Credit Management

Over Your Credit Limit? Purchase not approved

The New Credit Card Act of 2009 takes effect on February 22, 2010. To help you prepare, my blog will feature Nine Tips over the next three weeks.

Tip Number Three

In the past, you wouldn’t know if a purchase put you over your credit limit until you received a big fee on credit card statement.

But that’s changed. Now, if a purchase will put you over your climit, your purchase will be declined. With the new Credit Card Act of 2009, only pre-authorized purchases will be approved.

(Remember, this doesn’t apply to your debit card. You’ll receive no warnings if a purchase will overdraw your checking account. )

What’s up with credit card companies lately?

There was a time when our mailboxes were full of credit card offers. Now the offers have been replaced with policy change notices.

Credit card companies are racing to make changes before the new regulations hit in February 2010. They’ve have had a bad couple years. It used to be easy to make money in the credit card business, but things have changed.

The first issue is defaults. Because of unemployment, more people are defaulting on their debts. So, credit card companies have been lowering everyone’s credit limits to help reduce the risk. Their reasoning is sound. The less debt you have, the less debt they will have to cover. Expect your credit card limits to fall even if you have a good payment history.

The second issue is pay offs. More people are paying off their credit card debt because they’re anticipating layoffs. This means that the creditors are earning less from interest payments. They need risk-free revenue, so they’re looking at annual fees. Expect your credit card company to either add an annual fee or increase the fee you already pay.

Right now, under the old regulations, they can still make changes to your account with minimal notice. If you get an unpleasant policy change in the mail, you should definitely call the credit card company and try to get them to revert back to the original terms. If that doesn’t work you can always close the account.

New Credit Card Rules

Have you heard about the new credit card rules? Credit card companies must give you more time to review statements and rate changes, which helps you make better decisions when dealing with debt.

Statements must now be mailed at least 21 days before the due date. Credit card companies make a good profit from late fees and rate increases. To increase the amount of late payments, they began billing closer to the payment due date, sometimes forcing you to pay within a week. This allowed them to add fees and raise rates based on payment history. The new rule allows you a standard billing cycle to review your statement and remit payment.

Second, creditors must now notify you within 45 days of a rate change. This is better than the previous 15 days notice. The rule change gives you a chance to accept or decline the offer, and gives you time to shop for a new credit card company.

The rest of the Credit Card Act will go into effect next year, hopefully with more consumer protections. Remember: if you owe creditors a balance that can’t be paid in full each month, you give them power over your financial health.

FICO Has Something to Say About You

You have all heard me talk about FICO scores and how important they are to your financial health. I’m going to walk you through a scenario so you can see how FICO affects you.

Let’s say that you are going to apply for credit. You may be thinking of buying or leasing a new car, opening up another credit card, purchasing or refinancing a new home. Whatever it is that you’re thinking about doing, it will involve the potential creditor accessing your credit report and score. This will help them decide if you are creditworthy and what terms you will be offered.

When the creditor prints your credit report, they will be looking at your credit from a specific date. They’ll see who you have credit with, your credit limit, how much you owe, how long you have had your accounts, your history of paying back your debts, and whether or not there is derogatory / negative information with an account. All this information is put into a formula to determine your credit score.

The credit score that creditors use was developed by Fair Isaac and Company (FICO) to determine whether you are a good credit risk and what the likelihood is that you will pay the credit back on time. The higher your credit score, the less risky you appear to a potential creditor. FICO scores go from 300 to 850 – with 850 being the best.

This is one of the major factors in determining your creditworthiness. Creditors have guidelines that determine if you can be considered for a specific program. For mortgages, your credit score has to be at least in the mid-range to even be considered for a mortgage program. If your score is one point below the minimum score, I cannot offer you that mortgage program. Auto loans have similar guidelines. When you see car financing commercials that offer people 0% financing for “well qualified borrowers,” they mean that you have to have a particular minimum credit score to be seen as “well qualified.”

So what happens if you don’t qualify for the best mortgage program or that 0% car financing? You may still be approved, but you will be offered lesser terms. Those less than favorable terms will mean that you will be paying more money out of your pocket. A $250,000 mortgage at 8% instead of 6% will cost you an additional $335.00 per month.

Bottom line: keep your credit score as high as possible, by doing everything possible from your own. This includes making sure your payments reach your creditors before the due date and checking your credit report regularly for suspicious activity.