Cc ??

go to your bank..also some people have complained online about their credit card companies and gotten good results..there are some companies that will also negotiate better rates for you

oz, tell the enterprise car rental and airport i can use a debit card. they said NO.

i did google it, and followed links in an msn finance article. tons of offers but not what i am looking for.

i want no frills, just low interest, which i think i deserve becaue i've been such a good girl.

maybe i should just call them up. they still have on their records a card i used to have with them, that i closed about 2 years ago due to the same issue. it has a very high limit and no balance, while the one i kept open has a small balance and a medium limit. maybe if i call them and negotiate, they will open the other and consolidate. the closed one says it currently has a 6% interest on it. i guess it's worth a try.

thank you for an actual suggestion.:-)

The odds are you won't find one. As has been pointed out congress has decided it is unfair to make the bums pay higher interest and penalties which means the CC companies must charge everyone high rates. You can some times find one which will give you a low starting interest rate for a few months but even those are becoming fewer and fewer.

__________________
Remember, when seconds count. . .
the police are just MINUTES away!

Congress has no power to appropriate this money as an act of charity. Every member upon this floor knows it. . .Davy Crockett

I've never had a problem with a debit card, but I don't go to airlines and car rentals either. So, you could look into the "prepaid credit card".

Check out Discover. What's nice is the cash back of 1-5% on purchases. I pay off in full monthly so I actually make money by using the card.

__________________
Rich

I have bought a airline ticket with a visa checkcard before.
Out of ignorance I ask this question....How does a airline or car rental or anyone for that matter know it your card is a visa credit card or visa checkcard if done over the phone or online? My assumption is they don't.

My CC changed to over 30%. It made me SO pleased that I had paid it off before the rate change!!!!!!!

Most different types of accounts end with different numbers.
It probably tells them as soon as it's entered in their computers

__________________
ΜΟΛΩΝ ΛΑΒΕ

How about a personal loan? Those tend to have a much lower interest rate than a revolving credit account.

IIRC, the numbers (first 4?) are different for CC and debit cards. I do know years ago, I tried to use my old debit card online only to have it rejected and informed I must use a CC.

__________________
Remember, when seconds count. . .
the police are just MINUTES away!

Congress has no power to appropriate this money as an act of charity. Every member upon this floor knows it. . .Davy Crockett

Some of us have been around the block a time or 2. You are missing something.

I have had a credit card for decades, and I never ever have cared what the interest rate is - I have no idea. Pay it off every month in full, and intrest rate doesn't matter.

So, if this person is concerned about the intrest rate - then you are wrong - they are not paying the card off every month.

Am I being sassy? Sure. So were you. Welcome to the human race. We have some fun with each other. I enjoy your message, hope you enjoy mine. Nothing is meant in a bad way, just conversation on a very dreary, cold, rainy afternoon.

If you read the original message & understand what is being asked: I got a really good deal on a credit card, and used it to make some home improvements with the cheap intrest, I plan to take a while to pay this off yet. Now the card changed it's rates on me, & I'd like to find another card to carry my loan for some time for cheap intrest rates.

So, I don't think you quite understood the question. Some of us did.

The honest, helpful, but smack in the forehead answer:

Credit card companies are in dire straights, and have seriously tightened up how they are doing business, and have raised fees, intrest rates, and are much less likely to transfer balances now than they did 3-4 years ago.

You basically were working with a short term credit source, and they - all of them - have changed the way they do business & they want more income from your loan. You will have a very difficult time finding any terms from any credit card that you will like. It is basically the credit card version of the housing bust - the ARM loans. As house lending went a couple years ago, so is credit card offers this year.

You can try some local options such as credit unions, but you won't find those introductory cheap intrest rates like we used to have.

Things have changed. What used to be a good low-cost intrest rate for short-term loans has _ended_. You won't find what you are looking for.


That is the reality of today.

Helpful? Yup.

Honest? Yup.

Answering the question? Well - there is no answer, other than: No Longer Available.

Sassy? That is in the eye of the beholder I guess.

I kinda prefered my first message here, which - in my way - tried to gently suggest the world has changed and credit cards don't offer you now what you used to depend on. But I donno if you found that sassy or helpful or not.

Myself, I find all the messages in this thread helpful, honest, and to the point. All good things.

You won't find a good credit card with a long-term cheap intrest rate & free balance transfers in 2009. Their world has changed, and they are passing those changes on to us. If you have a credit card balance, it's time to get rid of it. Pay it off, convert it to some other debit, or go bankrupt & start over. There is no 'cheap' credit card now.

