Use number 2 for a credit card.
Keep on losing your bookmark? Well, how about using your credit card instead.
Health warning - don’t leave your book or your card lying around!
Sainsbury’s credit card offer offers some differentiality from competitors. But not much!
Check out the features below:
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This is a simple ten point check to see if you are coping with your existing debt levels:
1. Do you regularly go over your credit limit on your credit card?
2. Do you pay for nights out on the town in preference to clearing more of your credit bills?
3. Do you try to regularly repay capital as well as interest?
4. Is your credit predicament a clandestine affair, in particular with regards to your partner?
5. Do you bury your head in the sand with regards to credit bills by leaving mail unopened?
6. Do you a contingency for emergencies i.e if the roof needed replacing. Or would you need to borrow the money?
7. Do credit cards fund your everyday expenditure with no view to repayment at the end of the month?
8. Do debt collectors ever bother you for unpaid bills?
9. Is money a frequent cause of distress in your family?
10. Is shopping, using credit cards a form of release for you?
If you answered yes to any of these questions then you seriously need to take a look at your spending and credit habits. Credit cards are one of the most expensive forms of debt around so it pays to review your position early and ruthlessly if you want to save yourself some serious heartache down the road.
As a student it is always important to err on the side of caution as far credit cards are concerned. It’s all to easy to fall into serious debt with hefty APR interest payments to boot. Plus, if you encounter difficulty in terms of repayments, it could affect your credit reference for a very long time, which will impact your ability to hire cars, get further credit or most importantly obtain a mortgage. If you’re thinking that kind of thing is a way off, then think again because poor credit history lingers for a very long time.
However, the Barclays Student Card does seem to offer some reasonable functionality and features, albeit at a price.
Here’s the run down:
• APR 14.9%.
• Save money on an Inspiron 1300 notebook offer from Dell when you pay with your Barclaycard. Want more oomph.
• Up to 20% off student essentials from Argos.
• No annual fee.
• Secure shopping with identity protection information.
• Safer shopping online with fraud protection.
• Reassurance about delivery with purchase delivery promise.
• Emergency help when travelling abroad.
• Great holiday deals with our Travel Service.
• Convenient online account management.
• Emergency cash advance and credit card replacement service.
• Text alerts five days before payment is due.
• 24 hour helpline.
Credit Card Cool award a *** ranking out of a potential ***** star ranking for this Credit Card.
Posted by Peter Brady on Mon 11th September 2006 at 01:27 PM, Filed in Fraud
Phenomenal growth in chip and pin is believed to be bearing fruit in terms of reduced fraud. Of course criminals are developing new and more elaborate ways of stealing cash from cards.
Nonetheless, the irrepressible nature of the chip and pin transformation is gathering a pace with more than 150 chip and PIN card transactions carried out every second.
According to 24dash.com:
“This compares to 125 PIN-verified card payments per second six months ago and 85 per second a year ago, UK payments association APACS said.
Since the formal roll-out of chip and PIN in the UK on 14 February, consumers now use their PIN in 99.8% of all chip and PIN card transactions.
This has led to a £60 million reduction in counterfeit and fraud on lost and stolen cards since 2004.
Retailers have also reported that queuing times have decreased since the introduction of the technology.
Banks and credit card companies have now issued 130 million chip and PIN cards, making up 92% of the 141 million cards currently in circulation.
This represents a two million increase over the last six months and a rise of 23 million since the end of June 2005.
In shops, 87% of tills in the UK are now equipped to deal with chip and PIN technology.”
Copyright Press Association 2006
