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- Cash Advance Fee
A cash advance fee is the fine imposed by a bank when you use a credit card to withdraw cash. The fee may be either a percentage of the amount of cash withdrawn, or a flat fee. Sometimes banks limit how much cash you can have advanced.
Your bank may either deduct the cash advanced fee on the spot from the funds you are receiving, or may post the charge to your account. In either case, interest begins to accrue immediately the money you received.
- Cash Rebates
A cash rebate, also known as "cash back," is a way that credit card companies reward you for charging purchases on their card. The cash rebate is a fixed percentage of the total amount you charge on your credit card over a specific period of time, usually about a month.
Cash rebates can be a useful bonus, but only if you normally pay your credit card bills in full each month. If you do, the cash back reward reduces your overall expenses. But beware, because cash back cards usually have higher interest rates than cards that do not offer a cash rebate. And if you don't pay your full balance every month, that higher interest rate more than offsets the cash back incentive.
- Credit Card Brand
"Credit card brand" refers to the logo on the credit card, such as Visa, MasterCard, Discover or American Express. These names do not stand for the actual issuers of the credit cards, but for the associations that establish the rules for both the banks issuing the cards and the merchants accepting these cards as forms of payment. Both Visa and MasterCard, which are the largest of these associations, establish relationships and arrange the terms with financial institutions such as banks, which then issue the cards. Discover and American Express establish partnerships as well, and they also issue their own credit cards.
- Credit Card Issuer
A credit card issuer is a bank, credit union, association or business that offers a plastic credit card to customers or prospective customers. In essence, the credit card issuer offers to lend money to customers who wish to use their credit card to make purchases. The issuer also sets the terms of the loan, including dates when the loan is to be repaid and financial charges that will accrue if the loan is not paid in full. The liability of the credit card issuer, often a bank, is shared with the credit card brand association.
- Credit History
Your credit history is an accounting of how and when you have borrowed and repaid money. Credit reporting agencies make it their business to record your financial transactions involving credit, and keep track of such things as whether or not you pay your bills on time and in full, and if you have ever declared bankruptcy. Based on this data, the credit reporting agency assigns you a rating as a good risk, a poor risk, or something in between. This information is available, for a price, to you and to others wanting to know if you are a good risk or not. For example, if you decide you want to purchase a new car on credit, the dealership can check your credit history and decide if to lend you the money, and at what interest rate.
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(4.80 out of 5)