May 2008

Ask an eighty-year-old woman what allowance credit cards are and she'll look at you like you've grown another head. Back in the good-old days kids were paid in cold-hard cash (and they had to earn what they were given). Nowadays everything is going high-tech and allowances are no different. Allowance credit cards are a perfect example of this fact.

Pay in advance credit card deals can sound pretty enticing. You're either desperate to establish credit or rebuild your credit from past financial mistakes. You get a call saying you've been approved for a card with a whopping $5,000 credit limit and a low interest rate. All you have to do is send in your "processing" fee of $50, $100 or even $500. After that, the card is yours. Sound too good to be true? It is.

It's not always easy to pick the best credit card. The millions of consumers who don't are living proof of that fact. The biggest problem is that many of us don't know what to look for. If you want to make sure you have the best credit card in your wallet, there are a few things you need to know.

Grace period -- kind of sounds like a gift from God, doesn't it? Unfortunately, it's not. Your credit card grace period is a gift that, if given by your credit card company at all, allows you to avoid a finance charge by paying your balance in full by a certain date. That, however, is sometimes easier said than done. Here are some credit card grace period tips you really shouldn't live without:

Prepaid credit cards are all over the place. You can't visit a local drug or grocery store without seeing them. The question is, are they a good idea or are they just another way for big business to get hand on your cash? Before you purchase any prepaid credit cards, there are a few things you need to know.

Of all of the credit card innovations devised over the past few years, I honestly think one time use credit cards are one of the best. Why? Think about how many times you enter your credit card information onto the Web (or give it over the phone). How easy would it be for someone to steal and use that number? With one time use credit cards, that danger evaporates. But how do you get them and are they all created equal? Here are some things you need to know.

Think you have a perfect credit score? Surprisingly, even if you've never paid a single bill a day late, you might not have a perfect credit rating. Credit scores range from 300 to 850, and fewer than one in one-hundred people have that perfect credit score of 850. How do the proud and few do it? Here are some insider secrets.

Bad credit credit cards -- the bane of the entire credit card industry, right? Wrong. So you have some dings on your credit. You're definitely not alone. In fact, according to some studies, only about one percent of the entire population has perfect credit. But can you still get a credit card with bad credit? Yes -- or rather, most likely. Here are a few things you need to know.

It never fails - con artists keep devising new credit card scams designed to rob innocent people of their hard-earned cash. This year is no different. It's only May and already the credit card scammers are out in full force. Here are two recent scams you need to beware of: