Archive for June, 2007

Credit Cards The Hitman In Your Wallet

Credit cards are subtle, they go about their business quietly without making a fuss but they have a secret agenda. They are the financial hitman, the wealth killer. The silent financial assassin in your wallet.

You probably wouldn’t know a hitman if you saw one. They are quiet, unassuming and appear quite ordinary. You won’t see the flash cars or wild drinking or the parties with loose women. They blend in with ordinary people and avoid bringing attention to themselves.

It is essential for a hitman to blend in and go unnoticed. Blending in with your surroundings and being accepted as normal is the way to avoid being found out for the killer you really are.

Doesn’t that sound like a credit card? Does it scream out at you? Shouting and bringing attention to itself? No, it quietly sits there in your wallet teasing you and challenging you to use it. It is very patient. It will wait for their moment to strike. Always ready, fine tuned for it’s purpose and eager for action. It sits there just waiting for the moment when it can pounce.

It may have been resting. Unused and unnoticed in your wallet but it is ready. While it may not appear to do anything all the support staff have constantly kept it primed and ready. The interest rates may have changed and charges and fees may have been added or altered. You may have been informed about changes to terms and conditions but do you read them? We have better things in life to do than to read Terms and Conditions don’t we?

Like all the best hitman the flexible plastic card in your wallet is just an ordinary part of life. You know it’s there and you consider it a friend. Who could imagine something so quiet and unassuming could be so dangerous?

So, come the day when you activate your credit card by buying that new tv it goes straight into action. No sooner than you leave the store the computers are humming. A purchase has been made. Your credit checks are updated, interest is calculated and profits are projected. The hitman is back in business.

You get your monthly statement but you can’t afford to pay it off this month so you just pay the minimum. Maybe next month you can clear the debt. Then the next month arrives but this month the car needs a service so you make the minimum payment again. The credit card hitman has got you by the throat.

So it goes on, month on month you make minimum payments. The credit card company loves you because you pay the minimum and they make the maximum amount of profits they can. You are making them rich clocking up interest charges every month for years before you finally clear the debt. Do they mind you paying the minimum payment? No way, they love you for it.

You credit card, the hitman in your wallet, has had another successful mission. A nice clean job with lots of profit for him.

Credit card debt is a wealth killer. Do you trust the plastic hitman in your wallet to be your friend?

One of the big benefits of the internet is that it is so quick to make comparisons between different but similar items. A lot of internet companies have jumped on this with price comparison sites and they can be very useful but it’s important to keep in mind that these price comparison sites are limited. They do NOT cover every product available so while they do seem to be very comprehensive they are not complete.

So, discovering that a site like Moneyfacts requires companies to pay £11,000 to be listed should not be too suprising but the suggestion that you get a comprehensive listing of available deals is just plain wrong.  Clearly a lot of companies might not consider they want to be a part of this.

There is a list of all available products that is maintained by the Financial Services Authority at  http://www.fsa.gov.uk/tables

If you are interested in Mortgages, ISA’s and other financial products this is a valuable comparison site.

Cleverdude Carnival Of Finance

The latest carnival of personal finance is now online at CleverDude.

Fans of the tv show “24″ will particularly enjoy this one as it is the theme of the carnival. It must be a lot of work to produce the carnival and checking the 89 entries must have been quite a task so big thanks to CleverDude for his work.

My highlights of the articles this week are…

If you have ever thought about growing your own food to save money there’s a nice little article about it on MakeYourNut about an absolute beginner starting to grow their own vegetables. Read it and enjoy the thrill of growing your own food.

What does your car say about you? Should you care? TheHappyRock suggests that we should worry less about appearances and worry more about what is really good for us. I agree.

AskMrCreditCard has some interesting thoughts on how much you need to retire. It’s more than you might think.

Finally, NoCreditNeeded gives some good advice about setting a budget.

Thanks again to CleverDude where you can see the other entries on the Carnival Of Finance 103

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