those in the United States
Nowadays, just about every credit card in the U.S. offers cash back, points, or some other form of rewards on purchases… but it wasn’t always that way. During the 60’s, 70’s, and 80’s, rewards were almost non-existent and most credit cards even charged an annual fee. It wasn’t until the American market started approaching full saturation that we saw cash back credit cards, travel rewards credit cards, and other “gimmicks” offered by banks to try and stand out from the competition. In summary, these extra perks would probably not be offered if the market wasn’t so competitive. For that reason, I do not believe we will see Indian credit cards offering widespread rewards for many years (the market first must become much more saturated).

There is also the possibility that we may never see such lucrative credit card rewards programs in India. Why? Because there are only two reasons it’s possible for banks to give 1% to 5% cash back on American credit cards:

(1) Credit card companies charge merchants processing fees, which average 2% and higher. These fees help cover the costs of the rewards. Many countries crack down on these fees and limit the amount merchants can be charged. For example, the Royal Bank of Australia capped these fees at only 0.5% in 2003. If India were to also drastically cut the fees, rewards would be far less likely.

(2) In the United States, the savings rate is very low. Since the recession it is historically “high” at 6%, but usually it is even less than that. Compare this to a country like India, where the savings rate is around 30%. Because Americans have so little money saved, many do not pay their credit account in full each month or they use credit cards for balance transfers… both of these forms of borrowing involve paying interest payments and/or transfer fees. That, in turn, also helps to offset the banks expense of offering rewards. However in a country like India where savings is high, I expect the population will generally be less likely to use this expensive type of borrowing. Therefore, it may not be profitable for banks to offer cash back credit cards and the like.

Conclusion

In my personal opinion, I believe the credit card business today is very similar to where Coca-Cola’s business stood in 1988 – there are massive untapped growth opportunities. Although India’s current infrastructure may not be considered the most ideal for the adaption of card payments at this time, I believe they are well poised. As a country that highly values science and technology, I am confident their usage of card payments will become widespread. It’s not a question of if, but when.

Today, Mr Credit Card will be exploring the similarities and differences in the marketing of financial products like mutual funds and etfs versus credit cards.

Since it is my business to read everything about credit cards, I am pretty familiar with how credit cards market their cards. But because I also read a lot about mutual funds and ETFs, I find it fascinating how marketing strategies in the mutual fund industry differs from the credit card industry. Today, I would just like to highlight some of their similarities and differences.

Mutual Funds Market Their Performance – Credit Cards do not! – One of the unique features of the mutual fund industry is that funds are marketed solely based on performance and long term track record. Due to investor behavior, mutual funds tend to seek gather lots of fund inflows from retail investors after a year or years of outperformance. Track records are also used frequently by mutual fund companies. The better the long term average, the better obviously.

Unlike mutual fund companies, credit card companies do not even engage in such practices. One example where this might actually work is the the subprime or “new to credit” categories. I’m sure marketers of secured credit cards could make a statement to the effect that “x percent of our applicants managed to improve their credit scores by xyz and managed to get an unsecured credit card within x number of months? But I do not see that. Or how about cash back credit cards? Surely, credit card companies could say something like ” on average, our cardholders managed to earn x % cash back every year from using our credit card”? Wonder why they do not do that at all? Perhaps it’s regulations, but surely this would be a great selling point.

Credit Card Issuers give teaser deals, Mutual Funds do not – Have you noticed that credit card issuers give teaser deals all the time? It could be in the form of a 0% balance transfer offer, bonus miles or annual fee being waived for a year. But you never see such things in mutual funds. You never see a mutual fund offering to reduce your front end load when you invest. Neither do they waive fund expenses for one year. They are probably not allowed to due to SEC regulations. But maybe there isn’t any marketing restrictions. They just do not do it that way.

Credit Cards make claims that mutual funds cannot – Lots of credit card issuers, especially those marketing credit cards for people with bad credit, make promises like “instant approval”, “no credit checks”, “no employment checks” and in certain cases, “guaranteed approval”. Mutual funds by law, cannot make any performance guarantees. Hence, you do not see any guarantee like marketing language from mutual fund companies.

