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Exploring Balance Transfer Credit Cards

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Exploring balance transfer credit cards can open up a world of financial strategies to help manage and reduce your debt. A balance transfer credit card allows you to move debt from a card or loan that’s charging you interest to a card that charges no interest for a period of time. After that 0% introductory APR time frame ends, the card’s ongoing interest rate kicks in. This approach, much like easy debt consolidation loans, can help you save on interest payments while you pay down your debt, but there are a few things to keep in mind.

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Americans Collectively Owe a Staggering $1.13 trillion on their Credit Cards

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the staff of the Ridgewood blog

Ridgewood NJ, according to a recent report on household debt by the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, Americans collectively owe a staggering $1.13 trillion on their credit cards. This figure saw a notable increase of $50 billion, or approximately 5%, in the fourth quarter of 2023. Alarmingly, credit card delinquency rates also witnessed a surge, especially among younger millennials aged between 30 and 39, who are grappling with substantial student loan debt burdens.

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Study: 39.7% of New Jersey adults used credit cards for basic living expenses

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the staff of the Ridgewood blog

Ridgewood NJ, according to the website Upgradepoints the COVID-19 pandemic altered American spending patterns dramatically. In the early days of the pandemic, social distancing and stay-at-home orders resulted in a shift away from transportation, restaurant, and entertainment expenditures. However, consumer spending has since rebounded, and now high inflation has raised the basic cost of living. In addition, rising interest rates are making the cost of borrowing more expensive. While many Americans use credit cards regularly for their rewards and benefits, more people are turning to credit cards for temporary relief as prices continue to rise.

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How To Help Your Family Get Out Of A Financial Tight Spot

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Financial difficulties can strike anyone, at any time, and can be extremely stressful for individuals and families. 

If you find yourself in a financially tight spot, it can be overwhelming to figure out how to get back on track. However, there are steps you can take to help your family improve its financial situation. 

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How to Save Up for Special Celebrations

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Celebrations like birthdays and holidays are often expensive, especially if you want to make it a special time for your family. Luckily, taking some time now can save money later. Having a budget will help you prepare while ensuring you don’t spend more than you can.

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NJ Owner of several internet-based companies that matched art and music teachers with students charged with International Money Laundering

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the staff of the Ridgewood blog

Trenton NJ, A New Jersey man has been arrested for charging unauthorized credit card transactions for music lessons that were not provided to students, and laundering these funds outside of the United States, Acting U.S. Attorney Rachael A. Honig announced.

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3 Credit-Healthy Habits for the New Year

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New year, new credit score. If only it were that simple. Sadly, you won’t start with a fresh new when the clock strikes 12. 

But just because a financial redo isn’t in the cards doesn’t mean you’re stuck with your score forever. Your credit is a reflection of everyday credit decisions and long-term habits. Change these, and you’ll be able to affect your score. 

So, if you’re tired of dealing with the fallout of your bad credit, consider adding these new habits to your financial routine. 

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6 Types of Loan Options You Can Consider

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Whether it’s to finance your monthly expenses or a home improvement project, purchase a brand new car, or start a business, there’s always a way to complement your income and secure some much-needed cash. In fact, the modern market abounds with borrowing options that are guaranteed to fit your needs, and not necessarily through a traditional bank.

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Things You Need To Know About Consumer Loans

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Have you ever thought of increasing the money that you have right now? Is there anything right now that you need to spend a big amount of money? Are you thinking about expanding your business? Do you need extra cash for all the house expenses, including repairs, school tuition fees for the kids, or just as plain as you need to stock up some resources or groceries so you won’t have to think about the food of your family for the next couple of months or so? Well, there are a lot of ways on how you can get that extra cash in your hands. One of the ways is either you work extra hours and get that overtime pay, you can also have a small business where you can expand your income little by little, you can also have a sideline home based job where you can work about 2 to 3 hours and have that extra pay or you can just borrow from a lending company.

What are Money Loans

Money loans or also known as consumer loans is a process when you borrow some money from a lending company, although there are different types of consumer loans and some of the most commonly known consumer loans are as follows: student loans, mortgages, auto loans, personal loans, credit cards, home equity lines of credit or most commonly known as housing loans and many more. These are the types of loans that you can apply and will definitely increase the amount of money you currently have. With this kind of process, you will be able to pay off some of your small debts and can even make your credit line clean, the money that you will borrow can be paid off in a monthly basis, this is going to make your lifestyle lighter as you are no longer thinking about some of the big expenses that you really need as you can just apply for a consumer loan and pay it off, then repay the loan with a small amount every month.

Your Credit Score Matters

When you are about to take on a consumer loan, you always have to remember that your credit score really matters. All of the agencies involved in handling money, may it be keeping, lending or both, and this also includes the banks as well is that they are all properly registered and have the access to check your credit score. This is important for these companies since they do not take any collateral and they need to make sure that the money they will be lending you will return to them based on the agreement to pay. This is how they make sure that their business is running and they are not just lending to people that are not paying them back which basically just going to make their business run down the hill. 

