There is a lot of confusion among indebted consumers as to which Statute of Limitations (SOL) applies in cases of unpaid credit card debt. Is it the SOL for the state in which the credit card company is based? Is it the SOL for the state you live in? What if you’ve moved since opening your credit card and incurring your debt? How about if your debt was incurred in multiple states or was sold to a debt collection company?

The simple answer is that in most cases either the SOL for the state you live in now or the state you lived in when you entered into the credit card agreement will apply. There are, however, caveats to this rule of thumb.

Having fraudulent charges on your credit card account can be nerve-racking, so it’s understandable why you’d want them removed as quickly as possible. Before we get into the timetables – both legal and practical – for this to occur, it’s important to note that The Fair Credit Billing Act limits your liability for unauthorized credit card charges to $50 and all major credit card companies have voluntarily extended $0 liability guarantees. This means that you will not be held responsible for purchases that you did not make if you report them promptly.

In most cases, a simple phone call to your creditor will be sufficient and you should expect the entire process to be resolved within a couple of weeks. However, if you want legal protection under the aforementioned Fair Credit Billing Act, there is a formal fraud reporting process that you are required to follow.

Prior to October 1, 2011, individuals were able to apply for credit cards using their household income. However, this is no longer the case. When you apply for a card now, credit card companies consider your income on the individual level in order to match the way they evaluate debts. If you are a stay-at-home parent, it’s understandable if you’re concerned about your ability to build credit under your own name. After all, homemakers generally aren’t compensated monetarily for all that they do, but that shouldn’t mean they aren’t allowed to get credit cards…should it?

No. Luckily, this is neither what the rule regarding individual income was intended to bring about, nor its ultimate effect. The thinking behind the rule was that an apples-to-apples means of evaluating an applicant’s ability to pay his or her own credit card bills was needed in order to lower the charge-off rate and help prevent people from getting in over their heads, as was the case for many of us during the Great Recession. This individual-income system corrects previous problems, such as severely indebted households getting approved for additional credit by pooling their income and hiding their collective debts and liabilities by having the person with the smallest debt load apply.

Differences in international monetary standards make spending money abroad often confusing and even downright difficult. When it comes to traveling overseas, consumers must not only determine the acceptable methods of payment for the countries they plan to visit, but also figure out a way to avoid foreign transaction fees and get the best exchange rates. On the other hand, international businesses—tasked with tackling the logistics of accepting international credit cards—often need to establish international merchant accounts and join international credit card processing networks. Given the obvious importance of international spending in our global society, we have constructed this International Credit Guide to help you learn about and avoid the pitfalls of international credit card use.

• What’s an international credit card?
• What fees are associated with an international credit card?
• Which international credit card is the most highly recommended?
• What are international merchant accounts?
• How can I accept international credit cards?
• How does international credit card processing work?
• How do magnetic stripe credit cards differ from chip-and-pin credit cards?
• Where can I get an international prepaid credit card?
• What are international debit cards?
• Should I get an International Credit Card or an International Debit Card?
• Are we close to global credit card interoperability?

What’s an international credit card?

A lot is different when you travel abroad. The food, the language, the fashion and the culture are all somewhat unfamiliar, as is – of course – the money. In order to buy anything in a foreign country you must have access to the native currency and this means currency exchange. However, exchange rates and the logistics of currency conversion can be both confusing and rather costly. Since foreign travel is difficult and expensive enough as it is, we at Card Hub decided to answer the most prevalent currency exchange questions in order to provide you with everything you need to know before your next trip abroad.

• What is Currency Exchange?
• How can I exchange currency?
• What is the cheapest way to convert currency?
• What are No International Fee Credit Cards?
• Will my credit card work outside the U.S.?
• What are the most widely accepted international credit cards?
• When should I convert my currency?
• How much currency should I convert?
• What causes currency exchange rates to fluctuate?
• What is Dynamic Currency Conversion?

What is Currency Exchange?

While often maligned as conduits to debt and overleveraging, credit cards truly are quite useful. Whether it’s building the credit history necessary to convince a bank you are trustworthy enough to merit a loan or effectively lowering the price of all your purchases through rewards, a credit card has the potential to improve all aspects of your finances.

What’s more, the credit card industry is perhaps as fundamentally strong as it’s ever been. The bait-and-switch tactics that pervaded before the Great Recession are no more. Gone as well is the once-widespread lack of transparency from issuers. In their place is the Credit Card Act of 2009, which has expanded and strengthened the consumer credit card bill of rights and fostered a what-you-see-is-what-you-get system for credit card offers.

There comes a time in one’s life when it’s necessary to use a credit card. Actually, scratch that. There are many times throughout life when a credit card comes in handy, and because your financial needs evolve as you age, the type of card you need does as well. Credit cards are no different than anything else that remains part of your life as you grow older. The clothes you wear in high school, for example, are likely far different than those you don when you have a career and a family, both because your tastes change and because your lifestyle requires a different wardrobe.