Both mutual funds and credit card issuers do not highlight their fees – If there is one thing both mutual funds and credit cards have in common, that is they do not advertise their fees. For mutual funds, you need to look through their prospectus or their marketing sheets to find their fees. For credit cards, you have to look through their terms and conditions. The fee “lingo” isn’t exactly intuitive either. Most folks do not understand exactly what an APR is. How many folks know what is a 12-b1 fee? Know the difference between an A share, B share or C shares? What is daily percentage rate?

Unfortunately, for most products, fees are one of the murkiest areas. It pays to be educated in what you are buying and make sure you choose a product that does not hit you with hidden fees. Many credit cards for bad credit folks like First Premier Bank have lots of hidden fees like one-time application fee, monthly maintenance fees on top of annual fees. Most consumers are never aware of these fees, just like they are never aware of 12-b1 fees.

Final Observations – It is interesting to note that both mutual funds and credit cards are financial products. But they are marketing differently. But one thing they have in common is that it is tough to look through their terms and conditions. And most people don’t really know what fees they are paying!

Mr Credit Card has previously wrote about tips to use credit cards wisely. Today, he will be focusing on some silly ways to use credit cards. Mr Credit Card’s favorite credit card company is American Express.

Credit cards, in the right hands are a great tool for consumers. If you use your credit cards responsibly, you can earn great rewards with them. But if you let your credit card control instead, then you are headed for trouble. Here are some mistakes folks make with their credit cards.

Ignorance – I have heard countless times that “my friend said it is OK to buy this on the card as long as I just pay the minimum balance – so I thought it is OK”!!%^&%. There were simply too many times where I heard comments like that and I simply felt like strangling that person. But when I calm down, I realize this is simply ignorance and is very prevalent (especially when it comes to credit cards). Getting a credit card before you even understand the consequences of carrying a balance and simply paying the minimum balance or what an APR is is simply asking for trouble. The only solution to this is to get educated about basic finances and credit cards before you even apply for one.

Carrying a balance for no good reason – I always advocate never to carry a balance. But I do understand where there are emergencies when you have to simply make use of your line of credit that is available on your credit card. But simply carrying a balance as a way of life is not the way to go. You end up paying too much interest over time and that is money wasted. It also fosters bad habits. If you find yourself in this camp, then I suggest getting rid of credit card debt as soon as possible.

Not Disciplined in paying on time – Paying your bills on time is such an important component of your financial life and discipline. While not paying your credit card bills may not be immediately disastrous (since credit card companies only report to the credit bureaus if you are late for 30 or 60 days), credit card companies are watching you and you are unlikely to be treated favorably in matters such as credit limit increases.

Not checking your credit card bills – I am a big advocate of enrolling in autopay feature. But even then, I do check my credit card bills every month to make sure there are no unauthorized payments on my statements. Whether you use autopay or not, or whether you can use paper or online statements, make sure you go through your bills every month diligently.

Playing the balance transfer game – I know folks who carry balances, and keep playing the balance transfer game to keep ahead without making any effort of headway to paying down their credit card debt. This is another silly mistake that simply keeps you trapped in the credit card debt game. If you have credit card debt and are looking to eliminate it, it is perfectly alright to use 0% balance transfer offers to pay down your debt faster. But to simply go from one card to another is sheer madness.

Running a balance to take advantage of 0% offers – More often than not, you will get credit card junk mails offering you 0% APR for purchases for up to a certain introductory period. It is very tempting to buy something you cannot afford on your card if it only charges 0%. Avoid that. You should never buy anything you cannot pay off in full. Many furniture stores offer the same thing, 0% financing for 12 months or even 24 months. Don’t fall for it. Using your credit card this way is the surest way to fall into debt.

Using your credit card as an ATM – Please, please, please – do not use your credit card at the ATM. The money you get will be considered cash advance and you will be charged an interest rate. Use you ATM instead and simply get cash from your bank account!

