Credit Card Report
Financial News Made Easy

Many consumers habitually spend more than they have. Meanwhile, fewer people are paying their credit cards bills on time. The percentage of people delinquent on their credit cards is the highest it’s been in three years, according to one report. Here’s how to find out if your credit card spending habits are out of control.

Faced with mounting account delinquencies, major U.S. banks are penalizing credit-card customers late on payments by hiking their accounts to maximum default interest rates of 30% and more — even those with good credit records.

Some credit card issuers apparently raise rates without notice, even when you pay on time.

The malaise in the mortgage market is starting to spread to credit-card and auto loans in what one analyst has dubbed consumer-credit “contagion.” It’s an ominous warning signal for the economy.

In the past two months more than 125 separate credit card fees and rates have been increased, according to financial information provider Moneyfacts.co.uk, with those customers making cash withdrawals on credit cards being hit the hardest.

In a facts round-up piece titled, House of Cards, Mother Jones confronts its readers with some numbers that illustrate America’s credit card crisis.

Credit card APRs remained locked in place this week, as some analysts predicted that the Federal Reserve will leave interest rates alone for the time being.

Now that more and more vending machines are accepting credit cards, your it is easier to get nickled-and-dimed into debt.

If your credit card spending is out of control, you may be tempted to cancel some of your cards so that you can elevate your score. But simply cutting up the card the old-fashioned way, rather than canceling it, may be the better way to go.

After getting socked with a late fee and finance charge on my Kohl’s account in May, I called to plead my case. How could a $45.08 pair of sneakers result in a $70.58 charge? O.K., I was two days late. Still, the $25 late fee and 50? finance charge came to a whopping annualized penalty rate of more than 21,000%. A local loan shark would have cut me a better deal. The Kohl’s rep’s response: It’s perfectly legal, and everybody does it.