While the constant fluctuation of credit card offers prevents us from listing specific products, understanding the type of card to look for in each stage of life will make selecting a specific card that much easier when the time comes. Below you can find our recommendations grouped by life stages ranging from high school all the way to retirement.

Of all the uses for a credit card, funding cosmetic surgery might seem out of left field. But the fact of the matter is millions of people go under the knife each year, and they need a way to pay. According to the American Society of Plastic Surgeons (ASPS), 13.1 million cosmetic procedures were performed in the U.S. during 2010, totaling about $10.1 billion in costs. Since most insurance companies do not cover cosmetic surgery, the brunt of this expense is placed on the patients themselves. Cosmetic surgery need not have a long-lasting detrimental impact on your finances though. Waiting until you have the cash to pay for your procedure is obviously your best option, but consumer impatience often results in people incurring significant debt in the form of medical loans. In light of this fact and the current low interest rate environment, an interesting payment alternative is a 0% APR credit card.

A 0% credit card can be used to alleviate the financial burden of cosmetic surgery in two distinct ways: paying for the procedure from the outset or transferring the remaining balance of a medical loan post-operation. The average surgeon’s fees for the top 5 cosmetic surgery procedures in 2010—$3,700, according to the ASPS—provides a good starting point for comparison of the real-dollar savings these options can provide relative to a medical loan.

What is a charge-off?
A charge-off is when a bank writes delinquent debt off its books. The term can be used in conjunction with various types of debt, such as that originating from a credit card, mortgage, auto loan, etc.

Banks are legally required to charge-off debt when it reaches a certain level of delinquency, which varies by the type of debt. For example, credit card debt must be charged-off when 180 days delinquent, while a personal loan must only be 120 days past due. Debt is also charged-off when the debt holder passes away or files for bankruptcy.

The Card Hub Island Approach is a theory for credit card use which suggests that consumers should use different credit cards to meet each one of their specific financial needs. This approach is built upon the idea of compartmentalization and suggests that by secluding different expenses and types of payments, almost as if they are on their own islands, consumers can address them in the most cost-effective, strategic manner possible. As a result, they will be able to minimize interest costs, gain increased financial control, build discipline and maximize their credit card rewards.

The Card Hub Island Approach applies to every type of consumer, but its logic and value can be seen most clearly by separating people into two broad groups: those with revolving credit card debt and those who pay all their credit card bills in full every month.

Given the myriad rules and regulations governing credit reports and scores, many consumers do not fully understand these important sources of financial information. Therefore, in order to facilitate greater financial literacy and promote sound fiscal decision making, we closely examined the relevant laws and compiled this Credit Report & Score Bill of Rights.

This document is a summary of your rights and as a result does not include the full details of the pertinent laws. If you want to see the laws in their entirety, check out the Fair and Accurate Credit Transactions Act of 2003, The Fair Credit Reporting Act, the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act, and the Credit Repair Organizations Act.

Credit cards can be tricky, and as is the case with anything else, people make mistakes when using them. The trick is to learn from these mistakes and avoid making them again. In order to help facilitate this and to help you learn from the missteps of others, we compiled this list of the most common credit card mistakes. So read up and be on your way to sturdier financial footing.

Mistake:  Being unaware of foreign transaction fees
Why:  Credit card companies often charge fees of 2-3% for each purchase you make in another country. While these fees can lead to high costs, they can be avoided if you open a no foreign transaction fee credit card before traveling.

The term “prepaid credit card” is basically nonsensical. Prepaid cards are not credit cards. They do not provide lines of credit, and information about their use is not reported to the major credit bureaus. Still, they are widely referred to as prepaid credit cards and, in a lot of cases, are mixed in with credit card offers —facts which beg the question: Why? Why when you type the word “prepaid” into a search engine, does “prepaid credit cards” pop up as a suggestion instead of “prepaid cards?”

Many people simply don’t know exactly what a prepaid card is, and since it’s plastic, they just lump it into the credit card family. However, a prepaid card is basically just a debit card for people who do not want a checking account from a traditional bank or cannot qualify for a checking account because of mistakes made in the past—bouncing checks, for example. Before using a prepaid card, money must be loaded through direct deposit or at a retail location, and obviously there is no bill to pay at the end of the month. Prepaid cards can be used to pay bills, deposit paychecks, make purchases and withdraw money from ATMs. In short, they can do anything a checking account can—with the lone exception being the ability to write paper checks.

We hear the question all the time:  “How can I get a business credit card with no personal guarantee?” People want to avoid bringing their work home with them, not only mentally and emotionally but financially as well. They want their business spending to be their business spending and not be in any way connected to their personal finances. That way their family’s financial well being will not be at risk should their venture fail, as so many small businesses unfortunately do. However, unless you own a large company, there is no escaping personal liability for business spending. No matter how you finance your purchases—be it with a business credit card, a personal credit card, or even a loan—both you and your company will ultimately be held responsible for any misuse or inability to make payments.

