Do you have a mortgage loan that you can no longer make the minimum payments on? Well, you’re not alone. Have you decided to stop paying your credit cards so that you can make more payments to your mortgage? Well, unfortunately again you are not alone… credit card defaults are up.

The credit rating agency Moody’s told the paper the problem could be due to the property market slowdown and fewer homeowners opting not to refinance their residences.

“The combination of higher interest rates and a softer real estate market diminished the attractiveness of mortgage refinancings in which many borrowers reduced their more expensive credit card debt by drawing on the equity in their home,” Moody’s told the paper.

Check your credit card agreement, if you see the words “universal default,” look out. Universal default clauses are those clauses built into your agreement where that credit card company can increase your interest rate if you are late on any payment to any other lender. Generally, “late” means you’re more than 30 days late (most credit card companies won’t report anything if you’re less than 30 days late because it’s not worth it) but miss one and now all of your credit cards will gang up on you and increase those rates. A recent Bankrate survey showed that “39 percent of credit card issuers said they apply the rule to customers, even if they had no late payments on their own card.”

Unfortunately, the universal default clause is ironclad and usually indisputable so you’ll just have to be careful not to miss your payments or they can get you. The best strategy to combat this (besides not carrying a balance if you can avoid it) is to review your credit card agreements and only put balances on those cards that don’t have a universal default clause.

Source: Bankrate

Take a look at the two simple questions below and answer honestly.

1. Do you usually purchase something the first time you see?
2. When you get new lines of credit, do you get excited and think about all the new things you can now get?

Did you say yes to either one? Sure they look like softball questions but they drive home the point that responsible credit card use comes down to not being an impulse buyer and using the card as a proxy for cash that you already have. If you buy things the first time you see them, you aren’t doing the proper due diligence on the product your purchasing (is that a good price? is it a good product?). If you get excited and see a new line of credit as more money to spend, you’re not viewing credit correctly in the first place, you’re viewing it how the credit cards want you to view you. They want you to spend spend spend so they can earn earn earn!

So think about it… are you truly ready for a credit card?

I compiled a list of fifty fun facts about credit cards ranging from technological information to background history to crucial consumer tips that I feel everyone should be made aware of.

For example, did you know it is against the merchant agreement for a store to require a minimum purchase amount? It certainly doesn’t seem like a lot of merchants know that, or care, because plenty of places require minimum purchase amounts. Give it a look at let me know what you think.

Think this will ever happen in the states? Barclaycard will automatically lower your interest rate if you make more than the minimum payment… I wonder if companies in the US will follow Barclaycard’s lead?

This is part of a series of articles taking a closer look at the tips provided by Bankrate’s Debt Counselor’s 15 tips article.

2. If you co-sign, that debt is yours.
If your son or daughter wants you to co-sign for a car, apartment or loan, just say no, says Trent Graham, manager at GreenPath Debt Solutions. Debt counselors see this one a lot. Often, the other person defaults, leaving the co-signer to pick up the payments. Having to suddenly shell out an extra $350 per month can really squeeze a family budget.

This lesson should be part of Personal Finance 101 - if you sign a loan, you are responsible for it. If you co-sign a loan, you are also responsible for it. The reason why the lender wants you to co-sign isn’t because they just want you to vouch for the credibility of your child or friend or neighbor - they want you to co-sign because they want your assets and your ability to pay to back up the loan. If that person isn’t credit worthy enough to get the loan in the first place and will require you to put up your credit worthiness, perhaps they’re not ready for the loan.

Source: Bankrate

This is part of a series of articles taking a closer look at the tips provided by Bankrate’s Debt Counselor’s 15 tips article.

1. Freebies are lethal.
Those low introductory offers sound great, but they are designed to get you hooked on the service. The ploy works way too often, says Elaine Rutter, a certified consumer credit counselor with the Consumer Credit Counseling Services of Central Pennsylvania.

“I see people with cable, Internet and cell phones paying several hundred dollars a month,” she says. The consumers tried the service at the initial low price and kept it on even after the bill went back up to the normal rate.

Be sure you can afford the extra bill with your current income and budget.

This refers to not only teaser promotional rates for credit cards but all sorts of services. I think it’s crucial for a savvy consumer to check what the rates are after a promotional offer, if they’re the same as what you’re paying now then by all means snatch up the offer.

In many cases, especially with 0% balance transfer offers, you’re just looking to get a 0% respite for a year or six months so that you can catch up or pay off a bigger chunk. I think in those instances it is very important to take the deal if you can because in the end it will help you. This tip is just warning you about seeing a “too good to be true” teaser or promotional rate and then getting suckered in after the rate ends.

This is part of a series of articles taking a closer look at the tips provided by Bankrate’s Debt Counselors’s 15 tips article.
Source: Bankrate

War on Credit Cards appears in the 63rd Carnival of Debt Reduction with our post titled Don’t Just Make Minimum Payments.

Welcome welcome! War On Credit Cards is a website designed to you, the consumer, fight back against the credit cards. I don’t mean cut them up and throw them away, I don’t mean cancel the cards and never use credit again, I mean to teach you and arm you with the weapons you need to earn money from your credit cards. I’ll teach you how to utilize 0% balance transfers to earn interest off free money from companies like Discover and Citi. I’ll teach you how to take advantage of free gift card offers with your first purchases from many of these cards. I will teach all of this to you absolutely free.

Why am I doing this? It’s because I’ve been doing this for years, I’ve earned thousands from the credit card companies and now I’m going to share all of it with you.