Say No to Credit Card Minimum Payment

Let us face it. Most of us own at least one credit card if not more. Getting a bill every month is always an agonizing experience because that makes us realize how much we have spent. Often we end up realizing that we didn’t need to spend that kind of amount or worse still, realize that we cannot afford to pay the entire amount due that month. So we end up making the credit card minimum payment, hoping to clear the balance next month. We repeat this exercise the next month too, and the next month and the next month…till we are caught up in a vicious circle where we pay only credit card minimum payment. This doesn’t bother many of us since making credit card minimum payment doesn’t affect our credit report. We seem to take it in our stride and let the to-be-paid amount to pile up till we have a huge credit card debt to pay off.

It’s not uncommon to pay credit card minimum payment. In fact a whooping thirty percent are paying only the credit card minimum payment. For the first time users credit card minimum payment means the lowest amount that we can pay to make our account stay in good standing. While credit card minimum payment helps us to pay our debts without getting a bad credit report, it somewhere down the line also makes us to take our debt for granted. Opinions are much divided on this issue.

However one thing that stays true is that if you are just paying minimum credit card payment you are being sucked into a circle of debt and possible bankruptcy! The credit card minimum payment is calculated as a percentage of your current balance. The credit card minimum payment drops as your balance is paid, but thanks to the magic of compounding, you'll end up paying for a long, long time. This is something that most people are not aware of and end up paying minimum credit card payment only. So not only do we keep piling up huge debts to be paid but are unaware of the hidden cost that we also have to pay while paying minimum credit payment.

Earlier the credit card minimum payment used to be around 2- 2.5%. However some time ago US government has increased this percentage to 5%. This was because people would make only credit card minimum payment, thus increasing their debts. To make people pay up their debts faster the government took this step to increase the interest rate. And it seemed to have worked like a charm! Many people are now shelling out more than merely paying minimum credit card payment.

It is better to pay off full payment than paying credit card minimum payment if you wish to save your hard earned money.

Time to Repair Credit Card Debt is Now!

Increasingly large numbers of people are troubled about repairing credit card debt especially in America. The chief reason for this is our spending beyond our needs and our inability to curb our spending. How many of us have unopened bank statements and notices that are lying somewhere in the drawers. We expect these to be paid by them. Well the fact is that credit card debt repair will not happen by itself. We need to sit up and take action to repair credit card debt.

First of all, understand that you will need to do drastic things to repair credit card debt for it can’t be undone by itself. Once you have realized this then you can start working on it. The first step in repairing credit card debt is to collect all the bills and calculate the amount that needs to be paid. Once you know the correct amount that is due, you are doing a reality check and are now ready to repair your credit card debt.

Hopefully after seeing the amount that is due you would get shaken up enough to stop making unnecessary purchases. The only way of repairing credit card debt is to stop purchasing all those luxury items. Stick to the very essentials. You would be surprised at how avoiding a weekly trip to your saloon or taking your own lunch bag would do wonders at adding up the figures and thus help in credit card debt repair. Once you have a control over your expenses you have a control over your credit card debt repair too.

Next in the steps for repairing credit card debt is making a monthly budget. Add the total income of your family and subtract the absolute essential expenses from it. You would get a tentative idea about your savings and this exercise would help you to budget in order to repair credit card debt. Once you have a figure to achieve every month you would be motivated to get that figure and thus resist the urge to spend. Repair credit card debt is a task that you cannot let yourself forget at any point.

Next use low interest credit cards for bill consolidation to repair credit card debt. This will help you in saving the interest payments. You would be surprised to see substantial savings through saving of interest payments. This in itself is a big step in repairing credit card debt.

Last but not the least, lock your credit cards! Yes lock them up! It is difficult to control the urge to stop spending. So don’t cut them but store them in a safe place. Next, start by paying off your debts as soon as possible, since, the later you pay the more will be the interest on it. It might be a slow procedure but it is possible. So don’t lose hope and see how you repair your credit card debt without much trouble!

All About Choosing the Best Credit Card

Michael, 25 years old and working in United States for past one year was on the verge of going bald from trying to figure out the best credit card among the tons of emails that he received almost daily about the "pre approved credit cards". Chances are that you too maybe going through the same dilemma of choosing the right credit card. As choosing the right credit card is not such an easy task as it looks at the first go, it becomes essential that you know some of the important points before you eventually purchase the best credit card for yourself.

