by Bill Hardekopf New holiday spending surveys are providing data that shows consumers plan to cut their holiday spending and reduce their usage of credit cards. Credit card delinquency rates are up again, showing consumers are still under financial stress. Many cardholders are still reeling from large...

by Bill Hardekopf The September performance numbers from credit card issuers show the economic recovery may not happen as quickly as politicians are predicting. The delinquency rates, the percentage of accounts where payments are overdue by at least one month, have increased for five of the six top credit...

...but am climbing back on. Well, I've been trying to accomplish a couple of goals in these last few months -- one was not to incur any more consumer debt, and the other was to get some stuff fixed around my house. It turns out that I over did it on the latter, leading me to fail at the former. I...

contributed by Bill Hardekopf, LowCards.com Millions of students will go to college in the next few weeks, making this the perfect time for parents to talk to their son or daughter about the correct usage of credit cards and the dangers of debt. But it is also the last full semester before the Credit...

Hi Everybody, Credit cards are toxic when they get the better of us. I speak from experience. At one time, I had about 14 different credit, dept. store, and gas cards with a balance of several thousand dollars. Now, I am debt free and I'm coaching people to avoid and get out of credit card debt....

When I was young, one of the things that was most likely to cause a fight was when someone changed the rules in the middle of the game. Generally someone else was a victim of the new rule and wasn't too happy about it. Fortunately, it was just childish stuff. Even if there was a fight, everyone would...

Use every spare dime and dollar that you can to get rid of the Old Navy card as soon as possible, then use that monthly payment to agressively pay down the other card. You'll be surprised at how fast it will disappear if you hunker down and get it paid off. Then like Walt said, put it away and don't...

Two weeks ago I received a letter in the mail from Macy's credit department. I am not sure how it happened but the sales clerk started a new credit app for me. they did not issue the card stating that I already had one, so far so good. But they also were opening a regular visa/mc.Not good, I am not...

If you Google "attention deficit disorder" you'll get 3,150,000 returns. Leading the pack is the Attention Deficit Disorder Association . As near as I can tell, it was about 1980 when doctors first started talking about people who had "attention deficit disorder". Move forward...

Heard an interesting phrase at a conference I was attending. It came from Tom Evans, President and CEO of Bankrate. He said that "money is no longer a spectator sport" and I think that he's right. When we bought our first home the choices in mortgages were pretty simple. Unless you were...