Tips on Getting a Good Balance Transfer Card
August 10, 2008 | Posted by InvestorBlogger | Be the first to leave a comment
If you possess a credit card with a huge amount of debts and could only devote small monthly payments to paying off the outstanding amounts, then you might want to try balance transfers credits cards to lessen your burden. A lot of people transfer their balances from one card to another and taking advantage of new and fresh offers. This is basically known as rate surfing or card jumping.
Getting a cheaper rate: reduce your interest payments!
Balance transfer credit cards can be very useful in reducing interest rates on bank loans and other loans. If your credit limit is high then you might just be able to complete your loan payment. Some credit cards even provide checks solely for this purpose, however, you need to be very cautious about this. There are some cards checks that can cost higher rates more than the card itself. It is advisable to carefully read the fine print first before anything else. Most credit cards are generous enough to allow you in making balance transfer. This is the best resort after undergoing intense shopping spree.
Choose your balance transfer card
There are two types of balance transfers that you could choose from. A lot of companies offer consumers a chance to male balance transfers for a 0% rate at a certain fixed period, which may run from6 to 9 months. The moment the card expires, the rate of the outstanding transferred balance will go back to the standard rate. This will come out to be naturally a higher rate. The best way to utilize the benefit of 0% transferred balance is to get a new one before the credit card expires. You can transfer your remaining balance to a new credit card and continue the benefit of having 0% interest rate.
Don’t apply for too many cards
Be sure that you won’t apply for numerous credit cards all at the same time as this may affect your credit rating. Another type of transaction balance offer is the fixed rate of money that can be transferred granting that it will remain on the card. This is quite a good option if you are paying a high interest rate. This will offer a rate of 5% that is much lower as compared to the standard interest rates. Which ever type you choose, it will be a great help in lifting your burden in paying your outstanding balances.
Check the Purchase Rates, too!
Consider also the purchase rates of the credit card. This kind of offer allows you to check certain rates that can be applied to your purchases. Credit cards that offers lows transfer balance rate most of time have higher rates of credit card expenditure. It is also advisable that you make your payments to lower rates at first. This means that you will be paying a little because of spending on your credit card.
Regardless of the type of the card balance transfer, each of them have their own offer that could be of great advantage which basically depends on the outstanding amount of your debts and the way you spend and pay your balances. Shopping around with a balance transfer card in hand could give you a lot of savings.
How Do Bloggers Use Their Credit Cards? Read on…
July 30, 2008 | Posted by InvestorBlogger | Be the first to leave a comment
Ages ago, I posted a reply to a request from Mr. Credit Card’s survey. I’d forgotten all about the survey until I received this email announcing his results: It’s worth reading, and great link bait. As is his follow up post on the bloggers involved!
Mr Credit Card here.
During March and April, I sent out an email to do a credit card survey. In fact, I sent out to over 150 pf bloggers. 45 of you have responded to the survey and I want to thank all of you for that.
But first, I want to apologize for taking so long to publish the results. There were several reasons. Firstly, I sent a few reminders to the people I sent the survey to and this took a while. Then, when I upgraded to Wordpress 2.5.1, I could not load any images (and I had to for this survey). My full-time work also got in the way.
Having said all that, I have published the results. I want to thank you all once again. In return for participating in this survey, I will mention your blogs in a special post tomorrow (hint : it’s not just a post full of links).
So watch out for my emails again tomorrow. And I hope you learnt something from this survey.
Regards - Mr Credit Card
And…
As a way of saying thank you to all of you, I have actually written a follow post that briefly describes you and your site and I’ve picked what I thought to be the best or most interesting credit card post you have written on your blog. I’ve named the post “Ultimate Collection of Credit Card Posts” - (well, maybe I’m exaggerating, but hey - it’s all of your post!).
Thanks once again. And I would appreciate if you could spread the word about the survey and the collection of cc posts. I’ve certainly learnt a lot from this and I might just write up my thoughts on how we could collectively make better use of our cc in a post tomorrow.
So watch your emails again!
Regards, etc..
If you’re interested, check out one of my favorite Credit Card Posts on this blog (I do have tons in the archives on Credit Cards!).
Happy Blogging, and keep that credit card tucked away!
