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The leader of the free world has a lot on his mind, and now we know that “credit card getting declined” is one of the items he’s worried about. On July 10, 2014, President Obama pulled out his card to pay a bill of over $300 at a popular barbecue joint in Austin, Texas. Before he handed it over to the cashier, he asked an aide if the card would work.
Luckily, President Obama was able to swipe successfully. But if you’ve ever wondered what you should do if your card gets declined, the Nerds have a few tips to share. If you happen to know President Obama, be sure to pass them along!
Trying to get through the checkout line at the drug store or fill up your tank, only to find that your credit card is declined? In the heat of the moment, it’s best to just stay calm and use your backup credit card. Swiping a malfunctioning card again and again isn’t going to make it work, and it’s best not to keep others in line waiting.
If you don’t usually carry a backup credit card, it’s time to consider getting one. There are lots of reasons your card could get declined, so it’s best to err on the side of caution and stash extra plastic in your wallet.
The Nerds recommend a rewards credit card with no annual fee as a backup. It doesn’t make sense to pay an annual fee on a card you rarely use, and taking advantage of the opportunity to rack up points or cash back on every purchases is always a smart move.
Now that you’ve made it past the payment terminal and have a moment to think, it’s time to brainstorm some reasons for why your card was declined. Before placing a call to your issuer’s customer service line, see if you can come up with the answer on your own. Here are some questions to ask yourself:
If the answers to the questions above don’t yield an obvious reason why your card was declined, it’s time to get in touch with your credit card company. Call its customer service number (usually listed on the back of your card) and clearly explain the situation, including the merchant you were trying to use your card at when it was declined.
There’s probably a simple explanation; for example, if you were trying to buy something online with an international retailer when your card got declined, your issuer might have flagged the purchase as suspicious and blocked it. Or there might be a “hold” on your card from a hotel stay or rental car reservation.
Whatever the case may be, your credit card company will help you straighten it out. If they can’t restore your plastic to good working order, request a replacement. They will probably be happy to oblige!
The bottom line: A declined credit card is cause for concern, but don’t get too anxious. You’ll likely get to the bottom of the problem on your own. If not, call your credit card company for help. As always, be sure to check in with the Nerds often for more helpful tips!
Credit card declined image via Shutterstock
To automate or not to automate, that is the credit card bill paying question. The Nerds are big fans of automating bill pay, but there are benefits and drawbacks to everything. Here’s why you may or may not want to automate your credit card payments.
Many of us pay the majority of our bills online by inputting bank or credit card information on our billing companies’ websites. There are two ways to initiate this payment: manual and automatic. With manual payments, you’ll log on each month on or before your due date to schedule a payment. With automatic payments, you’ll set up a recurring payment once, and your balance due will be automatically withdrawn from your bank account on the due date each month. Which is better? It depends on your financial situation.
The biggest benefit of automation is the simplicity it provides to your finances. Automating your bill payments takes much less time and energy than manually paying them each month. It ensures you won’t miss a payment because it comes out of your account automatically and you don’t have to remember an entire calendar of due dates.
Most people can benefit from automating their bill pay. It makes things simpler and helps avoid late payments and the fees associated with them. However, automation has a dark side, too.
There are a few reasons why you may not want to automate your bill pay. For starters, if you have a recent history of checking account overdrafts, you may not be ready for automatic bill pay, yet. For automation to be successful, the money has to be available in your account. Otherwise, you’ll be charged late-payment and returned-check fees, and may have the delinquent payment reported to the credit agencies. Only automate payments if you know the money will be in your account each month.
Those with credit card debt may want to automate most bill payments, but not credit card payments. Why? It’s really easy to automate only the minimum payment instead of paying down your credit card debt aggressively, costing you hundreds or thousands of dollars in interest. It’s a good idea to keep your credit card payments manual if you’re unable to pay off the entirety of the balance each month, so you can pay it down as quickly as possible.
One other potential issue with automation: complacency. When bills are being directly withdrawn from your checking account, you may neglect to look over them first. If your billing companies never make a mistake, this isn’t a problem. However, for those of us who aren’t residents of Neverland or Narnia, it’s important to look over monthly bills to ensure all charges are correct. It’s fine to automate bills, but make sure you have the statement sent to your email for a monthly review.