Mr Credit Card is writing a series of post for me while I’m away. Here is his first post about tips on using credit cards wisely. For full disclosure, Mr Credit Card carries the Amex Platinum Card and the Chase Freedom as his main Visa.

Here are some quick tips on how to use your credit card wisely. Though it sounds simple, most people do not fully follow them. So here’s my list of tips.

1. Always pay your bills in full – To be honest, I feel real stupid writing about this one. But paying your bills in full every month is the best tip I can think of in terms of credit card use. By paying your bills in full every month, it frees you from “credit card debt”. If you pay your bills in full every month, it does not matter if credit cards increase their rates. One of my cards raised their rates by a few percentage points citing “economic circumstances”. Since I paid in full, it did not bother me one bit. But though I feel kind of foolish mentioning this point (since it is so basic), I realize that outside of the credit card world, many people and nations are in “debt”. In fact, every OECD country has debt to their eyeballs. If only they had taken this advice of pay their bills in full and not borrowing to pay their bills!

2. Use AutoPay Feature and Pay Your Bills On Time – Paying your bills on time is the quickest surefire way to improve your credit score. And you should always pay on time. The best way I have found to do so is to use the autopay feature where you set up your bank account to pay your credit card automatically each month. Some people prefer to check their statements manually before writing a check. I would say that is fine as long as you do not forget!

3. Make sure your credit card pays you rewards – Assuming you follow rule 1 and 2, then it is imperative that you use a credit card that pays you rewards either in the form of cash rebates or frequent flier miles. A good friend of mine used to have only one credit card. But he paid his bills in full every month and he had never carried a balance. But he had a Visa from one of his local banks and they charged an annual fee, but the card had no rewards. There is absolutely nothing wrong with paying an annual fee if the card has got great benefits. But his situation was ridiculous.

The lesson is always get a card with rewards. It could be a cash rewards credit card or an airline credit card (whatever suits your needs). But make sure you earn something for using your credit card.

4. Use Your Rewards Quickly – Since the financial crisis, credit card issuers have gotten very strict with cardholders. Having a late payment on another account, and you may find your account closed, interest rate raised or credit limit slashed. If your account is ever closed by a credit card issuer, you could lose all your rewards that you have earned for the period. Some credit cards pay you rewards annually and you could lose them all if you card is closed on the 11th month just before your card anniversary date! In some respects, airline credit cards are better because once you have earned your miles, they are transferred about every month into your frequent flier account.

5. Do not take co-signing a credit card lightly – While there are cases where co-signing makes sense (like when you are co-signing a card for your college student), it can also come back to haunt you if you the person you co-signed for is late on their payment or defaults. Your credit score can take a huge hit as a result. Be very careful.

6. Use your auto collision insurance – Most credit cards have auto collision insurance. Hence, when you rent a car and pay with your credit card, you do not actually have to buy the auto collision insurance from the car rental company. In fact, they’ll probably be surprised if you turned them down! Just make sure you check your terms and conditions with your credit card issuer before you rent your next car.

7. Make use of your extended warranty feature – Many of the better credit cards also have the extended warranty feature. In most cases, this extends the warranty of the product by one year (over the manufacturers’ warranty). Many stores try to upsell you on product insurance. Truth is this is mostly a waste of money and if you have a good credit card, just remember that your warranty is already extended when you pay with the card.

8. Make use of accidental damage coverage – Some of the better credit cards have this feature where if a product you bought with your credit card gets stolen or breaks during a certain period from your purchase date, you can get a refund from your credit card. Remember it and make use of it should something like that ever happen to you.

9. Make use of your credit card’s shopping portal – Some credit card companies have set up shopping portals whereby you can shop online at well known retail stores through your credit card account. If you do so, you can earn quite a lot of cash rebates. Many people do not fully make use of this. Best thing to do is to log into your account and explore these features.

10. Combine credit cards – To get the full benefits of credit card rewards, you should use a couple of credit cards to get the most benefits. For example, using a cash back credit card together with a gas credit card will often earn you more rebates than using a standalone card.

