I am looking to transfer $10,000 to a credit card with a 4.9% APR (two-cycle billing).  I plan to make monthly payments of 2% of balance.  After the second billing cycle, is it calculated the same as the Average Daily Balance method?  \n\nMy ultimate question is how much more would I be paying on a Two-cycle method as opposed to Avg Daily Bal method at 4.9% APR, if I keep a balance on my credit card over the long term?  I understand how the finance charge would be more if I do not pay in full because of retroactive calculation of finance from the first day of purchase, but I'm not sure of the difference if I keep a balance for the long term.  \n\nAll the information on the net talks about the disadvantages if I pay off the balance within the 2nd or 3rd billing, but none seem to address the benefits or disadvantages for people keeping a balance over the long term on a two-cylce method.\n\nAlot of people and I would appreciate a clear answer to this complicated question.  Thank you!!!
208513
I checked out  http://www.bankrate.com/brm/news/DrDon/Dr.Don_19990903.asp to double check on what you mean by two-cycle billing.  Yuck.\n\nNo, the interest calculation is always going to be the average balance over two periods - not one.\n\nYes, there's still a penalty to you on the two-cycle method versus the average daily balance method - at the same interest rate. Let's say you're paying $200 a month and not charging anything.  You're paying interest on an additional $100/month this way, since the interest is charged on the average over two cycles, and that average is $100 higher over two months than one.  \n\nWhere you may benefit is if this 4.9% APR is a lot lower than what you can get on an "average daily balance" card. That extra $100/month you're getting hit with interest on is costing you about $5/year (ignoring compounding).  If you're saving more than that on the rate it's a good deal - as long as the rate stays low. Once the teaser is over, you may be paying the same rate (or higher! - depends on the terms) on this card as with the daily balance one.
512784
bascially card companies will start you with the highest interest rate they can depending on the card 17-18% dept store cards are up to 30% so be wary of those! Then its a per annum rate divided monthly based on the amount of credit you owe ( how much youve charged to your card) Not sure how long you've had this card but if you are good at paying your monthly amounts usually its 3% of the total amount owing you can get the overall interest rate dropped some to half the amount so be good to your card and don't accept the high rates just call them up tell them you have been offered another card with a lower rate and your thinking of doing a balance transfer why pay more them than you have to!
245442
All credit card companies now have a thing called a default APR, which means that if you are late with one payment, or go over your credit line one time, then you are charged a radically high APR, sometimes up to 35%.\n\nYes, it is abuse: CC companies love to target college students, knowing full well few people appreciate the challenges of owning a CC.\n\nDo what you can to pay off that credit card. It is very important to make a little bit more than the monthly minimum payment, as you could spend years paying that off.\n\nIt is very smart of you to start an emergency savings fund: keep on contributing to that.\n\nGet yourself another credit card, but a secured credit card, which means you put your own money up front, usually with a minimum of $300. You do need a credit card to build a credit history, which is very important.\n\nUse any future credit card very sparingly. Credit card companies are very bad when it comes to resolving customer disputes and they don't care if they lose you as a customer, so you can't negotiate lowering your APR. Just be really careful in the future with credit cards, and I hope you find a way to quickly pay off your balance.
513170
I haven't processed credit card payments for over 10 years, but the rule used to be that you had to accept any charge - even a 25 cent pack of gum.\n\nHowever, I don't believe they had any rules about whether or not the business could have a surcharge to cover their losses on the small transactions.\n\nBusinesses are charged a percentage of total transactions made on credit cards. The percentage is calculated by the average amount of each charge. For example, if your average customer charges $250, you may only pay a fraction of a percent. However, if the average customer charges only $20, you'll pay a higher percentage.\n\nSmall charges lower the average, so the business gets burned on small purchases.\n\nContact your credit card company and ask if they have any policy barring businesses from collecting a surcharge. They won't know unless someone tells them.\n\n.
26253
To me, all the points and miles business is a hook to lure you into buying and paying for something else or buying something you do not need or weant.  I would look for the lowest possible rate, no annual fee, best grace period, lowest default rates, and a card that has a customer service department based in the US that  speaks English.  I have actually cancelled cards because their customer service centers were in India or Panama and could not understand a word they were saying.  Also, check to see that the interest rate is not computed over TWO billing periods (this can cause you to incur a finance charge even if your balance is zero) Bear in mind that no matter what the terms are you can get, these credit card agreements are one-sided affairs that the card issuer can change at the drop of a hat. So you might think you have one deal one minute and turn around and BAM! all of a sudden the rate is 42%.
