Category: Credit Cards

Consumers who are struggling with large amounts of credit card debt and other outstanding balances have enough on their plates without worrying about the state of their credit reports when mistaken entries wind up there.

In many cases, consumers might have inaccurate information on their credit reports, which can have a negative impact on their financial standing, as a result of what are known as "mixed files," according to a report from the Columbus Dispatch. For instance, consumers may have data for not only themselves, but also family members, neighbors, consumers with similar information such as names or Social Security numbers, and even those with no similarities, on their credit reports.

Further, it can be difficult to clear these up because the burden of proof that a person is not responsible for the account on their credit report is on the consumer, the report said. Therefore, it can often be difficult to compile evidence of this.

Mistaken entries on a credit report can lead to many financial hardships, including the necessity for debt relief if there is an account they just can't clear from their records.

When it comes to dealing with the companies that control their credit card debt, most Americans are pretty happy with their experiences.

About two-thirds of all consumers who posted comments about their dealings with credit card lenders online said they were left satisfied with their experiences, according to new data culled by the social networking data firm DigitalMR. The other one-third were unhappy with their experiences.

Of all the nation's nine largest credit card lenders, American Express engendered the most positive experiences, the report said. It not only had the highest net sentiment score at 63 percent, but also had 35 percent of all positive comments in the entire industry. However, U.S. Bank wasn't far behind in terms of customer service with a rating of 61 percent.

Having good customer service experiences might be helpful to consumers who are working hard to find some amount of debt relief from their lenders. For instance, it might allow them to work out a reasonable repayment plan if they can't afford their monthly bills, or negotiate a lower interest rate.

Though the economy has been steadily improving for more than a year now, millions of Americans are still struggling financially and many feel they need significant amounts of debt relief and other assistance to get their lives back on track.

Many consumers are still trying rebuild their finances as a result of hardships faced during the recent recession, but now more are at least recognizing that they're having a significant amount of difficulties in dealing with their finances, according to a new survey from the National Foundation for Credit Counseling. After completing a 10-entry true/false quiz designed to illustrate signs of extreme financial difficulty, any one of which could be a sign that they needed significant help, 80 percent of consumers said they were in need of a "major overhaul." Another 13 percent said they could use a tune-up.

"This statistic parallels the findings of the recent NFCC Financial Literacy Survey in which 80 percent of adults indicated they could benefit from additional advice and answers to everyday financial questions from a professional," said Gail Cunningham, a spokesperson for the NFCC. "It is encouraging that people recognize how perilous their financial situation has become. Now they need to take action to resolve the problem and keep it from spiraling out of control."

Among the entries on the quiz were a number of questions related to consumers' handling of their credit card accounts, the report said. One led consumers to question whether their outstanding balances were growing every month, while another brought up whether those whose accounts were approaching their credit limits were applying for new cards to stay afloat financially. Others dealt with regularly making late payments – and skipping them altogether some months – or being pursued by debt collectors after bills went unpaid for several months.

Millions of Americans still struggling with credit card debt may find that it's not easy to get their finances back in order, but doing so is crucial to not only their financial health, but in many cases, also their happiness. Making sure to have all payments to credit card and other lenders sent in on time and in full is the most important aspect of a consumer's credit score, and the amount being borrowed versus the total overall limits is another major concern.

Though the economy is generally improving and consumers may be feeling better about their personal finances, statistics indicate that many are still a bit wary of taking on credit card debt.

Consumer spending grew 2.9 percent in the first quarter of 2012, and though that's the fastest pace seen in more than a year, it seems that relatively little of that was actually the result of increased credit card spending, according to a report from the Associated Press. In fact, data from the Federal Reserve Board shows credit card purchases slipped in value by more than $5 billion between January and February.

Further, the Fed noted the amount carried on consumer credit cards overall totaled just $799 billion in February, the report said. That total was some 15 percent below the high seen in December 2007, the first month of the recent recession.

Since the recession hit, many consumers may have sought some sort of shelter from the high cost of credit card borrowing, including looking for debt relief, scaling back spending, or cutting it out altogether.

Consumers who want to avoid making serious missteps when it comes to dealing with their credit card debt and other types of credit would likely do well to take the time to read the fine print of their lending agreements.

Experts say that taking the time to read a lending agreement will give a consumer far more insight into the true cost of their account, and therefore those who might be struggling financially would likely benefit from taking the time to review their accounts in this way, according to a report from Bloomberg News. To that end, the federal Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has begun rolling out simplified lending agreements for a number of types of credit.

However, some note that these don't go far enough, the report said. For one thing, they're not mandatory, and in many cases, they also do not mandate the use of plain language, only a clearer disclosure of costs.

Consumers seeking debt relief may want to consider the importance of closely reading any new lending agreement they are about to enter into to make sure they fully understand what the true cost will be.

Americans may now be feeling better about dealing with credit card debt and using their accounts responsibly now that the economy has made continual improvements over the last year, and that prompted many to increase spending and obtain new cards.

The amount of credit, debit and prepaid cards carrying the brands of the world's six largest payment processors surged 12.4 percent to a total of more than 6.54 billion last year, as consumers continue to feel better about their financial standing, according to the latest Global Credit Card Brands study from the Nilson Report. In addition, the number of transactions processed on these cards rose to 135.33 billion in 2011, up 14.56 billion and 12.1 percent from the year before.

