Is Credit Card APR All That Counts?

Not all credit cards are born equal. Different cards have different offers, features, and charges, and choosing a card is not as simple as going for the one with the lowest advertised rate. Various types of card are suitable for different types of use, and choosing the right card for you depends on how you plan to use it as well as how low the rate is, or how attractive the introductory offer.

If you intend to use the card mainly as a convenient way of spending and usually clear your balance every month, then the headline interest rate doesn't really matter to you, as you shouldn't be paying any interest at all. Instead, make sure the card you're planning to apply for has a long 'grace period' on interest charges, giving you chance to pay your statement before any interest is applied. Interest free periods should be at least 30 days and are more usually in the 50-60 day range.

This kind of card user can also benefit from a cashback or rewards scheme if the card is regularly used for purchases, and so long as you avoid carrying a balance over you can actually turn a profit from your credit card account.

If, however, you use the card as a kind of short term borrowing, regularly paying off larger purchases over a few months, then a low interest rate is attractive. A cashback feature might seem attractive if you're making larger purchases, but it's rare that a card's cashback rate will be anything like high enough to compensate for a higher interest rate.

If you want to finance a single large purchase and repay it over a year or so, then look for a card with an introductory 0% deal on purchases that lasts long enough to clear your balance before interest kicks in. Introductory deals of up to 12 months are now common.

Many people use a credit card's balance transfer feature to fund longer term borrowing. If this applies to you, then you have a choice between a 0% introductory deal or a long-term low rate. If you can see yourself paying off your transfer in the near future, then a 0% deal with a long introductory period is probably the best way to go. If, however, you'll be repaying your balance over a longer period, then a low balance transfer rate that is fixed for the life of the balance can be a good deal. Many such cards feature a rate much lower than other forms of unsecured finance such as personal loans, and you don't have to worry about finding a new 0% card when the introductory deal ends.

Most people use their card in a mixture of ways, and this is where choosing a card is more complicated. A low balance transfer rate might mean having to pay a high rate on purchases, or a card with a low standard rate might charge higher rates for cash withdrawals. Fortunately, there's a new kind of card that is becoming more widely available, which charges a simple flat rate for all use, whether balance transfers, purchases, or even cash withdrawals.

These cards often feature an attractively low rate, as there are no fancy introductory offers or reward schemes to pay for, and so they can make a very good option for the average card user.



Nicholas Hunt is a contributing writer on financial issues for 1Stop Finance UK where you can compare credit cards and apply for credit cards online.

Lardo di Colonnata : A Tuscan Delicacy

Pork is a staple food of the mountain regions of northern Italy, where it's often said that a well butchered pig should leave 'nothing but the oink' behind. As a pig is typically around 30% fat, thrifty locals had to come up with a way to use and preserve this valuable source of protein, and the result is Lardo.

Lardo di Colonnata, to give it its full name, is a delicacy produced from pork fat in and around the Tuscan mountain town of Colonnata. Happily for fans of cured meat, it's not only a frugal way of preserving pork fat over winter - it's delicious too!

It's made in large vats known as conche, fashioned from marble quarried at the nearby 'white mountain' of Cararra, which are first liberally rubbed with garlic. Next, layers of pork fat, salt, and a special mix of herbs and spices are added until the vats are full. The conche are then sealed with a wooden lid and left in cool mountain caves for 6 months or longer to mature in the clean air.

After the maturation time is over, the conche are opened to reveal a silky-smooth, meltingly tender 'meat' which can be eaten in much the same way as Parma Ham or other prosciutto.

While Lardo is often used to keep roasted meats moist by placing a thin layer over the skin, it is also delicious simply sliced thinly and eaten with bread, olives, and a good extra virgin olive oil as part of an antipasto course. It is not at all tough or greasy, and is well worth trying even if the idea of eating pure fat leaves you a little apprehensive!

Despite the long years of making Lardo in the traditional way, most of the examples that you may find in your local deli or store will have been made in a much more industrial setting, mainly as a result of modern hygiene laws taking precedence over customs and heritage. Gone are the marble conche and the mountain air, replaced by stainless steel and air conditioning.

