With the economy in a slump, there never has been a better time to take a close look at your credit card debt. Credit card debt is generally the most expensive type of debt to carry and, it’s the most risky. Being highly leveraged with credit card debt amounts to flirting with financial disaster. As far too many consumers have discovered, all it takes to push you over the edge is for a card issuer to increase the interest rate and/or monthly minimum payment due, and you might no longer be able pay your monthly credit card bills.

How do you get the extra money to pay down your credit card debt? The most effective way is to look for ways to reduce your recurring expenditures, or preferably, eliminate them completely. T

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When credit card issuers started increasing credit lines, promising low interest rates “for the life of the balance,” and sending consumers cash advance checks with large numbers already filled in – it was hard to resist.

Some merely transferred balances from higher rate cards. Who wouldn’t trade in their 10.9% balance for 1.9%?

Had everyone kept on paying the monthly minimum payments required at the higher interest rates, their credit card debt would have fallen rapidly. Unfortunately, many used that low interest rate and corresponding lower monthly minimum to reduce their monthly bill payments.

Others saw those offers of 1.9%, and even up to 6.9% as a way to reduce interest payments on a car, or on major home improvements. Read full article…

More than a year ago, I set up a direct debit from my Abbey account to pay my Halifax credit card bill. However, it was set up incorrectly.

Money was taken from my current account each month, but instead of paying off my card bill, it sat in an Abbey holding account.

Abbey admitted its mistake and agreed to pay the late-payment fees, but the mistakes have continued. I have faxed account details and copies of my statements which they deny receiving.

I am still being chased for late-payment fees and Halifax has cut my credit limit from £1,500 to £500. D.R., Farnborough, Hants.

Margaret Stone, the Daily Mail’s Money Doctor, replies: When I contacted Abbey, it offered to write to Halifax on your behalf to explain that the missed payments were not your fault. <

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According to a recent news article on the CNN/Money website, an unhappy customer of Bank of America posted a video on YouTube where she complained about having the interest rate on her credit card “jacked up” to 30 percent. The article explained that since the video went live credit card customer Ann Minch has gotten action from the bank which has agreed to lower her credit card rate back down to where it was originally at a more reasonable 12.99 percent. The title of the YouTube video is Debtor’s Revolt Begins Now! and it was first posted at the beginning of September, 2009. Within two months it was watched by nearly half a million viewers. In the homemade move Minch – who is a fiery redhead with a passionate delivery – alleges that she makes her payments on time and has not exceeded her credit limit. She als Read full article…

The movement to stem rising credit card interest rates gained new momentum on Wednesday this week, as the House voted to move up the effective date of key provisions of the new Credit CARD Act, which limit card issuers’ ability to raise interest rates retroactively.

The 331-92 vote comes in response to mounting consumer complaints about aggressive interest rate hikes, which have threatened to undermine the effectiveness of some of the more important consumer protections included in the new credit card law.

When Congress passed the law in May, it gave credit card companies nine month to comply with the new law in order to make the necessary changes to their systems. Lawmakers have been angered by the fact that card issuers instead appear to have used that time to focus on hiking cardholders’ interest rates, decrease credit limits, and increase fees. Con

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