HSBC Credit Card For Chinese New Year

So we've all had the chance to break our new year's resolutions by now, but with Chinese New Year well underway it's provided some of the asian based banks to provide new credit card solutions to their customers. HSBC (in my experience the world's not so local bank) is offering a new credit card:

http://www.creditcardfinder.com.au/hsbc-credit-card-for-the-chinese-new-year.html

It doesnt sound to bad, $50 cashback for every $500 spent for the first 3 months. Not a bad start to the year of the tiger for many. But, make sure you read closely the terms and condition before switching over.

Happy Chinese New Year to all the readers! May it bring you wealth, prosperity and happiness.

Legal Test Cases In the UK

At the end of Q4 there were some important changes and cases occuring in the UK in regards to credit card debt. At the end of November, there were 12 separate ongoing cases in the High Court of Manchester referring to the Consumer Credit Card Act, and the manner in which credit card companies have tried to reclaim the debt from borrowers:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/8365018.stm

However, it seems the banks and lenders, whenever such cases arise are in no hurry to push for the cases to be closed and precedents to be set. The banks are perfectly content with drawing out such cases to their full extent, so that no changes are made to the current CCCAs, and that consumers still remain in the weaker position.
However, there have been some major changes in the legislation which gives borrowers more rights, and protection from lendors who put the pressure on. With the changing legislation, this year it's going to be crucial to stay abreast of all the changes and check your current credit card companies' t&c's.

Happy 2010 - To your Financial Woes Ending

Would like to say thanks to all two readers, who have followed this blog throughout 2009. hehe. But on a serious not, I appreciate the comments people have posted and hope that in some shape or form people have found the blog useful and informative. If you have any ideas on how it can improve moving forwards in 2010, then please drop me a line.

Hope you all have a great 2010, and look forward to posting more articles on how to eliminate credit card debt.

Best wishes

Dom

Run Up to the holidays

Okay, so I'm gonna be ultra busy in the run up to christmas and the period after, so probably won't be able to update the blog as often as I have been doing.
But I'd just like to wish everyone a happy holidays and seasons greetings, and hope the forthcoming 2010 is a financial prosperous one for you all!

Thanks very much for following the blog up until now, and I promise in 2010 I'll have lots more helpful hints and advice for ways on reducing credit card. Till then, god bless and seasons greetings.

Using the web to find the best ways of reducing credit card debt

There are many sites where you can perform price comparisons, and it's no different with credit cards. One option that many people consider is consolidating their credit card debt, especially if they feel their interest rate on their credit card(s) are too high. You can usually do balance transfers to other credit card companies with lower interest rates. Some even offer a 0% interest rate for up to 16 months. And if you're were paying a 17.69% APR on one credit card, the savings can be significant. You can easily find information on some of the best APR rates of credit cards, from sites like moneysavingexpert.com. And there are plenty of interest rate comparison engines on all the leading credit cards. Of course you will have to go through the usual card application process, so it's worth checking on your credit score before you do to see if it's acceptable for applying for a balance transfer.

If only we could practice what we preach..

So after refraining from months upon months I've had to resort to using the plastic quite a bit. Mainly due to a relocation, and all the associated financial annoyances this comes with it. Turns out the country i'm living in, none of the local banks accept my card, so i have to travel to my cards bank bank branches which are sporadically located across the city. It's not too bad, but it has meant me getting back in the red on it - something i vowed to myself not to do. But my other card's magnetic strip has gone, which means the only card i can use is the credit card. However, all this should stop soon, as i found myself some full time work, and once my visa and work permit get through all right ill be able to set up a local bank account and have less of these hassles.

But it has taught me the importance of practicing what you preach, and also the importance of financial planning -especially when relocating!

Spending less, saving more.

With Christmas coming up this can be a hard ethos to stick to. We all know we should do this, but there's something about this season that makes us want to rush out to the shops and start buying. However, by cutting down on unnecessary expenses in the run up to Christmas you may find you actually have a bit of extra cash to reinvest in buying those Christmas presents. Also, with the economy in the UK not showing much signs of recovery towards the latter part of the year, it could be a while before we see better days. So before buying upgrades to phones, electronic appliances that aren't necessary and any other goods that we don't actually we should instead be thinking about what we can do without and/or if there are any ways we can perhaps recycle or reconvert what we currently use. Thus preventing the need to go out to the shops and buy a brand new product, with expensive packaging, that will in the end cease working or become faulty.
This economic crises, has taught us some valuable lessons about our propensity for consumerism and how we have becoming indoctrinated in the capitalist system which rules all over other forms of ideology.