“What?! $3.37 a gallon for the CHEAP stuff?!” If that sounds familiar, you’re not alone. Gas prices are climbing higher and higher and there is no end in sight. Since we need it to get us where we’re going (most of us anyway), it only makes sense that we start looking for ways to save on gas or gain something more than a full tank each time we fill up. Gas credit cards might be the answer.

Gas credit cards are convenient of course, who doesn’t like the ease of swiping the card right at the pump, filling up and taking off? Especially moms with young children in car seats – why take them out just to run inside and pay for it when you can pay right at the pump and keep them in their car seats?

Having a gas credit card is also a great way to keep better records on what you’re spending on gas. This is particularly important for businesses which are required to maintain data involving such costs for their income taxes.

Not only are the cards convenient, but they’re handy in emergency situations when traveling away from home, if you’re low on cash you at least know you will be able to keep your vehicle full of gas to get you where you’re going. Additionally, they give you additional rewards and offers that help make the expense of gasoline a little less cringe-inducing since you know you’re getting something more than a tank of gas out of the purchases.

• Cash back programs on them help you get back a percentage of what you put into your tank.
• Get back on the road faster and easier when you can swipe the card at the pump.

Because of the continuous increases in gas prices, many credit card issuers are offering gas-specific credit cards. Having decent credit makes it easier to apply and gain approval for a gas credit card, but there are many cards offered to people with average and even below average credit scores, too- although the lower your credit score the more likely it is that you will need to pay an annual fee.

These sometimes are specific only to gas purchases; while others allow you to use them as a regular credit card and shop elsewhere. You may earn higher cash back percentages or better rewards on purchases made on gasoline and car maintenance, but a credit card with gas rewards may be more convenient if you are someone who likes to keep just a single credit card in their wallet- rather than several cards each aimed towards specific types of purchases.

Typical gas rewards programs are offering about 5 or 6% of your gasoline purchases back, in the form of cash back applied to your card statement, or checks sent through the mail. If you’re considering a new car purchase in the near future, you might want to look into them that also offer car lease or purchase rewards programs.

If you want your gasoline credit card to benefit you, rather than cause you more financial problems than the ever-rising costs of fueling up, you need to be extremely careful with the card. Don’t fuel up all month long and forget that you eventually have to pay for that fuel! Careful budgeting is the key to success when you decide to make your monthly expenses on a credit card. Paying your balance in full each month is the best way to be sure you are going to benefit from the rewards program rather than cost yourself additional money in finance charges, interest, and late fees.

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With the holiday shopping extravaganza just around the corner it is well advised to look at your finances to properly budget for the event. You should not be dipping into your rainy-day fund for this. Christmas comes every year; it’s not an emergency. Figure out what you can spend and spend less than that.

Last year more than 30 percent of consumers paid for holiday gifts with a credit card according to the National Retail Federation. For those with the discipline to control their debts, they offer security, rewards and money saving. If you are a responsible user, here are some available cards and advice that will keep on giving the whole year.

What’s the Deal?

On September 20, the NRF released its forecast for the upcoming 2007 holiday season, predicting that sales will rise 4.0 percent this year to $474.5 billion.

“Retailers are in for a somewhat challenging holiday season as consumers are faced with numerous economic obstacles,” said NRF Chief Economist Rosalind Wells. “With the weak housing market and current credit crunch, consumers will be forced to be more prudent with their holiday spending.”

According to NRF’s 2007 Holiday Consumer Intentions and Actions Survey, conducted by BIGresearch, U.S. consumers plan to spend an average of $816.69 on holiday-related shopping. In addition, these shoppers will spend an additional $106.67 on special “non-gift” purchases by taking advantage of promotions and discounts to treat themselves. This brings total planned holiday-related spending to $923.36, an increase of 3.7 percent from 2006.

We all know the enthusiasm and fun or misery that comes with Black Friday shopping. Many people kick off the holiday shopping season by scooping up great deals and ringing in the discounts. Whether you will be spending exactly what BIGresearch estimates consumers will spend this year, or you plan on spending more or less-in the end, how would a rebate check for up to 5 percent sound? That check would be for more than $45 for the survey household.

