June 3, 2010
What is APR?
Most people usually associate cash loans with an outrageous APR. APR actually stands for Annual Percentage Rate. This is used to calculate the interest fee that’s added onto almost all financial loan products. And, its especially important to understand how APR is calculated and applied to short-term, cash loans.
APR is broken into two categories: the nominal APR, which is the simple interest rate for a year and the effective APR (also called EAR) which is the fee plus compound interest rate, calculated for a year. The EAR typically depicts a more realistic picture of what the APR is. The EAR is calculated a number of ways- depending on the fees or start-up costs. If they are rolled into the loan the balance will obviously accrue more interest. For example, car loan lenders will add in extra costs, like title, tax and registration in to your total loan amount. Consumers would save a substantial amount of money if they paid these costs upfront as opposed to including them in the loan.
June 1, 2010
Can you build credit under the age of 21? And, is it necessary to start building your credit that young?
Under The CARD Act :
Individuals under the age of 21 are required to have a co-signer or provide proof of income, to obtain any credit card. (Note: You must be at least 18 to apply for any credit card.)
Individuals under the age of 21 cannot receive prescreened credit card offers unless they’ve given their permission.
Card issuers cannot raise a credit limit on an account for individuals under 21 with a co-signer without written permission from the co-signer.
Credit card companies are prohibited from target marketing with free gifts in exchange for credit card applications, to college students on or near campus.
Therefore, yes, it is possible to build your credit history between the ages of 18 and 21. However, establishing credit with credit cards is not a good idea. It’s been shown that individuals between 18 and 21 fall into debt before building a positive credit history If you’re under 21, it’s better to focus on monthly bills and repaying cash loans than establishing credit.
More information on bad credit loans