Automate your bills if you don’t have issues with overdrafting. Always look over your monthly statements to identify and rectify mistakes and consider paying your credit card bills manually unless you can automate the payment of the entire balance each month. If you have a recent history of account overdrafting, keep track of your due dates and pay bills manually. Also, try to avoid overdrafting in the future by keeping a cash buffer in your checking account.
Woman paying with credit card online image via Shutterstock
The foster care system in the United States is a double-edged sword. There are few things more altruistic than a loving family taking in a child for any period of time, and giving that child love and care and a safe place to live. Unfortunately, the foster system is understaffed and there are those for whom being a foster parent is merely an invitation to exploit an already exploited child.
One of the ways this exploitation can occur is through the foster child’s own credit history. There is, of course, the possibility of outright identity theft. Foster parents are often given lots of information concerning their charge. Most minors, foster and otherwise, have never even accessed their credit score. They likely do not even have a credit history. Opening credit accounts in that child’s name and using them illicitly can harm the child’s credit history for years.
While the effectiveness of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has been a mixed-bag since inception, sometimes creating more harm than good, it is doing good in encouraging child welfare agencies to pro-actively assist foster children with obtaining and interpreting their credit reports.
The CFPB has issued action letters to welfare agencies to address these issues. First comes a reminder that the Child and Family Services Improvement and Innovation Act requires agencies to check the credit reports of those over 16 on an annual basis. The child’s age is a big factor here because one cannot legally enter into a contract for credit as a minor. Thus, if any accounts have been opened, then it’s a sure sign someone has tampered with that child’s credit. The good news is that the culprit is likely to have been a previous foster parent, and they can be tracked down for criminal charges.
The same goes, more or less, if they are under 18. A foster kid is highly unlikely to have any credit accounts, because they are still a minor under 18. The only reason they might have an account is if they were made an authorized user, and it’s unlikely a foster parent would do that.
Guidance also includes advice from the Nerds about how to dispute credit reporting errors, and about the importance of establishing, maintaining, and protecting one’s credit.
Ultimately, however, this matter shows the limitations of government. The CFPB isn’t actually doing anything, aside from sending action letters.
Instead, these matters will fall to case workers. They are often overwhelmed as it is, and their agency supervisors have a lot on their plate, as well. Welfare agencies need to partner with entrepreneurs to prioritize and innovate preventative measures, and make sure case workers stay on top of them. That’s the best way to protect the most vulnerable among us.
Family image via Shutterstock
Dealing with debt on multiple credit cards is stressful, which is why many people consider consolidating their several debts into one. There are a lot of benefits to this move, including the potential to give your credit score a boost.
If you’re not sure how consolidating your credit card debt will affect your score, take a look at the details below – the Nerds will tell you everything you need to know!
Rolling multiple credit card debts into a single consolidation loan has a lot of important benefits. Before discussing how it could help your credit score, let’s review the non-credit perks of consolidating credit card debt.
First and foremost, consolidation could save you big bucks on interest payments. As of July 2014, the average credit card interest rate is hovering around 15%. If you’re carrying debt on several cards with this interest rate, you might be shelling out hundreds every month in interest. By consolidating with a personal loan or 0% card, you’ll cut your finance charges dramatically. This savings can be reinvested in your debt payoff to eliminate your balance faster.
Another advantage to consolidation is that you’re moving from multiple monthly debt payments down to just one. This will help simplify your financial life and make it easier to plan your budget.
In addition to the advantages described above, consolidating your credit card debt could also help your credit score. If you choose to consolidate with a personal loan, you’ll likely see a jump in your score within a few months.
This is because, in doing so, you’re quickly reducing your credit utilization ratio. Your credit utilization ratio is the amount you owe on your credit cards relative to the total amount of credit you have available. It heavily influences a whopping 30% of your credit score, and if you have several maxed-out cards, yours is probably sky-high.
But keep in mind that only the balances on revolving lines of credit are factored into your credit utilization ratio; by moving your credit card debt onto an installment loan (the personal loan), you’re shifting it in such a way that it will have a minimal impact on your credit. As a result, your score will likely improve.