I can think of more tips, but I think I’ll stop here. Hopefully, you will find these helpful.

Hi, this is Mr Credit Card from www.askmrcreditcard.com. Today, I am going to write about credit card industry practices in different countries and how credit card companies respond to the different international environment. If you are looking to apply for credit card, please check out the section where I recommend the best credit cards.

Firstly, I would like to wish everyone a very Happy Holidays. While I write about credit cards on my blog, the focus is primarily based on US. But I also realize that not everybody is from the US and that different countries have different regulations and industry practices. In this post, I would like to explain how the credit system works in the US and how it differs from other countries. I will also look at how different credit card companies market differently in different countries.

US Credit Card Industry – In the US, an individual’s credit score is extremely important. When one is looking to apply for credit, credit card issuers look at one’s credit score to determine if they will grant that individual credit or not. But for individuals in the US, developing a credit history is a chicken and an egg story. You need a history to apply for credit, and yet financial institutions look at one’s credit history!

Folks in the US have a couple of ways to get around this. Firstly, those who are in college can apply for a student credit card. That is the only time when you have no credit history and get a credit card with no annual fee! Next year, after the CARD Act, students need to get a co-signer or give proof of income.

You do not exactly have to get a credit card to build a credit history. If you have no credit history and take a mortgage, the mortgage banker will request your W2 income statement and probably a list of your liquid assets. You can still get credit, but probably at a slightly higher rate than if you had an excellent credit score.

An individual’s credit history is also important if one wants to get a business credit card. Without a good credit history, you simply cannot get one for your business!

The main flaw in the US credit scoring system is that they do not consider income or your assets as a factor. Hence, even if you have no job, you can technically still get a credit card!

Europe – In the UK, they have a similar model in that there are credit bureaus that record individuals’ credit score (like Experian!). However, in the rest of Europe, credit cards are not as popular and credit bureaus are almost non-existent (check out this post about the French system).

Asia – I’ve been to a few Asian countries and have many friends there. Almost all said that concept of a credit bureau was unheard of! Banks have their own criteria on giving their customers credit. Income is almost always an important factor. Very often, proof of income is very important.

Global Credit Card Issuers

Citi and Amex have their bread and butter cards everywhere – In the US, Citibank, Bank of America, Chase, American Express and Capital One are the main credit card issuers. In the international markets, only Citicards and Amex are really present overseas. For example, I did some research and found that Citi and American Express are present in more countries than any of the other US based issuers. For example, I checked out Citibank India, Citibank Singapore and Citibank Australia. What I found was quite interesting. Essentially, Citi exported a lot of cards that were designed here to other countries, perhaps modifying them with a slight twist. For example, their generic Citi MasterCard is issued all over the world.

American Express too has presence in more countries than other credit card issuers. If you check most of Amex International website, you will find that they issue their standard Green, Gold and Platinum charge cards every where in the world. What differs though is that the Membership Rewards program varies from country to country. For example, a Platinum Card in the US has got very different benefits than from one say in Japan. I still find that the Membership Rewards for US cardholders still have the best benefits.

Partnering with local companies for affinity cards – Another strategy that issuers like Citi and Amex have used is to partner with local companies (especially airlines) and issue local airline credit cards. For example, in Singapore, American Express has the Kris Flyer Credit Card. In Australia, Citi has the Emirates Citi Platinum Card. In India, Citibank partnered with Jet Airways (not JetBlue) and issue the Jet Airways Citi Platinum Card.

Balance Transfer Offers do not exist everywhere – In the US, balance transfer offers are abound everywhere. But this is not the case elsewhere. For example, when I checked Citibank India, I could not find a single balance transfer offer on their site. Guess, not too many Indians have debt to their eyeballs like many of us here in the US. In Australia, many issuers offer balance transfer deals, but they do not offer 0% APR rate. Instead, the rate tends to be about 4% (from my observation).

