Quick Credit Cards

Lesbian sex, abortion, gay marriage and … credit card debt.

That mixed bag of hot-button topics is just a small sampling of what’s in Esquire’s “Survey of American Women,” released in the May 2010 issue. The just-for-fun study complied the results of about 10,000 women who took the men’s magazine survey online between Feb. 4 and March 3, 2010.

Most of the questions centered around relationships (If you knew you wouldn’t be caught, would you cheat?), sex (If you were or are a lesbian, what celebrity would you sleep with?) and plain old hawtness (Who’s the best looking man in America? Hint: See picture above.) But readers also got a small peek at the financial habits of today’s Esquire-reading women.

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What a week. This Wednesday, the U.S. stock market surged and hit major milestones it hasn’t reached in nearly 19 months. Those of us with investments were finally able to do a happy dance! Very appropriately, the cover of this week’s “Newsweek” issue says, “America’s Back!” It seems that things are finally on the upswing.

Meanwhile, this Thursday was probably the most dreaded day of the year: tax day. Most of us were scrambling to make sure our returns were filed and payments submitted before the clock struck midnight. I was actually quite happy on tax day for the past two years as I received a refund of around $2,000 each time.

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If you want to work your way to financial freedom, you have to start it right and settle all your unpaid balances in your credit card accounts. This can be difficult at first because credit card interest rates get in the way. Your debts increase because your unpaid balances earn interest every month. It makes it more difficult to finish payment, much more to save.

You cannot settle all your payments overnight but there are ways to negotiate for better terms with your bank so that they could lower your credit card interest rates and you will be able to settle your bills faster.

Of course, you also have to think of ways to cut down on your credit spending.

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The new Credit CARD Act went into effect on Monday, and while it stops a lot of bullying credit card companies have gotten away with for years, it doesn’t cover everything.

Credit card issuers can’t raise your interest rate without sending you a 45-day advance notice, but they can impose new fees, like an inactivity fee if you don’t use your credit card for a certain period of time. They can also raise your rate if you have a variable interest rate, that is, a rate that moves when the prime rate moves.

There is no Federal cap on the interest rate credit card issuers can charge and in some states, competing credit card companies are the only thing standing in the way of astronomical interest rates.

Credit card issuers have to warn you if they change your credit card terms, so pay attention to mail that comes from your credit card issuer.

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