61338
Most consumers do not know that if they only pay the old minimum on their credit cards it would take about 40 years to get out of debt.  The feds are doing this to help out the consumer, although it may not seem like it right now to you.\n\nI have been there, my friend, but I am now debt free (well except a mortgage and a car loan) and here is how i did it.\n\n1. Stop using your credit cards.  Cut them up.  If you cannot bear to do that then put them in a baggie filled with water and freeze them.\n\n2. Instead of paying your new minimum every month, pay half of it every 14 days.  Not twice a month, but every 14 days.  You will be amazed at how quickly your debt disappears.\n\nThe credit card companies would love to go back to the old system and do not want you to know about the pay every 14 days method so they could take more of your money.  \n\nWhen you get them paid off, then only use them as a "charge card".  The difference is that you pay that off every month and you do not pay them any interest.\n\nWork hard and get this done and you will feel so GREAT when you are debt free you may not want to rack up charges ever again.
531668
You call.  You say I'm interested in finding out if there is anything you can do about my current APR.  \n\nThat's it.\n\nIf they hem and haw, say you got an offer from another credit card company for 0% APR for the life of the transfer.  That usually gets them moving.  \n\nBear in mind though, that you should at least have been making minimum payments for some time.  They will work with just about anyone but the better you are in paying your bills, yet keeping a balance, they better off you will be.  They don't want you to take your money elsewhere, but they do want to be sure they are going to see some of it someday.
438368
Don't cancel your cards. A large portion of your credit score is based on the percentage of revolving credit available. In english it is the percentage between your credit limit and your balances. i.e If your credit limit is $100 and your balance is $10, your percentage available is 90%, credit score goes up, on the other hand if your limit is $100 and your balance is $90, now you only have 10% available, credit score goes down. It, however does not help you if you do not use the cards, it doesnt hurt, either. My recommendation would be to randomly use the other cards to keep their status active, but pay the balances off at the end of the month to avoid accrueing finance charges. But don't close them, that will actually pull your score down. \n---I've been a Finance Manager for 12 years.
652049
I must disagree with our Chase expert.  Doesn't anyone bother to visit http://www.myfico.com and actually STUDY their answers first?\n\nWhen you lower your credit limit, you will effect your debt/credit ratio.  That in turn lowers your credit score.\n\nHowever, in your case, you don't have that great of a limit to begin with.  The small drop will recover in a few months.\n\nYou will do much greater damage by canceling cards.  But I understand your concerns.  The temptation of running up your cards is hard to fight.  I've seen many time how people get balance transfers or consolidation loans to pay off their cards, then run them right back up again.\n\nIf the card with $5000 is fairly recent, I would consider canceling it.  Having 3 cards is good enough to establish a credit rating.  Keep one at $2500 and lower the other two.  \n\nDon't do all this at one time!  Wait a couple months between changes so your score doesn't take a huge drop.  If you are planning a major purchase in the near future, don't do anything until afterwards.
212128
I've heard several tips for this from Clark Howard, I'll share some with you:\n\n1. No matter what, you pay yourself first.  Put SOMETHING away before you pay your bills, EVERYTIME you get paid.\n2. Never use change when you spend.  If something costs 11.49, pay the 12.00 and throw the change into some type of "bank" at home.  If something is 1.19, don't look in your purse for the change, spend the $2.00 and throw the .81 in the "bank."  People who did this were on his show telling how, at the end of the year they managed to save $2500, and went on vacation with the money!\n\n3. Something I used to do when I needed a little cash quickly, was pay two bills with the same money.  How?  you might ask.  Well easy, if you have a credit card.  What I used to do is, add up all my utilities, my cable bill, phone bill, electricity bill, and even my car insurance and sometimes car note... and pay my credit card with that amount.  It's great if you can pay your credit card OFF like this each month - then I would take the credit card and actually PAY the bills with it.  This way, your credit card is getting paid (maybe in full - resulting in even greater savings since you won't have to pay finance charges) AND all your utilities and bills are getting paid... with the same money. =)\n\n4. Find out your "latte factor" basically Clark says that we all have a "latte factor," something frivolous that we spend our money on everyday - like starbucks coffee, or whatever... he says when you find it, eliminate that expense and take the money you spend on it everyday and save it.  He computed that $5 a day every day for 5 years, could yield a savings of $12,000!\n\nHope that helps!!!
