Credit Cards

These days, it seems talent isn't enough. Celebrities have to get their name and image out there as well, hawking so many products with their faces on them that it can be utterly nauseating. Toys, clothes, fragrances, jewelry, food, drinks, accessories and more: the list goes on ad infinitum.

But some things celebrities lend their name and image to are downright dangerous, particularly when they get in bed with the credit and debit card companies largely responsible for so much debt around the world.

More and more the public is able to apply for credit and debit cards with their favourite celebrities face on them, but the fees and interest charges are often so high that only the rich and famous who endorse these cards can afford them.

​Ahead, we'll show you whose promoting what cards and pull back the curtain on what the card companies are charging you to have them.

According to recent surveys, more than 90 percent of Canadians belong to a least one loyalty program with the average citizen cramming nine rewards cards into his/her wallet. But which points cards are really worth it?

Here's a look at how three of the many rewards cards compare.

Erin Marquis of AOL Autos is a resident of Detroit, and she regularly fills up her car's tank at gas stations in the Motor City. On multiple occasions, the simple act of getting gas in her hometown has led to her debit card being frozen by her credit union, which suspected that someone had stolen her card.

After the third time this happened, she called up the credit union and asked them to knock it off.

"I finally told them if my card is stolen in Detroit, I'd call them, but they should stop blocking my card every time I paid for something in a new part of the city," she says.
Credit card issuers regularly issue fraud alerts and freeze accounts when they suspect that someone has stolen your credit card or card number. And while those systems regularly catch fraudsters before they can do too much damage, they also occasionally trip up law-abiding cardholders, who are left to wonder why their attempt to buy a TV, or just 10 gallons of regular, has sent their bank into panic mode.

Credit card banks are understandably reluctant to disclose the precise criteria they use to detect fraud, but we were able to find out what sorts of purchases tend to set off your bank's alarm bells. Here are a few of the warning signs they look for.

By Michele Lerner
Daily Finance

April is Financial Literacy Month, and if there's one thing we know for sure, it's that educating Americans about how to manage their money can't start early enough. In a recent survey of international women's financial literacy commissioned by Visa, the U.S. ranked last among 27 countries when it came to the question: "To what extent would you say that teenagers and young adults in your country understand money management basics and are adequately prepared to manage their own money?" Only 17% of respondents expressed any confidence that young people starting out understand financial basics.

By Dan Caplinger
Daily Finance

The rise of electronic payments has revolutionized the way people spend money. But with debit cards and mobile payment systems gaining in popularity, it's easy to forgot the many benefits that old-fashioned credit cards have over newer payment methods.

As Bill Hardekopf of LowCards.com noted recently, as long as you pay off your outstanding balance every month (admittedly, a big caveat), using a credit card is often the smartest way to pay. Let's look at some of the most beneficial features of credit cards.

There's nothing like the adrenaline rush of scrambling to get to the bank during business hours to pay thousands of dollars in HST, income tax and CPP to the Canadian Revenue Agency (CRA) via bank draft.

Now you don't have to worry about those bank drafts thanks to Plastiq, an online-payment company that allows you to pay bills, including your taxes online. What makes it different is that Plastiq allows you to use your credit card at institutions that previously didn't accept cards such as private schools, colleges and government agencies. All you have to do is sign up on the Plastiq site, chose the institution, pay via credit card and be charged two per cent of your total amount in fees.

Daily Finance

For most people, tackling the average $8,000 we carry in credit card debt seems like an unbearable task.What if you had 20 times as much to worry about?

UK residents Maria Nedeva, 50, and her husband, John, 64, found themselves facing nearly $160,000 worth of debt just three years ago.

"By Autumn 2009, I was getting a funny feeling that things are not right," Maria told Business Insider. "When John told me [how bad things were], I thought, 'My life has just ended and my existence has begun.'"

What's interesting is that they found themselves in that much debt to begin with. Maria was an associate professor at the time and John worked as a statistician for a software consultancy firm. And even though John's firm went under as a result of the financial crisis, Maria, who blogs about their debt journey at The Money Principle, admitted their money woes had begun long before.

Think your spouse is being completely honest about his or her finances? Think again.

A survey conducted by TD Ameritrade and personal finance site LearnVest suggests that many Americans don't know as much as they should about their partners' credit history -- or their "credit present." According to the survey, a solid 38 percent of people in live-in relationships admitted they weren't entirely aware of how much debt their partner was carrying.

Another finding confirms that people are indeed withholding some information about their finances, with 21 percent of survey respondents admitting that they aren't always up front about their spending habits. No wonder, then, that 40 percent of those surveyed said they don't completely trust their partner to manage their combined finances.

By Michele Lerner
Daily Finance

Every time you make a plane reservation or rent a car or pay for concert tickets, you're asked to provide a credit card number.

Liz Smiley, a social worker in Florida, provides a debit card number instead. Smiley has lived without a credit card for more than four years, and she doesn't miss it a bit.

By Michele Lerner
The Motley Fool

We've all heard of the usual ways people try to save or generate more money to pay off their debts: cutting out the daily latte, brown-bagging lunch, getting a weekend job, or starting a side business selling clothing, toys, or beauty products.

But some people go to extremes to find ways to accelerate their debt payments and get rid of the IOUs once and for all.

We asked credit counselors across the country to share some of the more dramatic approaches their clients have used to get out of debt.

What's your most creative idea for boosting your income to pay off debt?

Michelle Lerner is a contributing writer to The Motley Fool.