However, visitors to the area around Colonnata may still be lucky and get hold of Lardo made in the old way that has been proven over the centuries - just don't tell the authorities if you do!



Andrea is a writer for the Recipedia food and drink glossary where you can read about more Italian delicacies such as Bresaola and Balsamic Vinegar.

Get in Control of Your Credit Card Debt

Few people would deny that using credit cards can make day to day life more simple, reducing the need to carry cash and making it easy to shop online and by telephone.

However, spending with plastic can sometimes be a little too easy, as it doesn't always feel like you're actually parting with any cash. This means the temptation is to spend without thinking about the consequences too carefully, until you hear the ominous thud of a huge credit card bill hitting the doormat.

If you've been caught out like this, the size of your card debt may seem overwhelming, but don't panic - there are a few simple steps you can take to start getting your debt back under control.

Try and make a little more than the minimum payments:

The minimum payments required by credit card companies have steadily fallen over the years. Where once it was typical to have to repay a minimum of 5% of your balance every month, it's now common to only have to pay 2.5% or 3%. With repayments this small in proportion to your debt, a large chunk of each payment gets swallowed up in interest charges. Depending on the APR rate of your card, up to 75% of each payment could be 'lost' in this way, meaning that it takes a very long time for your balance to reduce to any great extent.

By trying to repay more than the minimum, even if only by a little, you can speed this process up, and in the long term you'll end up paying much less in interest charges.

Prioritize your card debts:

If you have more than one card with different rates of interest, it makes sense concentrate on the one with the highest interest charges. This means not just the one with the highest interest rate, but the one which actually charges you most each month, which could have a lower rate but a higher balance.

Check your statements to see which card is costing you most in interest each month, and try to focus on repaying this card first by putting any spare cash you have into extra payments while keeping to the minimums on your other cards.

Change your card:

The credit card market is very competitive, and rates have fallen over the last few years. You may be stuck with an old card charging an old rate that is much higher than newer cards. If you can get a new card with a lower rate and transfer your account balance on to it, you could save a lot in interest charges, helping you to bring down your debt. If you can get a card with an introductory rate on balance transfers then all the better - you'll get a few months of interest free credit which you can use to really drive down your balance as 100% of each repayment will be helping to clear your debt.

Debt consolidation:

If getting a cheaper card isn't an option or isn't something you feel happy about, then maybe a consolidation loan would be worth considering. If you take out a loan and use the money to pay off all your card debts, you could benefit from a lower rate as loans are normally quite a bit cheaper than credit cards.

The downside to these loans is that the repayment period might be quite long, and so even though your monthly repayments will hopefully be lower, you'll stay in debt for longer and so end up paying more in interest. Done carefully, however, consolidation can be a sound move if there's little chance of clearing your debt in any other way.

Watch your spending!

All the above strategies for getting your debt under control will only work if you stop getting deeper into debt - and this means stopping spending on your cards. Ideally, you'd cut them up so that you can't use them again, but this might not be realistic as you may need to keep them as a credit option in an emergency. In any case, cutting your spending to an absolute minimum will keeping your repayments as high as possible is the only sure strategy to clearing your debt in the long term.



The author has been writing on financial topics for several years and is currently a contributor to Card Sense UK where visitors can compare UK credit cards.

Credit Card Balance Transfer Fees

The idea of a balance transfer deal was introduced to the UK in the year 2000 by innovative online bank Egg plc, who offered customers a bait of 0% interest for six months on balances they transferred from another credit card.

The feature was an instant hit, and more and more card issuers began to offer similar deals as competition for customers grew more intense. Before long, it seemed that every card available had 0% deals of ever-increasing lengths.

It didn't take long for savvy cardholders to spot a pretty major flaw in the credit industry's thinking though. With so many cards offering 0% deals, what's to stop people from becoming serial balance transferers, moving their debt to a new card as the 0% period expires? And so the game of credit card surfing began.

People began to systematically switch their balances to card after card, and if they were organised enough to make sure their balance was moved off a card before the interest charges kicked in, then they could avoid paying interest on their debt for as long as there were new cards available to apply for. In effect, the credit card industry was collectively extending millions of pounds of interest free credit over an indefinite period - not a situation they either intended or appreciated.