However, at the same time, credit cards issued to U.S. consumers bearing the Visa, MasterCard or American Express brands generated 36.78 percent of all transactions worldwide, the report said. That's down from 37.65 percent in 2010.

Many Americans are trying to find debt relief and being more cautious about adding to their balances, keeping the value of their purchases over the course of the month low enough that they could pay their bills off in full.

Millions of consumers across the country are still dealing with large constraints such as significant amounts of credit card debt, but more now recognize some of their biggest problem areas when it comes to managing their money and financial lives correctly.

More than half of consumers – 56 percent – say that they believe their biggest financial problem area, and the one in which they could use the most help, is knowing what it takes to improve their credit score, according to a report poll from the National Foundation for Credit Counseling. Problematically however, while many recognize that their credit scores can play a significant role in all aspects of their personal financial life, they don't do enough on their own to make sure they're in good standing. Most respondents said they hadn't checked their credit report at any point in the last 12 months, but only 5 percent said they thought they needed help understanding the information contained in thedocument.

This type of disconnect indicates that consumers simply might not know that the information on their credit report is what's used to comprise their score, NFCC spokesperson Gail Cunningham said. That's why experts usually advise that it takes ordering a credit report to understand what's wrong with a credit score.

But consumers weren't only concerned about their credit standing, the report said. Another 23 percent of those polled said they think their biggest problem area is that they need to get their spending under control, and another 11 percent said they would like to have a better grasp on how to put more money into savings. Experts say that these two types of behavior combined can lead to serious financial problems because stretching budgets thin with overspending, and having nothing to fall back on in the event of an emergency, can lead to massive balances that can be difficult to get under control again.

Consumers who run into large amounts of credit card balances and other bills often find themselves in need of debt relief. Since the end of the recent recession, however, many consumers have been conscientious in their efforts to pay down their debt and make sure they don't carry a balance from one month to the next.

Millions of Americans are still working to find debt relief and get out from under the burdens of the credit missteps they may have made in the past, and that has likely prevented them from generally feeling good about their lenders.

Credit card lenders are the companies that consumers are least likely to forgive when they have a bad customer service experience, likely owing to years of acrimony built up during the recent recession, according to the latest annual Forgiveness Ratings issued by the Temkin Group. The company reviewed customer sentiment for 18 industries, and credit card issuers ranked the lowest by far, with just 13 percent of consumers willing to forgive their lender for a bad customer service experience.

However, it should also be noted that as the economy improves, so too has consumer sentiment toward these companies, the report said. Though only 13 percent of consumers said they'd forgive their lender, that's more than four times greater than the 3 percent who responded similarly last year.

Consumers may be feeling better about their lenders because their personal economic situations are improving and they're getting a better handle on paying down their credit card debt.

In the past few years, a number of laws have been passed to help protect consumers from carrying more credit card debt than they can afford. But one group that was supposed to have been specifically safeguarded might not be receivingthe security intended.

Young adults under the age of 21 were supposed to see their protections increased under the Credit Card Accountability, Responsibility and Disclosure Act, but it seems that hasn't entirely been the case, according to a new study from Professor Jim Hawkins of the University of Houston Law Center. Among the findings of the study are that 68 percent of college students under the age of 21 have received direct credit card offers in their own name by mail in the past 12 months, and 40 percent reported seeing college students given gifts in return for signing up for credit cards, though this practice is expressly prohibited by the Credit CARD Act. Further, 27 percent of those under 21 said they were able to list their student loans as income in an attempt to qualify for a card in their own name without a co-signer.

Another area of concern the study highlighted was the relationship between colleges or associated groups and lenders, the report said. Hawkins examined 300 such marketing agreements from both 2009 and 2010 and found that about 64 percent of these documents were unchanged from one year to the next despite the Credit CARD Act taking effect early in 2010. Many of these deals were terminated, but only two specifically listed the regulation as the reason for it being shut down.

"If Congress was concerned about people under 21 receiving credit card offers in the mail, it could directly prevent that conduct by making it illegal to mail anyone under 21 a credit card offer," Hawkins said. "Similarly, if Congress was concerned about abusive terms in the agreements between credit card companies and colleges, it could directly forbid those abusive terms instead of just requiring companies disclose the agreements."

Consumer advocates have noted that credit cards can be particularly troublesome for college students because it might prevent them from being able to gain financial independence after graduation, and could lead to their needing significant debt relief down the road.

When making efforts to deal with credit card debt responsibly, it seems women might have more difficulties than their male counterparts.

Women tend to make a larger number of mistakes when dealing with their credit card balances than men do, including carrying balances from one month to the next and not comparison shopping when seeking a new account, according to new data from FINRA. In all, 60 percent of women said they carried a balance regularly, 9 percent more than men. Moreover, 42 percent of women made a habit of making only the minimum payment to their lender every month, compared with 38 percent of men.

Further, when it came to looking for a new card, just 31 percent of women compared a number of accounts to find the best deal possible, the report said. Perhaps as a consequence, women tended to face higher interest rates on their credit cards than men did, regardless of their financial literacy.

Consumers who face higher interest rates may be more likely to run into rapidly-expanding balances if they don't pay their bills in full every month. This may require them to seek debt relief as they attempt to get their finances in order.