For a while the No Fee 0% Balance Transfer Credit Card offers went the way of the dodo and were nowhere to be found.  However, Discover Card has brought the no fee 0% APR balance transfer offer back from extinction! The Discover More Card is one of the only credit cards right now that is [...]

The classic “mag stripe”, that long black strip on the back of your credit could have numbered days. MasterCard has just released a Roadmap to replacing the beloved (and mostly hated actually) mag stripe with the EMV technology currently found on chip based credit cards.  Clearly EMV provided enhanced security and at least in the [...]

Most of my posts reflect on past experiences of mine working at some of the largest US banks in the credit card and risk management groups.  While shopping at Macy’s I was reminded about my time working in what they called the “co-brand” group.  Co-brand credit cards means cards that are branded with both the [...]

Like it or not your credit score is extremely important and raising you credit score or FICO score can be time consuming and difficult. You FICO score lets banks understand how creditworthy you are based on a very complex and secretive algorithm that is constantly updated based on new data and general consumer behavior.  What [...]

Getting approved for a credit card As the US economy struggles, banks are making it harder for consumers to get approved for credit cards and it is becoming harder to benefit from great balance transfer promotions that can help you save money. Here are 5 tips to ensure that you get approved for that credit [...]

Looks like the US isn’t the only kings of online shopping.  Recent data show that the EU is increasing extremely fast as they eschew physical stores in favor of online shopping, and of course purchases using credit cards. A new report from Kelkoo claims that online purchases in the EU will reach €232 billion this [...]

I recently received this email in my inbox. It was suspicious to begin with and after some research is obviously am internet fraud and internet scam. These emails are more and more prevalent and here are some telltale signs. 1. The from email isn’t directly from the source.  For example, this email came from: twitter-support-myemail=gmail.com@postmaster.twitter.com [...]

What is a credit report? In short, your credit report is your financial life if not your entire life! Your credit report is used to determine your creditworthiness and this determines the credit card, debt, loan, mortgage rates that you will be able to secure.  A good credit report can save you a lot of [...]

So many choices! There are so many payments networks available. Visa and MasterCard are the most prominent but then there is also American Express and Discover as well as Diners Club.  So what’s the difference and which should you pick? Visa: Visa is the largest payment network in the US.  If you have a Visa [...]

I forgot about my annual fee! I signed up for an American Express Gold card just over 2 years ago.  I received a letter of offer to open a new account with 50,000 points and an annual fee waiver for the first year.  It was actually a great deal.  In addition you get some pretty [...]