How does it work?

America witnessed the start of a revolution in the credit card industry when Discover Card was unveiled nationally during the 1986 Super Bowl. At the time, annual fees were common and cash rewards were unheard of. Discover Card set out to change that as a pioneer in offering cash rewards and no annual fee.

Today nearly every credit card issuer has a card available with a cash rebate program; some have a dozen. Cards can be as basic as 1 percent cash back on every purchase, to cards that target specific purchases made at supermarkets, drugstores, gas stations and even utilities like cell phones and cable to earn you even more cash back. A cash rebate is just what the name implies: cash back. Not miles, gift cards or buy something at discount in our special shop-actual cash back.

A new credit card takes time to process and mail out, but if you act quickly you can have a new card in your hand in time to take advantage of rebates for your holiday shopping.

As more and more of these cards have become available and more and more rebates are being given out, card issuers have become very good at making sure they don’t loose money on the deal. Many cards advertise high cash back rewards; some as high as 10%. But these rewards are only for a limited time, usually three to six months, or only for specific purchases. Then the rebate amount often becomes 1%. Read the fine print carefully; it is all laid out.

Who offers what?

One of the newest cards available is the Citibank Cash Returns Card. This card offers the greatest return for your holiday spending, however it is only for your holiday spending. The Cash Returns Card will give you 5 percent cash back on all your purchases for the first 3 months. Anything purchased after about Valentine’s Day will only earn 1 percent; get that gift early.

If you’re not just looking to score a deal for the holidays there are many other cards available for long-term earnings.

When driving around and eating out is more your lifestyle, the Citibank Professional Cash Card offers 3 percent cash back at restaurants and gas stations, and if you drive a rental car you can even get 3 percent back on that too. Plus, you’ll get 1 percent for all your other purchases.

A similar card is the Citibank Dividend Card. You will earn 2 percent on purchases made at supermarkets, drugstores, gas stations, convenience stores, utilities, and cable along with 1 percent on everything else.

Over at Capital One the newest cash rebate card, No Hassle Cash Rewards, is for 1 percent cash back. With this card the upfront rebate is lower but the imaginative addition to this card is that on Halloween every year you will receive a 25 percent bonus on your earnings. That’s not scary. If in the year you charged $20,000 you would have a $200 rebate. With the bonus you would then get an additional $50.

Discover Card, the originator of the cash back program, offers 5 percent cash back all the time on something and 1 percent on everything else. The program is called Get More and every three months the category for the 5 percent cash back changes. The categories include travel, home, gas, restaurants, movies and more.

Also changing your cash back categories is the Freedom Card from Chase. But these changes are done every month to your benefit and you don’t have to do a thing. There are 15 categories for spending and whichever 3 groups you spend the most money on in the month, those will be your 3 categories. So even if you spend more on gas, groceries, and dry cleaning one month, and at drugstores, on utilities and at the veterinarian the next-you’ll automatically earn 3 percent cash back in your top 3 spending categories. Everything else will earn you 1 percent.

American Express has a card available called Blue Cash that advertises up to 5 percent cash back. It is worth mentioning because a lot of people fall over its complex rebate tiers. To explain it simply and quickly, with this card you will earn 1 percent at supermarkets, gas stations and drugstores and .05 percent on all other purchases. Only after you have charged $6500 will you earn 5 percent at supermarkets, gas stations and drugstores. That calculator is reset every year.

One of the best cards for your everyday use and made even better if you drive a lot, is called Driver’s Edge from Citibank. It offers 3 percent cash back on gas, supermarket and drugstore purchases and 1 percent for everything else. A unique addition to this card ties into the cards name: Driver’s Edge. This card actually gives you a penny for every mile you drive. Anytime you have service work done, like an oil change, send a copy of the receipt with the odometer reading to Citibank and they credit your account for the miles. A penny may not seem like a lot, but when you drive 25,000 miles a year, that equals an extra 250 bucks in addition to the 3 percent you’re getting back on all that gas. In a few years that’ll pay for your new tires and a brake job.

