Consumer Reports Credit
With US citizens in a record amount of debt, and the number of credit card offers posted out to Americans standing at six billion and rising all the times, consumer reports on credit offers have never been more important!
New federal legislation has come in, however, that seeks to protect consumers from unscrupulous credit providers by obliging them to state clearly and plainly the terms of interest rates and fees that a credit customer will be agreeing to. This information is found in the 'disclosure box' on the offer letter.
Consumer reports on credit lay out the meanings of 'APR' (annual percentage rate) and provide information on deciphering the small print, and ways of avoiding excessive charges. Consumer reports also detail the 'default APR' which is, in some ways, more important because this is the rate which lenders are entitled to charge should you make a late payment, exceed your limit, and inadvertently make some other mistake. In some cases, this could triple the agreeable APR you originally agreed to.
Although we're all aware of the importance of shopping around for the best offers available, many credit providers will try and tease us away from our better instincts by offering all manner of free goodies when we sign up - and 'for a limited time only'! There are 0% interest rates as introductory offers, free laptops, vouchers and much more, and many of these offers come with 'Application Pre-Approved' disingenuously stamped across the top. Consumer reports on credit are an ideal way of sifting through these offers and ascertaining the best possible deals.
Consumer reports on credit will also help you to determine the grace periods, finance charges and balance transfer rates which are most suitable for your individual circumstances, and allow you to filter out the unscrupulous lenders making disingenuous offers.
There are a whole host of consumer reports web sites which specialize in credit reports, and provide information about smaller lenders which tend to offer better rates. There are plenty of consumer-friendly banks and issuers to be found, but these tend to lose business to the aggressively-marketed, bigger banks which offer less agreeable rates and higher charges. Consulting consumer reports on credit will help you to track down these lenders and better protect your financial affairs.