Some of the credit card offers we’ve told you about in recent months have gotten better.

Easier-to-earn rewards, bigger rewards, more time to apply.

These are some of the new features you can expect to find with these credit card offers.

Here’s what’s new:

It’s now easier to earn the $200 cash-back offer for opening a Chase Freedom Visa credit card.

Instead of earning the full reward after spending $1,500 in the first six months, as we told you last week, Chase now will give you the cash-back bonus after you spend $500 in purchases during the first three months.

This new offer, however, does come with a higher purchase annual-percentage rate than the previous offer.

You’ll be charged a variable 15.99% APR to 22.99% APR (prime rate plus 12.74% to 19.74%).

Chase also has boosted its offer on its line of Ink small business cards.

T

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Credit card companies often manage to combine general ineptness with being brilliant con artists, but an email we received today from a reader takes their idiot genius to a whole new level. Like the best comedy, it made me laugh at the same time as shaking my head at the sheer lunacy involved. Essentially, his credit card company hiked his limit without asking him and then wouldn’t reduce it without doing a salary check. At the risk of sounding like Richard Littlejohn you really could not make this up Email from JH: Recently I received revised terms from my credit card bank saying: ‘If we decide to increase your credit card limit we will give at least 30 days notice in writing unless you have specifically asked us for the increase.’ I didn’t request an increase but have now received a letter saying ‘Your credit limit has been increased from … to …  Ho Read more…

Although almost everyone has some type of debt, whether it be their mortgage, student loans or simple things on their credit card, it can wear us down.  Debt affects millions of us each year, and can have many negative affects on us.  There are many reasons to keep your nose clean of debt, need to hear some reasons why?

3 Ways Credit Card Debt Can Hurt You:

1. Credit card debt can really take a beating on your health.  When we have debt, we also have stress, that annoyance in the back of our mind, and it’s something we think about until it’s gone for good.  Debt is just like losing weight,  it won’t go away unless you take action.
2. Not only can it start to harm your health after awhile, but it can also ruin your credit score.  The more debt you take on, the lower your credit score will usually be.  This can be bad if you’re looking to take out a loan in the near future.  People with bad credit scores often get denied loans, and if they don’t they will suffer from higher interest rates.
3. In life you need discipline for many things.  We want to make sure that one day we can retire, and be financially free.  Although, if we’re always carrying around balances on our credit card, we will never be able to live life the way we want to.  We will know that in the back of our mind we’re not ok financially!

As you can see, debt can hurt you in a number of ways.  Between being affected emotionally, financially, and having it hurt your credit score, you will see that debt will take it’s toll on you eventually.  So, take the first step into getting help.  Create a budget, get motivated and have discipline to help yourself.  You are the only one that can get you where you want to be.

Public Savings Bank has one of the best deals in the country on secured credit cards.

Its Classic Secured Visa Card has a one-time application fee of $75, and that’s pretty much it.

There’s no annual fee and if you pay your balance in full every month (there’s a 25-day grace period) the card will cost you nothing more.

With some heavily promoted secured credit cards charging outrageous maintenance and processing fees, signing up with Public Savings can literally save you hundreds of dollars a year.

Secured credit cards require you to pay first and charge later. They’re designed for consumers with little or no credit history — or a terrible credit history — who can’t qualify for a standard credit card.

With Public Savings Bank’s card, you can deposit anywhere from $300 to $1,500, and that becomes your credit limit.

It remains on deposit at the bank, which is based in Huntington Valley, Pa., unless you default and it must be tapped to pay your bill.

There’s

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As you may or may not be aware – today, February 22, 2010, is the first day in which President Obama’s new credit card reform became active. During the past nine months of the run-up to this new law, credit card companies have been taking full advantage of their freedom. They were jacking up interest rates across the board (one card even carried any APY of 80%). They created new fees and cut credit lines from even the most established borrowers and they even closed down millions of accounts. But is the new law really going to change the way in which credit card companies do business for the better? A recent article on Yahoo Finance suggests new implementations (as well as old credit card tricks) made by the major credit card issuers may begin to become more prevelant as this new law sinks in…

Major Adjustments Made by Credit Card Issuers to Counter New Law:

(Further Reading @ Yahoo Finance)

1) Resurrected annual fees – Annual fees, common until about 10 years ago, have made a comeback. Dur

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A loyal reader of MonitorBankRates.com alerted us to this deal.

Discover Bank is offering a $75 cash back bonus on their Discover More Credit Card. To receive the bonus you have to make $599 in credit card purchases within the first three months of being approved for the credit card.

Looking for the best credit card rates? Search our credit card rate tables to find the best card for your needs. Search Credit Cards

This offer is good until January 20, 2010, so you have to apply for the card before then. Once you have made $599 in purchases, the $75 credit card bonus will be applied to your credit card account within eight weeks.

There is also a 0% credit card rate introductory offer for purchases until July 2010 and a 0% balance transfer offer until November 2010.  The balance transfer fee under this offer is 4%. On

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0% APR for 9 months with CitiBank credit card

December 9th, 2009 Posted in Credit Cards

Below is a fairly nice credit card deal offered by CitiBank.

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Getting a student credit card is going to be harder starting in February 2010 thanks to the credit card reform bill that was passed this summer.

The new legislation prohibits credit card issuers or banks from issuing credit cards to anyone under 21 unless they have an adult co-signer or proof that they can cover the monthly credit card payments.

The changes are actually a good thing for young adults who probably haven’t yet learned how to manage credit wisely.

Looking for a Student Credit Card? Use our Credit Card Search Engine to find Student Credit Cards: Student Credit Cards

Sallie Mae, the company that provides federal and private student loans for undergraduate and graduate students, did a study that found 84% of undergraduates have one credit card and 50% carry four or more credit cards. Youn

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