Driver’s Edge is not an actual cash back card, but since it is one of the best cards available, it is worth mentioning. The rebates you earn can only be used for service maintenance on your car or the purchase or lease of a car. Even though you are limited to using the money for maintenance work-doesn’t the car always seem to need an oil change or something more?

The small print!

Should you sign up? Not without first understanding the difference between what is advertised and what is in the fine print. Secondly, credit cards and their issuers have gotten a lot of bad publicity because of people blaming their problems on them. The fact is companies are not at fault for the spending habits of their customers.

There has been a lot of attention paid to credit cards recently as debt estimates have been exaggerated, and some have gone so far as to call credit cards evil. They are dangerous, not evil. If you are a mature, responsible and educated person, there are many benefits to using credit cards that will be outlined in a coming article.

Thousands of people charge thousands of dollars a day and get cash back, free airline tickets, free hotel stays, free movies-all with the simple process of swiping a piece of plastic. Why are these people able to handle their credit properly and carefully and others not? It has nothing to do with the company or the card that they use; it has everything to do with the individual using it.

If you are not going to use them responsibly, be it as a way to pay for things with simple convenience, take the rewards and benefits cards offer, or as a strategic financial tool, then you shouldn’t use them.

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According to CardTrak, the typical American family had about $6,600 of credit card debt in 2007. That might sound pretty normal to you, but did you know that just by learning to use their credit cards more intelligently, those families could save up to $1,500 a year? To really see the benefits of intelligent card use, think of how that $1,500 could become $45,000 by retirement age – and much more if it was invested.

Yes, little things like interest and fees really add up over time. Fortunately for card holders, there are several ways to reduce the amount of money they throw away on interest each month.

First, try to negotiate a lower interest rate. Call your bank or card issuer and politely let them know that you’ve been offered a lower interest rate by one of their competitors (even if you haven’t). To be successful, stay jovial and polite. Be realistic about the interest rate you request. The average interest rate in America at the time of this writing is 12-15%. The higher your score, the lower the rate you can reasonably expect. Also, you’ll need to have a positive history with this card issuer that you can point to when asking for reduced rates. If you’ve been delinquent on payments, they won’t be as eager to set a lower rate for you. Remember, card companies make their money from the interest and fees you pay. If they think you are a credit risk, they will increase those fees to minimize their financial losses.

Next, prioritize your credit card payments. If you have two or more cards that you pay for each month, pay a higher amount to the card with the highest interest. You want to get that one paid off first, because it’s costing you the most money. Then pay the next-highest amount to the card with the second-highest interest rate, and so on. If you have a lot of outgoing payments, you should check with your bank or credit union to see if you qualify for a low-interest loan. With a loan, you can consolidate your payments into a single monthly payment with lower interest.

If you have a small amount of debt that you can pay off in six or twelve months, look into a 0% interest credit card. By transferring the debt to such a card, you can put all of your payments toward the principal balance, not toward interest. Just be aware that most 0% cards have an introductory period that lasts from three to fifteen months, with six months being the most common. After that period ends, you will be responsible for interest on your balance.

To plan for the future, take all the money you would have spent on credit card interest and put it in a savings account. When you’ve got enough, invest it in a mutual fund. Forget about it. Then, when you’re ready to stop working, you will have quite a chunk of change to fall back on. Who would have thought that interest payments could be managed in a way that would lead to a comfortable lifestyle in your later years?

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There is no real easy way to do this other than to pay someone outrageous fees to do it for you. What you can do is to do it the exact same way the expensive companies do, but saving all of that money that, well quite honestly you can’t afford or you wouldn’t be in this mess.

Cleaning up your credit takes time, understanding and most importantly patience. In order to start taking the steps to clean things up, let’s understand what makes up your credit report.

Quite simply, your credit report is a listing of all open forms of credit you have or have had over the past 7-10 years. This will include anything you have co-signed as well. That is something to really keep in mind. If you think co-signing helps put a friend, it may, but at a cost to your credit rating as it counts towards what you can ultimately be responsible for.

