 Country Naturals - celebrating the simple life Original articles, photos, and links for butterflies, knitting, gardening, home improvement, and much more. |
 Love Your Pet Expo - Annual Pet-Friendly Event Join the fun in-person or online. April 5, 2008, Shasta Fairgrounds, Anderdon, CA. Vendors and sponsors welcome. |
 Affordable Redding - Real Estate Listings by Owner/Agent Ed Molthop Links, listings, and articles about Shasta & Tehama Counties, California, plus general info on credit and finance. |
 Butterfly-Moth Original photos, articles, and links to other online resources for people who want to attract butterflies to their yards and gardens. |
 Easy-Knit_Crochet Original patterns, articles, and links to other online resources for people who love to knit or crochet easy projects. |
Years ago, I read the fine print on a MasterCard or Visa agreement, figured they were all the same, then never gave them another thought until a few months ago, when we refinanced our home and paid off all our bank cards. What a nasty surprise I had in store.
Several of our cards don't have a grace period. If we use them, even without a previous balance, we get dinged with finance charges. (WAMU is the culprit, here.)
Several others charge interest from the first day of the billing cycle, so we got hit with finance charges the month following the month we paid them off. (Watch out for Capital One.)
Next come the cards with annual fees. Once you get established, there's no reason to pay for credit cards. The problem is getting rid of them once you have them without having your credit scores suffer. (Household Bank is the bad guy this time.)
How did we get stuck with all these lousy cards? We just accepted offers that looked good without paying attention. I used to brag that we never applied for credit; we let credit come to us. Now that I've looked around at what's available, I realize how stu..., uh, not smart that attitude really was.
I wish I could say that I came to my senses all on my own, but I can't even brag about that. The big "Duh" came while I was shopping for books online at my new Power Mall and came across Barnes & Noble on the book search page. I was looking for bargains and saw their offer for a $25 gift card, just for getting their free MasterCard.
After my bad experience with the above companies, I decided to read the fine print before signing up. This card has no annual fee, resaonable rates, 20-day grace period, 5% discount when I use it at B&N, plus I earn 1 point for every dollar I charge anywhere, and every time those points add up to 2500, they automatically send me anoth $25 gift card. Since books are my habit/weakness/passion, that makes this the perfect card for me. BTW, the issuing bank is Barclays, a company that issued one of my other credit cards, and I've always been happy with them.
If you're looking for another Visa or MasterCard, don't make my mistakes. Shop around and find something that works for you. While researching this article, I found a site that does a nice job of rating the various cards that are available. Their favorites are Discover, Chase, and American Express, but even within those companies, there are lots of choices. Here is their link:
