What comes to your mind when you hear the word "frozen"? Most people will start thinking about something icy, inactive or fixed, usually imagining vegetables, earth or even human emotions. Very few people, actually, will think of a credit card report frozen, considering that the procedure is rather rare and is used in most urgent cases.
Yes, credit cards, just like fruit, vegetables or the ground, can also be frozen but it does not mean they become covered by ice. It's just that the account is made inactive and credit report inaccessible to anyone who is unauthorized.
When do customers decide to freeze their credit cards?
When you plan to set out on a trip, time and distance play the key role in drawing up a budget to fund it. The farther and longer you go, the more money you would probably need to finance hotel stays, pay for car rental or refuel your own car. At this point lots of people get the idea of applying for a most appropriate for travel credit card and some of these people will probably want to save with it.
Are you also seeking a suitable plastic but are at a loss how many offers are there on the market? With all their benefits, special promotion and additional programs, you may get confused and apply for the first card on your way. But doing that, you may pay double price for your trip, as well as for the card itself, because your choice may actually turn wrong.
Though the general opinion goes that people with bad payment history and low credit score cannot qualify for big companies' credit cards, it is far not truth in reality. Bad and poor credit cards are willingly marketed to customers most urgently needing credit and most of the deals can pull debtors out of their financial troubles.
However, without the proper knowledge how to manage credit card debt most effectively, without the ability to adequately appraise certain situations, bad credit cards will only hurt. Some of our readers, who are mostly concerned with bad credit tips, ask their questions that clear up some points.
You must remember the housing boom of 2003 when the American Express company first offered a hugely successful program for tenants to pay their rent using a credit card. It is not difficult to assume why the program was readily accepted and even got extended into the mortgage industry. It is the credit card reward points that a customer is entitled to using his plastic.
However, right from the start out of the rent and mortgage payment program, its consumer category was clearly specified. Only customers with high credit scores and strong credit history could take advantage of it. But the actual situation is a bit different.
Despite the troublesome state of affairs on the US credit card market, caused by the sub-prime mortgage lending practices, and no less troublesome predictions for 2008, American consumers continue to actively use their credit cards and carry balances.
This Christmas shopping season is going to achieve a record number in credit card purchases both with men and women, and this is regardless of financial experts' advice to pay off outstanding balances before the new year comes.
So, what is it that drives customers to spend more and more in such a slippery situation? According to a research, the key factor for most shoppers is credit cards loyalty schemes.
It was not that long ago, somewhere in 2006 that most financial experts claimed China was not yet ready to demonstrate the same competitive credit card market as in the USA and UK. Though the contribution of Visa, MasterCard and American Express was not insignificant at that time, credit cards issuance was still subject to strict regulatory barriers set by the government. So, Chinese consumers couldn't enjoy all the benefits such as those available in the highly developed Western credit card industry.
Times are changing, however, and today credit cards, previously the priority of Chinese executives and officials with political power, are flowing into the masses.
It has been a long-term practice among banks and credit companies to reward customers to keep them loyal for as long as possible. Whether you are a customer of Visa, MasterCard or American Express, you are always eligible for some kind of a perk if you present any value to your lender as a credit consumer.
We all are happy to earn points which we redeem for free air travel, hotel stays, car rentals and merchandise but not many of us know how such rewards programs started and what extra opportunities they can offer customer today. Frequent flyer programs are among the most popular ones with credit cardholders, so we cannot but outline some of their most significant features and historical facts.
Perhaps it is still going to take a long time for the credit card industry to become purely consumer-oriented and offer credit card products which are an exceptional fit for one's individual tastes and needs. However, we cannot say that nothing is being done in this direction.
As far as credit cards' design is concerned, some card issuers have already adopted the practice of imprinting images of your own choice on your plastic. Your family, friends, pets, favorite sports team or wildlife - all these images can please your eye whenever you pull out your card to pay.
Some companies go as far as to add a special smell to your plastic so as to make credit card use most enjoyable. But Capital One seems to have out bidden all their rivals in respect of customers' satisfaction with their services and specific options.
Do you know what the status of your credit history depend on? There are lots of factors influencing it, but the key one is how regularly and timely you pay credit card bills. That is what builds your creditworthiness in the eyes of a potential lender.
Besides, traditionally, you can establish and build a solid credit history in your own country only - a creditor doesn't like you changing a place of residence as it increases a potential risk of revenue loses. Similarly, you are not advised to frequently change your work as it presents you as a fickle and unreliable person.
Now, you can easily guess that your credit history will be reduced to nothing once you decide to change a place of residence and move overseas.
South Korea is recognized as one of the most credit welcoming societies today and there is nothing so surprising about the fact, considering the rate of the technology awareness and the dense population of the country. Surprising is the basic reason why South Korea introduced credit cards as the major payment tool.
In the late 1990s South Korea initiated a campaign aimed at fighting the corruption that was going beyond all limits. The uncontrollable flow of cash in the underground economy made it extremely difficult for the government to track it, so a plastic card and electronic transactions prompted a way out.