If you choose to consolidate with a 0% card, the picture is a little more complicated. On the one hand, opening the 0% card will increase your available credit, which will help your utilization ratio. Plus, you’ll pay off several cards with big balances as part of the consolidation. But on the other hand, you’re probably going to end up carrying a very high balance on the 0% card, which is not ideal. In a perfect world, you shouldn’t be using more than 30% of your available credit on any card at any point in time.
All this is to say that consolidating with a 0% card might help your credit score somewhat, but you’ll probably see bigger gains by opting for a personal loan.
Nerd note: Remember that any time you obtain new credit your credit score will lose a few points temporarily. This means that consolidating your credit card debt with either a personal loan or a 0% card will cause a short-term dip. However, the long-term gains you’ll see in interest savings and your credit score make this move worthwhile for most people.
Although consolidating your credit card debt is advantageous in a lot of ways, there are a few questions to ask yourself before moving forward:
The bottom line: Among its other benefits, consolidating your credit card debt has the potential to help your credit score. Just be sure you’ve considered all the Nerds’ points before moving forward with consolidation.
Credit card debt stress image via Shutterstock
There are many reasons why people use credit cards, whether at big box stores or at independent retailers. For some, it is strictly a matter of convenience. Others want the cash back. Others want the rewards. Others need to manage cash flow. Whether shopping at Home Depot of Bob’s Independent Retailer Hardware, those reasons don’t change.
Yet, here we are in July, which is Independent Retailer Month. It’s a good time to review what independent retailers experience when you use credit cards, to see if you should change your charging behavior in deference to the independent retailer.
Independent retailers usually must operate on thinner margins (lower profits) than large competitors with huge national footprints. They don’t have the economies of scale that come with massive operations. Consequently, whether on the revenue or expense side of the profit and loss statement, the dollars have a greater impact on the bottom line.
Every time someone makes a charge on a credit card, the issuer (Visa, MasterCard) charges a fee to the merchant for processing the transaction. It can vary, but it’s usually around 3% of the total transaction, although American Express tends to charge more.
That’s 3 cents or more for every dollar that the merchant does not see. That means higher expenses. That means less profit.
How much does this matter to you? Do you want to support Bob’s Independent Retailer Hardware instead of Home Depot? If so, you might want to consider paying in cash. Don’t fool yourself, though. The pennies you save Bob won’t make any difference. It will take a lot of Bob’s customers using cash on a regular basis to really have any impact.
Chances are, Bob takes credit cards because his customers want him to, for all the reasons explained above. He’ll appreciate the gesture, but ultimately, that’s all it is likely to be.
When it come to tipping service folks, it generally doesn’t matter whether you tip with cash or credit as far as what your actual service provider takes home. Tips are usually pooled and divided.
However, this is a circumstance where tipping in cash may make a substantive difference to the service folks. If you tip with credit, just adding it to the total bill, then the tip is subject to those processing fees. Service people like waiters generally earn minimum wage or a bit higher, so tips make a real difference. Every penny literally does count here.
It’s not like a restaurant owner is necessarily making a mint, but his revenue will be affected less by credit card fees than waiters take-home pay will. It will vary based on the business.
But let’s say you have a restaurant taking in $5,000 per day in revenue, which is pretty darn high. If tips come to a total of $1,000, and there’s a 4% average processing fee taken from it, there’s $960 left to split among, say, six other employees. That’s about $6 per person per day lost to fees, or $30 per week, or $1,500 per year.
Now you have to decide about giving up the rewards or cash back on that 15-20% tip. Once again, it’s strictly a matter of personal preference. If you feel your rewards are too valuable to give up, then charge. If you feel generous, pay cash. Of course, you can also alternate.
The local vs. big box debate is really a matter of personal preference. For some, it’s a matter of great import. For others, it’s not. Only you can decide how you want to pay. Just remember that your credit score depends on using credit responsibly. If you went to all this trouble to get and maintain good credit, then you have to ask why you would always want to pay in cash.
Independent retailer image via Shutterstock
Water consumption is a serious issue in California. Check out this NerdWallet chart about water consumption in the home. Remember folks: If it’s yellow, let it mellow.
Check out other interesting data visualizations here.