Terms and Conditions are not listed in every country – If you look at Citibank India’s site, nowhere are a standard terms and conditions page to be found. Here is the US, you get a standard terms and conditions page. But on Citi India’s site, all I could find was the annual fee, nowhere could I find the the APR. On Citibank’s Australia’s site, they did list the APR but is was the monthly APR. On the Citi’s Singapore website, the APR was not listed on the site but it said it will be listed on your statements!

Annual Fees are more common everywhere else – One observation that I have is that in the US, no annual fee credit cards are more the norm. In most other international countries, annual fees are more common.

Ending notes – This is just a very brief look at credit card practices in the US and in the international markets. What I have found is that different countries have different rules and credit card issuers adjust their strategies accordingly. I think the US market is still the most competitive and that folks here still can get the best rewards and deals. Fees and rates seem to be on average lower as well. There are more deals to entice new consumers and these just seem to be lacking in international markets.

SBI Easy Loan scheme is one of the best home loan schemes available to people who want to buy homes in India currently. This is because SBI Home Loan provides promotional home loan interest rates for the first three years of your home loan.

First Year: SBI charges you an interest rate of 8% per annum for the first year for loans up to 30 lacs.

Next Two Years: SBI charges you an interest rate of 9% per annum for the next two years for loans up to 30 lacs.

After third year: After the third year, — you can take a floating or fixed rate. Floating rate will be 2% less than SBAR prevailing at that time. Currently, the SBAR is 12.25% per annum.

If you take a fixed rate, then it will have an interest rate of 1% less than the SBAR prevailing at that time, and shall have a reset frequency of 5 years.

If you are taking a SBI home loan that is greater than 30 lacs, — then you will still pay 8% per annum the first year, but the interest rate for the next two years will be 9.5% per annum.

After the third year, — you can decide whether you want a fixed or floating rate. A floating rate will be 1% below the prevailing SBAR, and a fixed rate will be 0.50% below the SBAR (with a reset frequency of 5 years).

This is one of the better rates available to Indian home loan seekers right now. I couldn’t find a way to show you an easy way of comparing this rate to a flat rate, and see the savings. If anyone knows a way to do this, please let me know.

Photo Credit: TM View

Capital One Classic Platinum credit card is a popular credit card for people with average credit. Capital One describes a person with average credit as someone:

• who has a credit card with a limit of less than $5,000
• who has been late on more than one credit card, medical bill, or loan payment in the last six months.

The good thing about the Capital One Classic Platinum credit card is that it offers you a 0% APR till May 2010, and charges a variable APR equal to 16.9% after that. The APR is variable and is determined by adding 13.65% to the prime rate, and will change with changes in the prime rate.

Other things to keep in mind about this Capital One credit card:

• There is a $39 annual fee on this credit card that all card holders will have to pay.
• If you take a cash advance, then the APR for that is 24.9% variable. There is also a cash fee advance of 3%.
• Currently, the default APR is 29.4%.
• Your payment amount is applied towards the balance with the lowest APR first, and then the higher ones. Let’s take a look at what this means with the help of an example. Suppose you take a cash advance of $100, and make purchases worth $100. You will be charged a 24.9% APR on the cash advance you took, and 16.9% APR on your regular purchases. Now, if you paid just $100 in your credit card bill – this money will be used to pay off your balance with the lower APR first, and then the one with the higher APR. In this example – the $100 will be used to pay off the regular purchases, and you will end up with a balance of $100 cash advance on which the 24.9% APR is charged.

Other benefits of Capital One Classic Platinum Credit Card

• You can have your dog’s picture on the credit card.
• $0 fraud liability
• 24 – Hour travel and emergency assistance
• 24 – Hour roadside assistance
• Extended warranty program
• Travel accident insurance
• Auto rental insurance

While this post is about a credit card for people with average credit, there are other places that you can get credit loans if you have an average credit like creditloan.com, so that extent a credit card is one of your options rather than being your only option.

I have made every effort to ensure that the information here is accurate and up to date, however since these things keep changing, I encourage you to check the source of the full terms and disclosures. The fine print is not really all that hard to read!

Before you start reading about this card, you should know that it is only available to existing members. If you don’t already have this credit card, then you’ll be wasting your time reading this piece.

