We all get bombarded with credit card offers from institutions and banks. And if you notice more of them recently then you should knoe over 900 million credit card offers were mailed just in the first quarter of this year. Good news for those in riskier financial status is that more banks and institutions are willing to extend credit to riskier borrowers however, not with very favorable terms, at least not as favorable as those who are credit worthy. And if you are getting a lot of credit offers then it means that you are in better credit rating usually higher than 725 credit rating and therefore it raises the credit eligibility and number of offers extended. One big difference in the offers is the lack of addon products and offers such as credit monitoring.
In the past most institutions did offer variety of addon offers such identity protection, charging customers monthly or annual membership fees. Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is protecting the consumers by restricting these type of offers for example Bank of America is no longer selling the identity-theft or debt cancellation products. Debt cancellation products basically paid credit card bills when you lost a job and identity theft products monitored your credit reports for suspicious activities and alerted you in time to avoid major damage. In fact there was a settlement of over $700 million to resolve the allegation that this products were unfairly marketed to consumers. Some offers are stills available and marketed such as balance transfers.
Most banks still offer 0% balance transfers to new credit card holders but while the 0% seems like a great offer beware of the transfer charges which could run as high as 3% and could add up to a lot. But shop around and make sure the bank you are planning to transfer your balance offers you a reasonable deal.
The convenience checks are the other offers that are still around. They have been offered for many years and frankly not the best offer for consumers but many still fall for them. There is usually a fee involved for using these checks plus usually the interest rate is higher than your credit card rate, be very careful when you decide to use these checks and make sure to investigate them thoroughly, they are definitely like your regular bank checks! You might still get the preselected credit card offers, these are usually the offers that you get when they have already checked your credit rating and have extended an offer but there is no guarantee that upon your acceptance you will get the exact offer.
Another offer to look out for is cards with annual membership or lack off, there are of course cards that do not charge annual memberships and also have lots of perks and advantages for example Capital One QuickSilver card which offers 1.5% cash back, but there are other cards with fees that also provide other advantages. American Express Delta Platinum or Gold card for example is free for the first year and provides you with miles and free first bag when traveling on Delta. And speaking of cashback cards for years Discover made the cash back a popular offer. Today there are other banks and cards that do offer cash back and similar offers. Discover on the other hand is now providing you your credit score when you log into your account which is another advantage for consumers who want to monitor they credit with having to pay extra fees for credit monitoring.
