Credit Card Company Tricks

Ken Dolan: Credit card. Oh boy. Most Americans carry an average of 11 credit cards. That’s a bulgy wallet card, Daria. Daria Dolan: It is and we have some tips to you and some things we want you to know about what the credit card companies don’t want you to know. Ken Dolan: We’ve got some tricks to talk about. Daria Dolan: We can have a confession to make first. Ken Dolan: We’re talking about the tricks of the— Daria Dolan: Confess. She had a credit problem when we first got married. Ken Dolan: Yes I did. When we first got—no, before we got married. Before we got married, I was a little, how shall I say it, irresponsible. Just before we got married, I revealed to Daria the two facts. First of all I love you and number two, I’m $3000.00 in debt. Daria? Daria Dolan: Yeah. Ken Dolan: Where are you? Where did you go? That was a bad situation and I must tell you that it was a tough start to a young marriage to have you dig out from under that debt. Daria Dolan: But! But thanks to me, who had no credit problems, whatsoever. Ken Dolan: Thank you, yes. Daria Dolan: I would save a little by little. We have my father who co-signed for a long because we had bad credit. Ken Dolan: Oh you did! Daria Dolan: And I had no credit. Ken Dolan: So you did, yeah. Daria Dolan: Of course they stay for the waived, my father is saying, “what is this girl doing as he signed these papers. Ken Dolan: We don’t anymore details. Daria Dolan: I helped him by making the payments on time. Ken Dolan: You did. Daria Dolan: We did not do any frivolous spending. I remember after we were sort of almost got it that there, we bought two $5.00 pillows for the couch and you thought that we had gone out and bought a new Mercedes Benz. Ken Dolan: And we were so excited. You’re talking those two multi colored pillows we had at Windsor Village in Boston. How excited we were and a shag rag to boot. We were in the pink. Thanks to her. Daria Dolan: But within one year. Within one year. Ken Dolan: Yeah. Daria Dolan: We had that paid off. Ken Dolan: So the point is this. Daria Dolan: And we are going to show you how to do that Ken Dolan: We’re going to do that. It’s important that you understand that we’re not anti-credit, anti credit cards, no way. We have credit cards and we pay a bulk every month. Do you have to do that? That’s the way we prefer you do it but you don’t have to do it that way. The bottom line is manage your credit well. The problem is, there are some little tricks going on with the credit card companies and there are no cheat mistakes. Daria Dolan: And they are getting freakier about it. For example, you may have been accustomed to a particular date by which you haven’t mail your payment in. Those are shortening up folks and they are not telling you. It’s just they chose on your bill but if you’re still trying to pay on the old schedule, you could end up with late charges and not even know why. Ken Dolan: Daria, here’s a great one. You may not realize because you may think like you’re, it’s like a great thing. A lot of credit card companies are asking you to pay what, the minimum. Don’t worry about it. Just pay the minimum. Sure, if you leave to be a 147, you’ll actually get it paid off so forget paying the minimum, if you don’t pay off every month try to pay a little bit extra. You know what it is? It’s sort of an investment by getting out of debt. Don’t pay just the minimum. Daria Dolan: Miss one payment. Ken Dolan: Oh yeah, that one. Daria Dolan: And that intrude up pretty low rate that you got by switching to that card will automatically jump up. Miss the second payment and be a little late even that one and the next thing you know, you’re in the 22% to 24% range paying or worse yet, miss a payment on one card. Ken Dolan: Oh boy. Daria Dolan: And have all of your interest rates on all of your cards go higher because what you do on one will show up and be told to another so you’ve got to be particularly careful about that. Ken Dolan: Exactly right and also be very, very careful. We’ve done, as you know we’ve done radio and television for a bunch of years. I think one of the biggest problems we’ve seen over the years. Get ready for this one Daria; letting somebody else use your credit card. Be very, very careful who else you will let use your card. You’re asking for trouble. Every time they take the credit card out of their wallet, they are taking a gun. Potentially getting you in credit trouble so the bottom line is be careful. Daria Dolan: I have one last I want to share. Ken Dolan: What do you got? What do you got? Daria Dolan: And that is, there used to be a phenomenon which has just finally died this year. This summer as a matter of fact. In which you could pay it back someone else onto your good credit history by making them a cosigner on your credit card. Ken Dolan: And paying your bills on time and paying the bills now. Daria Dolan: And paying the bills on time. Ken Dolan: Yeah, yeah. Daria Dolan: So for example, your son graduates from college, you’ve got a pristine, impeccable rating because you pay all of your debts on time, have never had a problem, you put him on your credit card with you, that would automatically give him your credit rating, not anymore. Ken Dolan: Exactly right. Daria Dolan: So many people are taking advantage of it so that little feature has ended. That young person coming out of college will have to earn their own good credit history. Ken Dolan: As well as I showed that my dad. How much money did you have coming out of college? Five dollars? Daria Dolan: No one. Ken Dolan: A buck and a half. Daria Dolan: Yeah I think. Ken Dolan: Our bottom line is whether it’s about credit cards or whatever it may be, insurance, other things important to you and your family. We’re going to be talking about that a lot of Dolans.com and also on our free newsletters Smart Money Moves with the Dolan’s; it’s free. When we talk about of bunch of things that are important to you, a lot of which you may not see in a regular media either in the internet or in a radio or television shows or in the newspapers. So we want you to become part of the Dolan family and. Daria Dolan: And get answers to your specific question. Ken Dolan: It’s free. Smart Money Moves with the Dolan’s. All you have to do is just sign up at dolans.com. and join our family.