This is a cash back credit card from HDFC bank that lets you get up to 5% cash back on some of your purchases.

“Up to” is the key here though, the 5% cash back is only applicable if you make purchases from railways, hospitals and medical stores.

• If you spent your money on grocery, departmental stores, supermarkets or restaurants, then you will get just 1.5% cash back.

That is not really bad in itself, but there is an additional condition which states that the cash back on this credit card will be credited to your account only if the balance due is more than Rs.10,000. That is going to be a major dampener for people like me who don’t spend that much on a credit card every month.

There is one more final condition in getting the cash back – you can’t get more than Rs.500 back per month.

Here are the some of the fee of this card. To take a look at the detailed fee structure, visit this link.

• Annual Fee: Rs 700
• Interest: 3.25% per month or 39% annually
• Cash advance charges: 2.5% of amount withdrawn or Rs 300 (whichever is higher)

These were some interesting things I found about the HDFC Value Plus cash back credit card. I haven’t looked at many cash back credit cards to get a sense of where this one stands vis-a-vis others, but having the reward structure laid out clearly should help you in getting a fair idea of how useful it is to you.

I recently came across Disney Rewards Visa Card while browsing Chase’s website. It is a credit card that is specifically designed for giving returns related to Disney merchandise and parks.

Disney Visa Card lets you earn 1 Disney Dream Reward Dollar for every 100 dollars you spend. 1 Disney Dream Reward Dollar has a $1 value.

To earn the reward dollars, you need to spend money on purchases, and money that goes towards interest, fees, cash advances and such is not counted while calculating reward points.

To redeem the points, you need to transfer your points to a Disney Rewards Redemption card. Here are a few important points on how this card works.

1. Minimum points needed to request the redemption card: You should have at least 20 Dream Reward Dollars to order the redemption card. As soon as you have that many, you can log into your account or call them up to send your redemption card. It takes 2 – 3 weeks for your card to reach, so you should keep that in mind while planning the use of these points. Alternately, you can make arrangements to pick up your card in select Disney locations.
2. Expiry Date: This redemption card has an expiry date printed on it, and any points that are left on the card after the expiry date are completely lost.
3. If you lose the card: Anyone who has this card can use it, so if you lose the card call up Chase and cancel the card. If points are used before you can report the theft of the card, you won’t be able to recover them.

Apart from the points and rewards mentioned above, there are certain other perks and benefits of a Disney Visa Credit Card. Here are the major rewards or perks of this card:

1. Character Meet N Greet Photo Opportunity: This is the most unique benefit of having this card. It gives you an opportunity to meet and get your photo taken with a Disney character in Walt Disney Resort, Florida and Disneyland Resort, California.
2. 10% off merchandise: You get 10% off your purchases, if you buy a minimum of 50 dollars worth of merchandise at select Walt Disney World locations. Here is a link to the PDF that contains all the details.
3. 20% off Tours: There are certain tours like Epcot’s Divequest, on which you get 20% off. The PDF (same as the earlier link) contains all the details.
4. 10% off at Dining Locations: You will get 10% off at certain dining locations in the Disneyland Resort in California. (Details in the PDF link above)
5. Stroller Rental Discounts: You will get 50% off stroller rentals at Disneyland California.   
6. $50 Onboard Credit on Disney Cruise: You get $50 credit during your Disney cruise if you book with your card and ask for booking code – DCC.
7. 0% APR Vacation Financing: There is 0% APR for six months if you book certain vacation packages and cruises through your Disney Visa card.

Now the fun part, here is an overview of the pricing and fees of the Disney Visa card.  This is not an inclusive list, and only contains some of the charges.

1. APR: 0% APR for the first six billing cycles. After that 13.24% or 16.24% variable based on your credit history.
2. Cash Advance APR: 19.24% variable.
3. Overdraft advance APR: 13.99% fixed.
4. Late Payment Fee: $15.00 if the balance is up $250, and $39 if the balance is over $250.
5. Over the limit credit fee: $29.00