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Slate from Chase No Balance Transfer Fee Card Review

This article was written by Flexo in Credit. 3 comments.

Not every credit card on the market today is out to provide consumers with great rewards, because not every card customer can make the most of those rewards. Credit cards are just tools, and depending on who is wielding them, they could have a positive or a negative effect on that person’s finances. Some people just use credit cards to habitually buy what they can’t afford. For them, a great rewards credit card might actually be counterproductive.

A good example would be someone who has made mistakes with credit cards in the past and is now looking for some way to get out of the debt hole. Rather than trying to rack up rewards with spending, this individual would be better off finding a low-interest card or a card with an excellent introductory APR on balance transfers that will allow him to save money while reducing his debt.

Issuers design some cards for people looking to save money on costly interest payments. Slate® from Chase – No Balance Transfer Fee has offers a 0% introductory APR on purchases and balance transfers for 15 months. This offer is for applicants with good or excellent credit; after the 15-month introductory period, the APR is 11.99% to 21.99% variable. Notably, Slate from Chase – No Balance Transfer Fee does what the offer says: It allows you to transfer a balance to the card with zero fees if you do the transfer within the first 30 days your account is open. (After the 30 days, balance transfers are assessed a fee of $5 or 3% of the balance transferred, whichever is higher.) Combined with the 0% APR period for purchases and balance transfers, this is a card that will likely save you money if you carry a balance and are committed to paying it down within 15 months. The Slate® from Chase – No Balance Transfer Fee card has no annual fee.

Slate from Chase includes a program that’s meant to help cardholders analyze and pay down their debt. The program is called “Blueprint,” and it allows cardholders to pick which purchases to pay off first. With Blueprint, customers have the option of designing their own plan:

Full Pay. Avoid paying interest by paying off full categories of your choice. Chase will separate all of your purchases into different categories.
Split. Inform Chase how much you want to pay and to what purchases you would like it applied to.
Finish It. Set up a goal and a timeline and Chase will calculate your monthly payment schedule for you.
Track It. Check out your spending trends and see where you stand with any goals you’ve set up.

It seems like a lot of work, and most people will probably prefer to just send a payment into a credit card and have it apply to the highest APR balance regardless of what the original purchase was. Psychologically, however, there is value in understanding exactly when a particular purchase has been paid off. That theory has been used to great effect by Dave Ramsey with the Debt Snowball, and this is sort of a similar application.

That’s about all there is to the Slate from Chase. For consumers looking for a great introductory rate with features to help you keep your debt in check, this card fits the bill. Remember to keep in mind that the best offer is given to excellent credit applicants only, so anyone with average or even above average credit should avoid applying. Here’s how to apply for the card.

Visit the secure application page for Slate from Chase – No Balance Transfer Fee.
Provide your personal information.
Wait a short time for a response from Chase.

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Debt Collections: Do You Have To Pay?

This article was written by Flexo in Debt Reduction. 6 comments.

People who borrow money generally understand that they will eventually need to pay borrowed money back to the lender. This understanding, whether codified in a contract or not in any particular case, makes lending and borrowing money work as an economic mechanism. It’s interesting that regardless of what’s written in a contract, most debt can be legally ignored. Borrowers may feel bound by their pride to honor commitments, but every state in the country has laws that prevent lenders from chasing after deadbeat borrowers after a certain amount of time.

Time-barred debts are subject to a statute of limitations. After a certain amount of time passes with a borrower unable or unwilling to pay back a loan, the lender will no longer be able to sue the borrower for uncollected debt. The lender can still contact the borrower and try to convince him or her to pay back the loan, but the lender’s legal rights to the funds are limited.

This doesn’t mean that it’s a good idea to wait for the statute of limitations to pass on all your debt in order to avoid your obligations. There are consequences if you don’t pay back debt. Most importantly, the three credit reporting bureaus will significantly decrease your credit score, and it could take a long time for that number to return to normal. This will affect your ability to qualify for more loans, mortgages, and credit cards in the future.

This is a dilemma many homeowners have considered recently; with the market value of houses sharply decreasing in the last few years, and the resulting financial reality of owing the bank more on the mortgage than the house is worth, some in this situation have considered walking away from the house and mortgage. In some cases, this could be a tactic that is more financially responsible than continuing to sink money every month into a depreciating asset. Families considering this option have to weigh the consequences, including not being able to qualify for a mortgage again for many years, against the emotion-based drive to honor financial commitments.

Although lenders are legally barred from suing borrowers after the statute of limitations for a particular debt has passed, they might still try. If you’re able to show a judge that the debt is time-barred and no longer legally collectible, you have nothing to worry about other than the consequences.

Credit cards and other open accounts like home equity lines of credit, written contracts, oral agreements, and promissory notes may have different statutes of limitations, and each differs by state, as well. Here’s a list by state of time-barred debts.

The clock starts ticking on the statute of limitations from the day you miss your first payment. The moment you send a payment to the lender, no matter how small, the clock resets. For example, if the statute of limitations on credit card debt in your state is seven years, and it’s been six years since you’ve made a payment, you may determine that it makes more financial sense to refuse to make a payment for one more year rather than negotiate with the lender. If you are in financial difficulty and don’t expect to ever be able to pay off the debt, paying even a small amount means you’ll need to wait another seven years after making the small payment before you’ll be legally protected from paying back the debt.

Not all debt is time-barred; student loans backed or issued by the government have no statute of limitations. Anything you borrow under any of the loan programs that qualify in this category can never be ignored. The lenders are often willing to negotiate the terms in order to help you make payments you can afford, but these students loans are, for the most part, legally stuck with borrowers until the lenders are satisfied.