There are also three key credit reporting firms that can be researched when companies pull your credit. They are Equifax, Experian and TransUnion. They are three individual companies. This is important because they often have three different ratings, include different information from one to the other, and have to be negotiated with individually as well. Not all credit card companies report to all three agencies and not all companies request credit reports from all three agencies.

Your credit reporting listings will be comprised of some very important details. Such details as, when you opened your account, how much your total credit you have, how much is last reported that you owe, when and how often there have been delinquencies, what level of delinquency there was (30, 60, 90 days or more), and the current status of the account. All of these items factored together are what make up your credit score.

Since this is not the point of this article we will over simplify how your credit score is derived by example. If creditors have given you a high amount of credit it does help, especially if you are not currently utilizing a high percentage of the allowable credit line. If you have shown little or no delinquencies and if any they have been held to less than 30 days, this will keep your score high as well. Increasingly important these days is how long you have held accounts open and in good standing. An account that has been current for 3 or more years with a single 30 day delinquency will still be held more credible than an account less than a year with no delinquencies.

Now what to do is quite simple. Review each of your credit bureau reports. Cross off everything that is in good standing and is in no harm to your credit. Everything left at this point you are going to challenge.

The reason why you are to challenge everything is also quite simple. Each and every item that is challenged, the credit bureau has no choice but to forward the challenge to the respective company that provides or provided you credit. That company then has 30 days to respond. If they are unable to or simply fail to in the allotted time, the credit listing item is removed.

It is quite difficult to remove anything such as a bankruptcy or charge-off but you can sometime have comments added allowing all future viewers of your credit report to also see the comments. In most cases, you will simply be surprised as to what is inaccurate in your credit report or how easy it is to get many things removed.

Anything that does get responded to by the respective credit company is considered “verified” and will remain on your credit report. However, you don’t have to give up there. You may and should send a second notice, but this time including any information or evidence you have that a payment was made on time, etc. This will start the process again but providing a bit more information for the credit company to have to “verify” and dispute.

The process does take time. The process does take patience. However, what you will have at the end is an accurate credit report, a more consistent report amongst all three credit bureaus, and a feeling of empowerment that you are in control or your credit.

For more details on how to write a letter to the credit bureaus and where to send them, stay tuned for our next article detailing this information as well.

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You may have heard about 0% credit cards and wondered if they are for real or not. There are many different credit card offers out there, and of course when you see the 0% it seems like it would be the best option. But, when you sit and think about it you might wonder why one credit card would be 0% and the other would be 26%, what’s the catch?

Usually there is no real catch; you just have to look at the fine print. You never know what you are in for unless you read all the terms and conditions associated with the card.

0% Doesn’t Mean 0% Across the Board

While there are some legit 0% credit cards out there you need to look at the fine print before you simply assume that you can buy everything with no interest. Usually when you look at the fine print you will realize that the 0% applies to one aspect of credit card use. This isn’t to say that you shouldn’t take advantage; you just need to know where the 0% does and does not apply.

If you have some credit card balances that you would like to transfer than you may want to look for a 0% credit card. There are many credit cards out there that offer 0% balance transfers. Depending on how much you need to transfer this can save you a lot of money. Many people use these cards to do away with those high interest credit cards so that they can actually start making a dent in the amount of money that they owe instead of just paying off the interest each month.

Other people like the 0% credit cards that allow for them to make specific purchases that come with no interest. These may be purchases at specific stores or for specific products, but depending on what you purchase these credit card offers really can save you a lot of money. You’ll need to be sure to read all of the fine print on these cards to be sure that it is something that will save you as much money as you would hope.

There are other credit cards that have a 0% introductory rate. Often times this 0% is good for the first six months or a year that you have a card. This is a nice way to consolidate debt, make big purchases, pay for car or house repairs, or just buy things that you have been putting off because you didn’t want to pay interest. Many of these cards also offer a cash back program and rewards programs.

Before you choose any one of the 0% credit cards that you come across you should read through all of the features. If it is only 0% for a limited time what will the interest be later on? Do you need to pay off all of the items that you bought during the 0% time? These cards can save you a lot of money, but if you don’t understand all of the specifics they can also cost you a lot of money.

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