97911
When I check someone's credit I take the amount of payments there are ( on a credit card this is one payment a month until the experation date) divided by how many payments made, minus late payments. So they are both right. If you pay it all off, at least keep the card active so that the amount of payments stays there. If you just pay off a big chunk that's okay too, but of course there will be interest accrued giving you more payments to make, and if made on time a better credit score.
59473
If you've been paying on time try to find a card with a lower interest rate and transfer your balance from the card with high interest rate.  Check out www.bankratemonitor.com for credit card interest rates.
378229
As long as you pay off your card in full each month, then a credit utilization rate of around 50% and under is good. If you carry a balance, then you never want to exceed 30% utilization rate.\n\nIf you are consistently charging up to 90% of the credit limit, this can look dangerous, especially if you actually exceed the credit limit one month. You may wish to increase the credit limit on your oldest account, and close out your newest account if you want to increase your score a few points. Just don't expect a massive increase!
621020
From a pure mathematical standpoint, the quickest (and cheapest) way to pay off credit cards is to pay off the cards with the highest interest first.  This is because as your balance with the highest rate diminishes, the amount of interest accrued on the remaining balance diminishes as well.\n\nHowever, many advocate the "debt snowball" which endorses paying the card with the lowest balance first, then moving progressively to the next highest balance as each card is paid off.  This works for some people from a psychological standpoint because they see quicker results as each card is eliminated.  For some, it has been the only method that worked.  There is no doubt, however, that you will pay more money overall through this method, all other things being equal.  This method is most closely identified with Dave Ramsey.\n\nNegotiating with all the credit card companies for a lower interest rate is a good idea.  If they are not interested in lowering the rate, you can bluff them by threatening to transfer your balance to a lower interest card.\n\nBalance transfers are a tricky thing.  In many cases, a credit card company will assess a charge for a balance transfer.  Make sure that you read the fine print before doing this.  Also, some cards have a separate interest rate for balance transfers vs. purchases.  Do not be fooled.  Good luck!
264007
The grace period is important since if you go over the cycle you are subject to penalties and fees. A grace period is the time between the close of your billing period and the date your payment is due. In other words, it is the time you have before a credit card company starts charging you interest on your new purchases if there is no previous balance.\nHowever there is a trick to beating the usual grace period. To do this you need to know your billing period. Say your billing period is June 1 to June 30 and you want to buy a big item but you need a couple of months to pay for it. Anything you put on your credit card up to June 30 is on this bill and probably payable 25 days after that, so if you buy something on June 25, it will be on your June 30 bill and you will have to pay for it by July25, BUT if you purchase it on July 1, it will not make it on that bill, it will be on the next one.....so you have all of July and most of August before that next bill comes in giving you almost 2 months before you have to pay for it. Waiting a couple of days gives you an extra month and sometimes thats all you need to come up with the cash and not pay interest.\nKeep in mind however that cash advances are charged interest from the second you take the money out.
395576
You will have to read the information that the credit card company sends you. The way it is applied can vary by company and depends on if you pay the bill in full or not. They may divide the rate by 365 and apply it daily or divide it by 12 and apply it monthly.
46951
Well you should ask first of all for a good faith estimate from each lender, to see which one of the is giving you a better deal. You also need to know if they're giving you a pre-payment penalty, If so for how long. (average pre-pay is about 2 years, unless you have really bad credit) If you have Excellent credit you shouldn't get a pre-payment penalty. thae situation varies depending on your Fico Score. Also Find out how many points they're charging you up Front and if they're getting anything back form the lender after close of escrow. All this matters because. Also if you're financing 2 new loans make sure that they're Fixed, so that your monthly payment doesn't change every month. Also HELOC's loan interest rates change every month, and the rate is going up, which means that your payment will also go up.  So be very careful about this.