People could take advantages of balance transfers in other ways, too. Some cards allowed a transfer to a bank account rather than another credit card. It was therefore possible to transfer the entire credit limit of a new card to a high interest savings account, leave it there for the length of the 0% deal period, and then clear the card balance and pocket the interest earnings.

All this added up to a major headache for credit card issuers - the tables had been turned, and their customers were now costing millions of pounds every month to support. This had to change, and so it fell to Egg plc to again introduce a new card feature : the balance transfer fee.

In May 2005, Egg announced that all balance transfers would now attract a 'handling fee' of 2% of the amount transferred. The charge would be capped at �50. Other card issuers quickly followed suit, and now most balance transfer deals have such a charge.

So what does this mean for credit card users?

Firstly, before applying for a new balance transfer card, check in the small print whether or not a fee will be imposed. This should be made clear in all advertisements and on the application form, but the credit card industry has a history of subtly hiding unattractive features while accentuating the eye-catching ones, so pay careful attention.

If there is a fee, make sure that there's an upper limit mentioned. While the maximum �50 fee may still, depending on the size of your balance, make it worthwhile to take advantage of the offer, cards with no maximum charge are much less attractive.

To sum up, the balance transfer game isn't as straightforward as it once was. There are still ways to save money by taking the maximum advantage of the offers available, but cardholders need to be more wary than before.



Michael Strauss is an expert writer on consumer credit issues, and is a contributing author for Card Sense UK, where you can read more about balance transfer credit cards and cards without transfer fees.

Can I view my bill at my bank's web site?

In a recent survey respondents said that they would choose a bank based on the ability to pay bills online over the geographic location of the bank. This is a significant shift in consumer behavior in that financial institutions in the past were chosen based on their location or proximity to home. To the business who is a biller this provides a significant opportunity to cut the costs of billing using a billing distribution network.

A billing distribution network gives a biller the opportunity to send a bill to a financial institution. As a biller you may be familiar with bill pay at the bank's web site, but not realize that you can also present a bill to one of your customers at the bank's web site. How can you the biller take advantage of this distribution network?

There are three major companies who offer distribution of bills to a financial institution. These companies will take a data file from you, the biller, and upload it to their network. After a bill is uploaded, those customers who are signed up with the bank's bill pay and presentment service are sent an e.Mail notification stating that the bill is ready to view and pay.

Customers who use their bank's bill pay service may have an automatic payment scheduled which means payment will be sent either when the bill is received or when the bill is due. This is an excellent benefit for customers who never want to be late with their payments and excellent for the biller's receivables.

Distribution of a biller's bill to all corners of the web also has a secondary or "off label" benefit and that is marketing. Millions of people search for e.bills offered using a "pick list" which means they go through several different companies looking for the e.bill from their company. During this search process they will view many different company names including yours.

Another "off label" benefit is the loyalty of customers who use electronic billing services. Surveys have shown that customers who use electronic billing or online billing are significantly more likely to stay with the biller's product or service over a competitor's product or service. The bottom line benefit of this customer is difficult to measure; however, the value of keeping a customer versus replacing that customer with a new one has been proven and validated as a more profitable and less costly.

Finally the savings from postage, print, and paper can not be overstated. When a customer enrolls to receive their bills online they either are told their paper bill will be canceled or given the choice to cancel their paper bill. A biller can save, based on national averages, $.75 per bill when a paper bill is moved to an online bill. This is a significant sum of money for any biller sending 5000 bills or more.

The presentment of a bill online will continue to grow in popularity. At a point in history many people believed that the ATM would not replace the personal touch of the teller, those same people would be the stiffest opponents if ATM machines were removed. Online billing is following the same course as the ATM and as a biller you have the opportunity to ride the wave.



Jeffery Downs is an experienced billing solutions specialist and an expert in B2C and B2B invoicing and EIPP strategies and solutions. He helps companies slash the cost of invoicing by using industry best practices. Learn more at www.bestpracticesystems.com.