Most of the credit cards, which call themselves as the best credit cards, come with almost the same features, offering more or less the same rate of interest. In such a case, getting the best credit card becomes even more of an ordeal for the buyer. However when the rate of interest is more or less the same, one should look for incentives offered by the various card companies in order to get the best credit card. Incentives and rewards can be of various kinds; depending on them you can opt for the best credit card. For instance you get reward points for every purchase that you make from the credit card and these points are redeemable from certain stores and outlets.

Then there are cash back incentives. This definitely is a strong criterion for the best credit card. According to this scheme, you get a percentage of cash back at every purchase that you make. You can also convert your redeemable points into discount for various airline flights. Most of the buyers make the mistake of thinking that the reward schemes are mostly similar whereas the difference in schemes offered by different card companies is extensive. So first of all do your research about different reward schemes and then choose the best credit card.

Nowadays banks have started offering balance transfer credit cards, which are becoming increasingly popular for people deciding on the best credit card for them. Balance transfer cards allow you to consolidate you debt onto one card, thus helping you save on interest payment, hence recommended by experts as the best credit card for debtors.

Getting the best credit card wouldn’t be a difficult task when loaded with the right information. So research about the incentives and other schemes and then only go for choosing the right credit card. It might take a little time but at least you can be sure that it’s the best credit card.

Real Estate & Property Situation in Pakistan

Pakistan is facing a real property crisis. There is an estimated shortage of more than one million houses which is likely to grow by 0.6 million every year. But mercifully the situation is not as bad as in India where the housing shortage is a staggering 40 million houses.

But it makes an interesting reading to understand the dynamics of the real estate market in Pakistan. One can safely assume that it is an underdeveloped market. As compared to developed economies of the world where the real estate is mostly financed through mortgage, it is a completely neglected sector in Pakistan. The presence of mortgage financing in the property sector is only a recent phenomenon and can be qualified as negligible. Even the present mortgage financing is volatile with floating interest rate, which means that the lender is unsure of the real terms and conditions of the loan and the banks are at liberty to change the terms and conditions in case of adverse interest rates subsequently. It is interesting to note that mortgage financing is more than 50 % of GDP in most developed countries whereas this ratio is less than 2% in Pakistan.

Another worrying factor of the real estate market of Pakistan is the poor land record maintenance. It is still manual and efforts to computerize it have failed in the past. Bribery is the order of the day in land record and Patwari is still the king who may temper with the record according to his sweet will and vested interests. There is also a risk of fraudulent transactions due to non-transparent land record.

Recently following a worldwide boom in international real estate business, property market in Pakistan also witnessed a sharp growth. One of the factors may also be the recent decline in interest rates. It is a standard principle of economics that in a falling interest rates regime, people tend to invest in real estate, thinking it to be safe and secure from inflation.

Another stigma on the property sector of Pakistan is the speculation mafia. With the drop of interest rates, people were uncertain about their investments in banks and withdrew to invest in the property market, which offered attractive returns overnight, thanks to speculation mafia. Many housing societies were formed to defraud people. Files were in circulation everywhere without any physical existence of the plots and houses on ground and many opportunists and speculators benefited from this panorama. And ultimately common man was the looser, who was left with the file without anything concrete as the housing societies suddenly started to disappear. One can easily remember the example of Bankers City Housing Society.


But at the end of the day, common man in Pakistan is dreaming for a small house of his own, which seems a distant dream. One way to overcome the shortage of houses in Pakistan may be the introduction of multistory buildings to avoid the heavy urban land cost. This will naturally lower the prices of houses and may bring these in the reach of a common citizen.

Government may devise a policy to encourage the participation of the private sector in the property market. But the discouragement of speculators is very essential. Moreover the Government needs to help the poorest segment of society through its sate owned organization called House Building Finance Corporation. Government may also identify the sate owned land in the urban areas and give it to the private sector on soft lease terms for building houses for the poorest segment of society. This will lower the high property prices in Pakistan and will help in maturing the property& real estate market on stable footing.