Credit Cards For Less Than Perfect Credit

**Today’s guest post is contributed by Michael, chief editor of DoughRoller.net, which helps consumers find the best online banks available today.**

In order to open a line of consumer credit, you must be old enough to enter into a legal agreement with the card issuer. In other words, minors cannot be a primary account holder on any credit card. But, did you know that there is no national minimum for the age of a card-carrying authorized user? These minimums are set by individual card issuers, so they vary across the industry and different companies set different minimums.

Parents often provide their children with a credit card for emergencies by adding a teen’s name to their credit account in case the teen needs to make emergency transactions. Man

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Recently a huge arrangement involving selling of names and addresses of students and former students to credit card companies – in exchange for big financial kickbacks – came to light. What surprised everyone is that it is not criminal hackers doing the selling, but it is the prestigious schools themselves.

What it means is that if a child of yours is going to one of the nation’s institutions of higher learning – including some of the most elite colleges and universities in the country – that educational institution may be surreptitiously selling private information about them to credit card companies. The same goes for college alumni, whose names also get traded for cash.

T

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Q: What is the statute of limitations in Utah for credit card debt lawsuits? Is that a written contract or a promissory note type? Which stature I should look at? I owe $2,000 in credit card debt for quite some time and have a feeling, the statute of limitations is about to expire.

A: To my best judgement, credit card debt in the state of Utah falls under Open Account type allowing 4 years for the creditors to act. Note that Utah law explicitly states that a written acknowledgement signed by the debtor revives the statute of limitations.

Q: I am going back to school and moving in with my parents. I am also selling my condo in downtown Chicago to pay off credit card debt and live on. I owe around $25,000 to various credit card issuers and to my relief, settled for $11,000 altogether. So the question is, if a credit card issuer finds out that I have money after the sale, can it come after the full amount that I owe? I am worried about Amalgamated Bank of Chicago since it is the one that also holds the mortgage.

A: As long as you have everything in writing, all credit card debt relief agreements with every credit card issuer / bank, you should be fine.

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Despite very high unemployment and plummeting home values, credit card delinquencies fell to an 8-year low in the first quarter of 2010, that is according to the American Bankers Association. And for the first time since 2002, the number of credit card accounts that were past due by 30 days or more, were less than 4% of the total number of bank accounts.

ABA Chief Economist James Chessen suggests this is happening because consumers are doing a much better job managing their finances, spending and borrowing less. We think that the real reason behind the nice numbers is the mere fact that the number of strategic defaulters has increased to the point it became really noticeable.

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We all know by now – after feeling the negative impact of the recession, the credit crunch, and the high rates of unemployment – that it pays to be smart about how we use credit and manage our levels of debt. Right before the worst of the global recession and credit crisis hit, for example, the average American consumer was carrying such a large burden of debt that he or she was actually earning less each month that was being spent.

You cannot continue to balance your finances if you are spending more than a dollar for every dollar you bring home from work, but that is exactly what millions of Americans were doing. That

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