Spinal Cord Injury ? The Afterlife

Am I talking about death here? No, I�m talking about life after a spinal cord injury. Why did I phrase the title of this article as I did? Because for many people who suffer a spinal cord injury, their first thoughts after being informed of paralysis, or wheelchairs, or a severed spinal cord, causing the patient to never be able to walk again, is indeed death. �Why did I even live?�



I know that was one of my earliest thoughts after I was able to understand what was going on. Once I regained consciousness from my three days of coma, by awakening to a breathing tube being pulled from my throat, I was advised that I had an accident.



Maybe a few hours later, it�s hard to recall exactly, I began to comprehend the great distress in the doctor�s face and voice as he communicated to me about how my spine was broken in three places and the bone fragments had severed my spinal cord, and as a result I would never be able to walk again. Maybe it was at that time that I first wished myself dead.



Now its twenty-two years later. I�ve had twenty-two years of using a wheelchair for mobility. I�ve had twenty-two years of �Afterlife.� My spinal cord is still severed. I still have paralysis from chest-level down (T-4 to be exact). I have multiple wheelchairs; a basketball wheelchair, a tennis wheelchair, an everyday wheelchair. Over the years I�ve probably had close to 10 different wheelchairs. All of the chairs, all of the catheters, all of the baclofen, all of the leg bags and tubes, all of the paralysis paraphernalia thanks to one moment in time of loosing control of my car, hitting a guardrail, tree, and house, snapping my spine in three places and injuring my spinal cord.



Wouldn�t it have been better if I just didn�t have this kind of after life and experienced the bog finale afterlife instead? Well, I can�t answer that for sure because I have not been able to compare the two side by side. But I can tell you that you can have a life and a rather rewarding and fulfilling life, if you so choose, even after a spinal cord injury.



� Michael E. Hylton, TheWheeledWorld.org, June, 2006

Getting a Credit Card with a Bad Credit Rating

Paying with plastic has become a common part of everyday life, with more people now using credit or debit cards than cash for day to day purchases. The rapid rise of online shopping means that it's almost essential to have some way of paying by card, but people with poor credit ratings have always struggled to get approved for credit cards. It's not impossible though, and there are ways for people with even the most impaired credit histories to enjoy the convenience of plastic.

People with mild credit problems or low incomes will probably not be approved for the most heavily advertised credit cards with the most attractive offers, but many companies operate a policy known as Risk Based Pricing. This basically means that their cards will offer a different interest rate depending on the credit score of the applicant. If your credit rating isn't good enough to be accepted for the card you apply for, you may be offered a different card with similar features but a higher interest rate.

Risk based pricing is a great way for people with some adverse credit history to get a card, but people with more severe problems will need to look elsewhere. Several companies offer a card specifically aimed at people with poor or no credit hostory, and market them as a 'first' or 'starter' card. The idea is to offer a card with a low credit limit and a comparatively high interest rate, as a way of allowing people to being to develop some positive history on their files.

While these cards are poor value in comparison to more mainstream offers, the acceptance rate is very high and by opening an account and keeping up with your repayments, your credit rating will slowly be improved to the point where you may be able to apply for a cheaper card further down the line.

People with more severe credit problems such as bad debt or a previous bankruptcy may find that even these starter cards are out of their reach, which leaves only one real option : prepaid cards. These cards, also known as secured cards, are not in fact credit cards at all as they need to be 'loaded' with funds before you can use them to spend.

After you've credited money to your account, the card can be used like any other Mastercard or Visa, with the important difference that you can only spend money that you have in your account - you can't build up a debt. This means that there is very little risk for the card issuer, and so acceptance is virtually guaranteed. The flipside is that the issuer doesn't earn money by charging interest on your balance, and so they instead impose a variety of different charges on the cardholder ranging from a small percentage of everything you spend using the card to a monthly or yearly administration fee. You may also be charged a considerable sum for even applying for the card, so shop around and check the small print carefully before signing up.

To sum up, no one would deny that a bad credit rating makes it harder to get a credit card or other plastic payment solution, but with a little searching, there are cards of some kind available for nearly everyone.



Nicholas Hunt is a freelance writer currently contributing to the 1Stop Finance personal finance comparison site, where you can read more about credit cards for bad credit and compare credit card deals.