July ‘08 Credit Card Spending Post
July 27, 2008 | Posted by InvestorBlogger | Be the first to leave a comment
After our little trip this week, we got back to a pile of email and bills all that required attention. This included the regular credit card bill from our bank. Well, it’s good news/bad news time! The good news I didn’t pay any additional charges on my card apart from the statements as my card was paid off in-full last time. The bad news is that some business related expenses all appeared on the card. So here goes:
1. The A/C for our office was causing us a lot of bother: it was noisy, ineffective (except when there were few people in the room), old and expensive to run (probably was the piece of equipment that used the MOST power in our office). Thanks to a freak power outage, though, the outside unit was fried about three or four weeks ago, and wouldn’t start. So time to replace it! That’s when we bought a large Daikin replacement unit. The actual unit was an Inverter unit that is supposed to be more energy efficient as well as much quieter and should save us quite a bit of $$$ on electricity costs. Daikin claim
“…A Daikin Inverter has a more advanced technology that operates differently. It works like the accelerator of a car, gently increasing or decreasing power. It reaches the desired temperature quicker and steadily maintains it without wild fluctuations. That means uninterrupted comfort and significant savings on running costs.”
Total cost was NT$53,800 (plus installation fee of NT$1800 paid to the engineers). In fact, the total cost of air-conditioning for our business seems to be about the largest capital expense that we face and can easily top NT$250,000 for new machines. Thankfully, we purchased systems ‘as we went’ rather than laid out that money upfront! However, we have to replace a machine almost every 12-16 months as the older ones just wear out. Some of the expense of the purchase will be recouped through lower electricity bills, fortunately.
2. Paypal charges amounted to NT$7,752 for hosting. As you may remember I was using Dreamhost for all of my sites. Apart from being foolish, it was also getting expensive and Dreamhost wasn’t able to provide stable uptimes for such sites, so I transferred three sites to other hosting arrangements courtesy of Bluehost, Hostmonster and Bluefur. That way I could monitor performance across each site, isolate the sites from one hosting failure, and trim some of my hosting expenses. The results have been positive: ALL of my sites now seem more stable, even those still hosted on Dreamhost.
3. Other minor bills include my own cellphone bill (NT$376) and our regular life insurance payments (NT$2000).
That’s it. The total bill is NT$63,928 for July 2008. Quite the biggest in a few years! That’s for sure.
July Credit Card Spending Post
July 27, 2008 | Posted by InvestorBlogger | Be the first to leave a comment
Post Moved.
February’s Credit Card Statement: NT$26,413 in 31 days!
February 28, 2008 | Posted by InvestorBlogger | Be the first to leave a comment
Or in other words, how to break the bank!
My wife was standing over my shoulder last time I wrote my very uneventful credit card statement for January 2008. She said in pointed tones: “Who cares about your credit card spending?”… Well, of course, I do!
I usually include the credit card spending report for three reasons:
1. to encourage me to pay off the entire amount regularly;
2. to share with my readers different parts of my life, because each of my purchases has a story of some sort; and
3. to encourage readers to share their spending habits, so that we can all learn from our mistakes.
So here goes, February’s spending… And it isn’t pretty.
First, I racked up NT$26,413 worth of spending, some of related to our vacation in TaiChung and Tainan. Some of it related to business expenses. And some of it related to personal expenses.
Business Stuff
During Chinese New Year we reorganized our school space yet again. This enabled us to improve our computer resources, expand our library area a little and make things more customer friendly. But it entailed some expenses, of which NT$7082 involved a trip to the local Ikea, where we purchased a much-needed IKEA office chair, valued at nearly $5000 (est.). We’d been eyeing that chair for a while, but had passed on it several times due to its relative expense. Other little things included picture frames for the walls, and other knick-knacks.
Online Stuff
I purchased a link on Linkworth to increase link sales last week. It wasn’t particularly expensive at US$8.50 for a featured link for seven days. But it coincided with a long weekend in the US. And generated no responses at all. I won’t bother with that avenue again.
Personal Stuff
Somehow because we had nearly two weeks vacation at Chinese New Year, we really spent a lot more on clothes, vacations, and food! I spent NT$4119 buying two sweaters, two shirts, socks, underwear, and some other clothes for winter in Taichung. And Christine also spent NT$3924 on clothes and trainers for herself.
Then in IKEA we additionally spent another NT$2330 on house stuff: none of which I can remember right now. And on the first day of our holiday, we ate out at TienMou Mitzukoshi Department store in the Thai Restaurant on the top floor. The food was excellent, and the weather was AWFUL, so we were so happy to eat something hot, delicious, and spicy! That was NT$1667.
And I nearly forgot we spent a night at a hotel in Taichung, called The Splendor. The room was quite big, and view was excellent as you saw in the competition. Even the breakfast was great, but the price was nearly double the price we paid for a much more pleasant hotel. It cost NT$3589 for one night in a double room.
Regular Expenses
Our regular expenses included three items: our CIGNA life insurance policy, but no mobile phone bill (they now only bill every 2nd month), and our interest payment of NT$64. Yes, I did it again: I didn’t pay the entire amount. I underpaid NT$1364 this time, and it cost an extra NT$64. Wow!
So that’s February’s expenses on my credit card.
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