It’s two days before the New Year and many of us are busy coming up with resolutions we can break during the first week.  However, with all the chaos in the financial world, many of us will be setting our sights on fixing household finances.

With that in mind, Smart Credit Choices has an easy New Year’s resolution that you can accomplish in a few minutes.  That resolution is to pay no credit card interest in 2009.

For credit card abusers, this may seem like a difficult task.  However, all one needs is a new credit card that offers a 0% interest rate for a year to actually follow through on this resolution.

To get started, gather up all your credit card statements.  Take a look at the interest rates and add up the balances.  Chances are, this is not a fun thing to do.  However, once you’ve assessed your credit card debt situation, fixing the problem is easy. 

First, pick out a card that offers a 0% APR on purchases and balance transfers for a full year (you can find one of these in the 0% APR credit card section of this website.)  Once you’ve found a card, complete the online application, input your current balances and set up transfers and click submit application. 

Voila!  If approved, you can expect to save at least $100, if not substantially more, for every $1000 you transferred from your high rate card to a 0% interest card.  For example, if you had $5000 in credit card debt at a 14% interest rate, you’ll save yourself about $600 in interest this year.  Not so bad.  And by doing this today, you won’t give yourself enough time to break the resolution.

We at Smart Credit Choices wish you the best for 2009 and hope this little resolution can help you save a lot of money next year. 

To find the 0% credit card that will save you the most in 2009, simply visit the credit card comparison section of our website by clicking here.

During 2008, credit card companies have gone out of their way to make life difficult for consumers.  They’ve cut off business credit, lowered consumer credit lines, raised interest rates and made it more difficult for even the best consumers to obtain 0% interest rates.

Of the bountiful gifts our beloved credit card companies have bestowed upon us this year, the nastiest is the raising of interest rates on current customers, often for no apparent reason.  The method by which credit card companies are notifying consumers of interest rate increases is the mail, a tactic that is helping to pad their bottom lines. 

The reason this tactic has proven so effective lay in the fact that we have all become accustomed to tossing credit card mail in the garbage (I personally prefer to shred it).  However, regardless of a person’s preferred method of destruction, the standard response to most credit card mail is to dispose of it.  Bank’s know this, and they are using it to their advantage by sending out updated disclosures and credit card terms to consumers.

These updated disclosures often include notices to consumers that they have two options:  close your credit card account and pay off your balance at the current rate OR do nothing and accept a higher interest rate.  Unfortunately, many consumers are accidentally doing nothing because they don’t even bother to review these notices.

The cost of this oversight can be tremendous.  A recent visitor wrote in and informed me his interest rate had been increased to 23.99%.  And he’d never once been late on a payment.  Horror stories like this have become all too common.  Please don’t let this happen to you.  If you get a notice in the mail, read it and respond.  In the long run, this could save you hundreds of dollars in interest.  If its already too late and your credit card company has raised your rate, take advantage of a 0% APR balance transfer as soon as you can.  This will not only save you money on the higher rate, but also, on the rate you would have paid before.

By all means, however, read and respond to any mail from your bank, especially if it is labeled a NOTICE or mentions a CHANGE IN YOUR AGREEMENT.  This is big red flag.

If you have friends or family you think might benefit from this information, be sure to share it with them.  It may be the best gift they get all season.

Credit card companies have been putting the screws to consumers all year long, but no action to date strikes me as more atrocious than Chase’s recent increase in minimum monthly payments on certain consumers.  Industry-wide, the average minimum monthly payment due ranges from about 1.5% to 2%.  However, Chase has raised the credit card payments for some consumers to 5% of their outstanding balance.

Just how serious is this move?  Let’s say a person owes $8,000 on a chase credit card.  At the previous 2% payment rate, that person would be paying about $160 a month.  When the minimum monthly payment is bumped to 5%, that person’s monthly expense increases to $400!

With many of us barely scraping by, there is little room in our budgets for extra spending.  And for those struggling with job losses or skyrocketing adjustable rate mortgages, a 150% increase in their monthly credit card payment can be the straw that breaks the camel’s back.

Unfortunately, consumers are left with few options to fight back.  Many credit card companies have made it tougher to get new credit cards to transfer balances to.  And if a person falls behind on credit card payments, their rates on a Chase credit card could increase to nearly 30%, the current default rate.

Despite the obvious difficulties this situation poses for those affected, the only real options are to either pay your credit card in full or seek out a 0% balance transfer credit card from another company.  The worst thing a person can do is fall behind on payments.  This will not only cause interest rates to skyrocket, but it will also severely damage credit scores.

This move by Chase is shameful and counterproductive.  Hopefully, it costs them business in the long run to make up for the pain it is causing consumers in the short term.