It’s merely a common myth that business credit cards provide personal liability protection by limiting responsibility for debt and default to one’s business. The falsity of such a belief is evidenced by the fact that business credit card applications require you to provide your Social Security Number (SSN) in addition to your company’s Federal Tax Identification Number, or Employment Identification Number (EIN). Additionally, most business credit card applications clearly disclose liability policies. Take, for example, the Ink Cash Business Card from Chase. Within the “Pricing and Terms” section on its application is the following passage:

Time is one of the most important factors of credit card debt. Your level of delinquency, the state of your credit report, whether you can be successfully sued for what you owe: each of these things depends on time. This in itself is not confusing; however, the nuances and state-by-state variations characterizing the relationship between debt and time are.

Various time frames are important to debt, but one of the most significant is its Statute of Limitations (SOL). This is essentially the time during which debt is relevant under the law. Before the statute of limitations expires, you can be successfully sued for amounts owed. Once it runs out however, suit can be initiated, but it will be thrown out of court if you make it clear that the debt is “time barred,” or older than the statue of limitations.

Credit utilization refers to how much of your available credit you use on a monthly basis. It’s extremely important that your spending not approach your credit limit because FICO—the largest credit scoring agency in the United States—factors credit utilization into its scoring in the form of a balance-to-available-credit ratio, and the lower it is the better. This is one of the most important tenets of credit card use, and failing to adhere to it could lead to lowered credit standing.

Still, there are various myths and misconceptions that mislead consumers and hamper their efforts to use credit responsibly. Because a proper understanding of credit utilization is essential to responsible credit card use, we at Card Hub decided to tackle some of the most important credit utilization questions and expose the facts behind this significant aspect of credit card use.

When buying an automobile, you are faced with a couple of different payment options. You can either pay for it in full or take out a loan from a bank, a credit union or the financing arm of a car dealership. Since most of us don’t have the means to purchase a car or motorcycle in cash, we are left with financing. While a loan will allow you to drive off the lot, you will not officially own your vehicle until you successfully pay down your balance. As a result, you will not be given the title, or pink slip, to the vehicle until your loan is paid down. Until that time, your lender will be the title holder for your vehicle because it serves as collateral against the amount lent.

An increasingly common tactic is for consumers who have paid down a significant portion of their auto loans to transfer the remaining balances to 0% balance transfer credit cards. A balance transfer is essentially when a credit card company pays down the debt you hold with another lender and assumes this amount itself. When you complete such a transaction, you become the title holder on your vehicle because the balance on your loan is zero as far as your auto loan lender is concerned and credit card debt is unsecured. Therefore, not only can a balance transfer lower your interest rates, but it will also transfer ownership of a vehicle into your name and negate the risk of repossession should you run into trouble making your payments.

People often wonder how they can get a higher credit limit.  This is a great question, but one must be asking it for the right reasons.

If you want additional credit because you are using all that you currently have and want the ability to spend even more, you have a flawed approach to credit card use.  You must understand that using most or all of your available credit is bad for your credit score because of something called credit utilization.  Credit utilization is a balance-to-available credit ratio that FICO—the largest credit scoring agency in the United States—determines for each of your individual credit cards as well as for all of your cards in combination and includes in the calculation of your credit score.  Having high credit utilization will bring down your credit score, thus your spending should be well below your credit limits.

Many rules and regulations affect what credit card companies can and cannot do. These governing principles have changed often throughout the years, with a significant amount of the regulatory adjustments being brought about by legal decree. In fact, the new credit card law (CARD Act) which went into full effect in August 2010 represents one of the most sweeping pieces of credit card legislation instituted in years. Therefore, to keep you apprised of all the changes we have compiled what amounts to a credit card user’s bill of rights that clearly establishes consumer privileges as well as credit card company requirements and limitations in terms of various credit card features.

Interest Rates / APR’s:

Though credit card delinquency rates have begun to fall after reaching a peak during what we now refer to as The Great Recession, there are still millions of Americans struggling to get out of delinquency.  Because many of these people are fighting credit card payments, it’s key to understand how delinquency works–and it’s not as straightforward as it might seem on the surface.

Whether or not making a payment is sensible depends upon how credit card companies actually determine delinquency.  For example, suppose the minimum payment is $50 and the credit card holder can only pay $25. It won’t help to pay less than the minimum payment because the credit card holder will still be considered delinquent and will still have to pay late fees.  Therefore, one must pay the minimum payment in full to avoid delinquency.  In this particular case,  the card holder’s best bet would be to set aside the $25 and make the payment when he can pay the $50 in full. That will help to minimize a fall down the slippery slope of delinquency.