It Saves You From Other Debts

With the current community that we have right now, it is impossible for someone to not have any debt at all, due to the increasing prices of products and items on the market today, anyone will definitely result to borrow money from small time lenders to answer some of their everyday needs and will have a debt as a result. One of the ways on how to answer all of them is by getting a consumer loan big enough to pay off all of them and https://Instabank.no/opplaning can help you on increasing the current allowance you have to pay them off. This may seem redundant but if you think about it, it is better to pay just one loan than paying multiple small loans, it will make you think less about it and can make you focus more on the important things that need your attention.

Banks Are Not Your Only Option

You may think that banks are the only industries that offer big loans to their customers, but to tell you the truth, there are other nonprofit credit unions that also offer the same type of loan products but with lower rates and fees than most banks. These credit unions do also have access to check your credit scores as they will not ask for any collateral when you file a loan with them. Their process are also more easy than banks but don’t get surprised if they have a limit for the first time lenders. The thing about credit unions is that you need to gain their trust in order for them to increase the amount of money that you can borrow from them. Once you gain their full trust then they can give you access to high credit amount and will make your renewal loan with them much easier as they no longer need to check your background or your credit score due to the reason that you are already a trusted client.

Never Borrow for Personal Expenses

This is the most important thing you need to know about consumer loans, and that is to never ever borrow an amount that you will only spend for your personal expenses or vices like travel, shop for a certain dress or outfit, buy something for your collection, purchase an appliance or sofa for your living room and anything that does not profit you in the long run. The best reasons for applying a consumer loan is if you will pay off small debts, you will use it for your children’s school fees, you can also use them to fund your business or expand it and any other things that will pay off in the long run. If you can notice these reasons are the kind of scenarios where the money loan is solving a specific problem and not creating one. You have to think about the future, on what will be the outcome of things if you use it the other way. Remember, this is money loan we are talking about that you need to pay in staggered payments, make sure that you will spend it on something that will benefit you and your family’s life in the long run.

Be Smart and Practical

In reality, all of the things that we do is for our family, in order to give them a better life and make sure that we provide all the things that they need. We always do our best to have them feel that we are the strongest and that we are invincible as our sons and daughters will always lean on us if ever that they will have problems in life. We support them, we care for them and we cherish them, and we can show that by making sure that we apply for consumers loan in a smart and practical reasons.

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New Jersey Consumers See Credit Score Increases with Experian Boost

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the staff of the Ridgewood blog

Ridgewood NJ, Experian Boost launched earlier this year with the goal of improving FICO Scores for consumers – by including payment history for common monthly bills like utility and telecom accounts. Doing so can help build credit history and boost credit scores for people.

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New Jersey Ranks 4th Highest Credit Card Balances

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the staff of the Ridgewood blog

Ridgewood NJ, Americans are more likely to pay with a credit card than with cash than ever before. With a credit card, consumers can buy now and pay later and earn rewards like cash back and travel points for meeting certain spending thresholds. While credit cards have obvious appeal, they can also be dangerous, and easy credit appears to be saddling a growing number of Americans with considerable consumer debt.

According to the Federal Reserve, Americans owe a record $1.04 trillion in credit card debt. That’s up from less than $854 billion five years ago. According to Ted Rossman, an industry analyst at research group creditcards.com, about 40% of Americans have enough income to pay off their balance  and do so in full every month. For them, a high credit card balance is not a problem.

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To combat fraud, Visa wants to track your smartphone

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To combat fraud, Visa wants to track your smartphone

FEBRUARY 16, 2015    LAST UPDATED: MONDAY, FEBRUARY 16, 2015, 1:21 AM
BY KEN SWEET
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS |
WIRE SERVICE

* Tracking could cut fraud, experts say

NEW YORK — Those days of calling your bank to let it know that, yes, you really are in Thailand and, yes, you really did use your credit card to buy $200 in sarongs may be coming to an end.

The payment processing company Visa is rolling out a feature this spring that will allow its cardholders to inform their banks where they are automatically — using the location function found in nearly every smartphone.

Having your bank and Visa know where you are at all times may sound a little like “Big Brother.” But privacy experts are actually applauding the feature, saying that, if used correctly, it could protect cardholders and cut down on credit card fraud.

Credit and debit card fraud costs consumers and banks billions of dollars each year, and that figure has been growing as data breaches have become more common. The banking industry had $1.57 billion in debit card fraud in 2013 and $4 billion in credit card fraud in 2012, the latest years for which data are available, according to the Federal Reserve.

Facing these high costs, banks and the payment processors have been stepping up their efforts to cut down on fraud, and Visa’s announcement is just one small piece of this drive. JPMorgan Chase’s CEO Jamie Dimon has said repeatedly that his bank spends $250 million overall on cybersecurity every year, and plans to double that spending.

Here’s how it works: Starting in April, banks will update their smartphone apps to include Visa’s new location-tracking software. If the consumer opts in, the Visa software will, over a period of time, establish a customer’s home territory of roughly a 50-mile radius. If the person uses his or her Visa card at stores in that area, those transactions will be considered low risk for fraud.

https://www.northjersey.com/news/business/technology/new-apps-can-let-banks-know-it-s-really-you-1.1272256