A few questions for discussion:

Do you think it’s right that borrowers can avoid agreements by patiently waiting for the statute of limitations to pass?
Have you ever been sued for debt you didn’t need to legally pay back?
Have you inadvertently restarted the clock by paying a small amount to a lender when it might have been better to wait?
Are you dealing with the credit consequences of letting a debt expire?

Note: I am not a lawyer, and nothing written on Consumerism Commentary constitutes legal advice. Always check with an attorney before making any decisions regarding the law.

Photo: Dave Stokes
Federal Trade Commission

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The Role of Money in Choosing a Relationship

This article was written by Flexo in Family and Life, Featured. 17 comments.

Do people have any kind of control over whom they fall in love with? Perhaps Cupid’s arrow strikes randomly, and there is no choice but to obey the heart — or chemicals in the brain — or sexual urges. But once that initial response has subsided, if you and your partner are headed for a life-long or major long-term relationship, there should be some discussion about money.

What role does that discussion have in determining the path of your relationship?

Relationships couple A recent study explains that opposites don’t attract in relationships. If you’ve ever looked at relationships where each member of the couple is on a different side of a money-related philosophy, you’ve probably suspected this to be the case. A habitual spender in debt and a frugal saver could have a relationship full of conflict; or, if to avoid conflict money is never part of a conversation, the financial damage could be worse in the future.

Avoidance of tough discussions about money, deliberately hiding financial problems, and outright lying about a financial situation could be more damaging than the financial problems alone. When everything is out in the open, and the couple is fully aware of their individual finances, would a difference in philosophy be enough to curtain the relationship before it progressed to a more serious state?

Ginger, who wrote a guest article for Consumerism Commentary, argued that smart women should marry for money. Although the article was misunderstood by many readers, she was not saying that women should marry for quantity of money, but for their approach to money. A smart, independent woman shouldn’t need to take care of a husband as if she were his mother. The same may be true for men, though traditional sex roles tend to make the man-supporting-woman paradigm more acceptable.

There is more that goes into a successful relationship that being financially compatible. Differences in religion, social issues, values, and goals are important to address. This is a financial website, though, and readers are generally focused on their thoughts surrounding money. In planning to move a relationship forward, how important is a compatible philosophy of money when compared to other matters that define compatibility? Would you be willing to accept a difference in opinion about a divisive political issue before you accept someone who doesn’t share the same financial values? Or do you feel that you might be able to sway your partner’s approach to money more easily than changing other philosophical differences?

I’m interested in hearing opinions from every reader. What was or should be the role of money in choosing a relationship? Leave your comments below.

Photo: Dragunsk
Wired

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The Best Cash Back Credit Cards, February 2012

This article was written by Flexo in Credit. 121 comments.

Cash back credit cards can help consumers practice responsible spending while earning a little extra for their efforts when used properly. It wasn’t long ago that the best cash back credit cards were offering rewards as high as 5% for all purchases, but that is unfortunately no longer the case.

Today’s cash back credit cards are all similar in nature, generally offering 1% cash back on all purchases. However, if you look hard enough, you’ll find a number of credit cards with higher cash rebates than just 1%. This article lists the best cash back credit cards you can find today, and I update the article when there is new information to share. Along with a brief description of each of these best cards, I have included the cash back percentages and any tiers or restrictions, so there are no surprises if your cash back credit card isn’t earning as much as you first thought. Keep in mind that in order to make credit card with rewards program worthwhile, you must avoid interest charges and late fees by paying your bill on time and in full every single month.

Editor’s choice

Chase Freedom® Visa – $200 Bonus Cash Back. The Chase Freedom Visa – $200 Bonus Cash Back offers a standard 1% cash back on all purchases, as well as the opportunity to earn 5% cash back on select purchases throughout the year, subject to a maximum. Every three months, the categories in which you can earn 5% cash back change, so for example January through March could be gas stations and Amazon.com, April through June might be grocery stores and movie theaters, July through September could be gas stations and restaurants while October through December could be hotels, airlines, Best Buy and Kohl’s. In order to qualify for the 5% cash back, you must have an account in good standing and follow the terms and conditions set forth by Chase. Categories will be announced to cardholders before they happen, so look out for updates from Chase.

The Chase Freedom® Visa – $200 Bonus Cash Back also offers up to an additional 10% cash back (up to 11% total cash back) on purchases made at select merchants when you shop online through the Chase website. The card also carries no annual fee. To qualify for the $200 cash back, you must spend only $500 during the first three months, making it the easy choice for best cash back credit card.

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She Spends Less Than She Earns: Zooey Deschanel

by Flexo

It’s not often that a young, female star of music, movie, and television can avoid financial scrutiny. Tales of financial woe tend to be much juicier, anyway. It’s not difficult to remember the Britney Spears train wreck. She couldn’t handle earning more than $700,000 a month. At least her antics kept her in the news. ... Continue reading this article…

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The Lonesome, Pet-Free Life

by Flexo

For almost as long as I’ve been living without a human roommate, I’ve enjoyed the company of my cat, Rupert. I adopted Rupert from my friend who determined his newborn daughter was allergic to cats. He had already owned Rupert for a long time, and I knew I’d be the cat’s new owner for the ... Continue reading this article…

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How Is Your Budget Doing These Days?

by Phil Cioppa

This is a guest article by Phil Cioppa of Arbol Financial Strategies, LLC. Phil has over 10 years of financial service experience and specializes in asset management strategies, insurance planning and taxation issues. A budget is an important part of any financial plan, and right now is the best time to take another look at ... Continue reading this article…

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Kodak Files for Bankruptcy

by Flexo

There were rumors and predictions for a while, but today it’s official. Kodak, the company that revolutionized film photography and adopted digital photography early, has declared bankruptcy. The company has been struggling since the 1980s; I’m surprised it survived this long without filing Chapter 11. That’s what the company chose to do today, with debt ... Continue reading this article…

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