The future does not look good for cheap credit cards to return, as our ecconomy is more likely going to head to higher taxes, higher inflation, and very higher intrest rates. I do not have a crystal ball - anything can happen, the total opposite can happen. But - looking at the past, looking at what the govt is doing to try to keep our ecconomy going, and looking at the laws of nature - it is pretty darn likely things will get much worse. If you are aware & plan & understand - it does not mean things will be worse for _you_. The key is to realize when is a good time to buy, when is a good time to use credit, and when is a good time to save. I think this thread is a good place to start learning.

The best advise is to lock in low intrest rates if you can - long term. Get rid of 'casual' debt (such as credit card debt). It's going to get even spendier, not better. Look at history, look at where the globe is financially, look at what several governments are trying to do.

Think ahead.

There was a time using credit cards for a short term loan was a pretty good deal. There was a time ARM loans were a pretty good deal. There was a time for these things.

That time is past.

What other advise can we give the person?????? Don't want to lie to them.

--->Paul

Yes you can use debit cards, aka check cards to rent cars and pay for airline tickets. I did both last year. Well, not pay for the airline ticket but the reservation fee (now that's a huge rip-off scam) and the luggage fee. The tickets themselves were free. What I was told was that the money plus a reserve fee has to be available and the debit card has to have a Visa or Mastercard logo.

But as for transferring the balance, personally I would just allow the bank to close this card out and get another cc. When BofA raised the rates on my cc I refused the rate hike. They were oh so kind and didn't cancel my card, but will raise my rate if I ever charge on it again.

IMO, Discover shouldn't be allowed to raise their rates anyway. IIRC, the lowest they offered us was 19.99% and we had excellent credit at the time.

I am considering tranferring the balance on our Sam's card. It's over 20% and I can get 6 months free with no transfer fee if the balance is paid in 6 months at Charter One.

We are working our hardest to get RID of the stinking credit cards!!!!!! They are a scourge to our society.

Jim

Rambler is correct. My credit score is close to 800 and my current interest rate on the one card we actually use is 12%. I could have gotten one at 10.5%, but I chose the one with a higher rate to get reward points.
I pay it off every month and I make two payments a month. What many cards don't tell you is they have either a 20 or 25 day period that no interest is charged. So it is possible, that you have some charges that go beyond the free grace period.
Marvalla, in your case, I would tell the CC company you prefer the old rate and opt out of the increase. This will essentially close the account, but you will be able to pay it off at the old rate. Then you can take time to find a card with benefits or rate you are OK with. Unfortunately, there is not likely to be a card out there that will match your old rate. We are all paying for the meddling of the government.
But on the positive side, it sounds like the administration is bucking for another $250 payment to poor, sick and lazy people next year. Something like $13BB after the payments are all issued.

This is just to simplistic. While the new regulations have an impact on the current interest rates, by far and away the largest impact are the unfair business practices and over-extension of credit through credit cards. There is just no justification for charging 30% interest on credit card debt.


Jim

For many, many years all my cards rates were set at "prime plus". You took the prime rate and added a set percentage. But now that the government has told the card companies that they will not be able to charge the scofflaws for their bad habits all of their rates have shot up. Seems strange that after all these years they "just happened" to change the rules just after congress passed laws to "help us", doesn't it?

__________________
Remember, when seconds count. . .
the police are just MINUTES away!

Congress has no power to appropriate this money as an act of charity. Every member upon this floor knows it. . .Davy Crockett

It is going to be hard to find a low rate credit card. There may be offers out there like soggy possum ride showed, but they are not guaranteed to even accept you.

And if they do , you might only get $500 line of credit [or less]. As rambler said, the times have changed. cheap credit is not available for the lowly consumer. Only the TBTF [too big to fail] banks get to borrow from us at 0% interest [at the Fed discount window].

Yep, you need to pay it off as soon as you can. Beans & rice time [or beans & cornbread]

__________________
We will meet in the golden city, called the New Jerusalem,
All our pain and all our tears will be no more.....

Today DH came home talking about a 79% interest rate in South Dakota: I confirmed it on the net http://consumerist.com/5382051/heres...-interest-rate

He also says that the OTHER credit card headquarters are moving there, because South Dakota (And Delaware) have no upper limit on interest charged.

Don't you listen to Dave Ramsey?

I always use a debit card for airline reservation as well as car rental.