Then I received it from Best Buy and then again from Target. I’m starting to wonder if Epsilon does the email marketing for every credit card that I have.

The email messages that were sent clearly state that no personal or credit card information is involved only our names and email addresses are. This means that we could possibly receive spam that appears as though it’s personalized and thus trick us into thinking it’s real. It is best to keep some things in mind to prevent any possible harm from phishing attempts:

• Don’t open emails from people you don’t know.
• Don’t give out personal information via email. If you are contacted with a message that says the sender needs your account number or Social Security Number, it is most likely not a legitimate company or email.
• Don’t transmit personal information outside a secure website. If the website doesn’t look right or you’re not familiar with the website, call them instead.

I’m sure I’ll receive a bunch more of the email messages as I am quite the credit card hog. The funny thing is that when I received the messages about the email situation, I immediately wondered if the email was a fraud and that nothing really had happened. Weird huh.

Here is a list of some of the other card companies involved from an article I read today regarding Epsilon and the email hacking.

We are also aware of all of the crappy credit cards that are out there specifically for people with bad credit and those that have filed bankruptcy.  Fortunately, there is an area between crappy credit cards and credit cards that hate us. In my opinion, these cards are reputable credit card companies or banks, with somewhat higher APRs (which we understand), credit limits that are large enough to allow us to build and repair our credit but small enough to keep us from getting into mischief, and very minimal fees if any.

The most forgiving credit cards for me, have been the following:

Hooters MasterCard- this card has a high interest rate but no annual fee or other fees. It also has a rewards program, which is not typical of cards that are offered to post bankruptcy filers. As I have mentioned before, Hooters (Merrick Bank) is known for giving consumers that have filed bankruptcy higher than normal credit limits. I was approved for this card a year after discharge with a credit limit of $3250.00.

Household Bank and HSBC- I was approved for a Household Bank credit card a year after bankruptcy as well as the Best Buy Rewards Zone MasterCard by HSBC. HSBC is also the provider of the Orchard Bank credit cards, which are specifically for people with bad or no credit. The good thing about HSBC is that when you apply, you will go through a pre qualification process that does not pull your credit report, but will give you an idea of the card(s) you may qualify for in advance.

Capital One- I received a Platinum card from Capital One with a 0% balance transfer for a year. I did transfer a balance from a higher interest card, but was also approved for an Orbitz card by Capital One which allows me to earn rewards. I was approved for both of these cards 2 or more years after my bankruptcy was discharged. Capital One also has a pre qualification process that allows you to decide in advance if you are interested in the card(s) you may be offered.

It is important to know ahead of time which ones you may have a shot at before you go applying around as each inquiry will stay on your report for 2 years. If you rack up a bunch of inquiries, whether you were approved for the cards or not, it could appear as though you are credit shopping (ie in a pinch so trying to get a ton of credit fast) and could hurt your credit score. I should add that I had nothing on my credit report when I applied for this cards except for the accounts that were included in the bankruptcy (which were noted as such on the report). If you are a year or two out from your discharge and have managed to keep it clean otherwise, these cards are worth trying for.

For example, the cards I have that currently have the highest APR’s are Orbitz (23.9%), Hooters (21.45%), Target (25.24%) and Best Buy (22.99%).

First of all, I have to admit that I wasn’t completely aware that these particular cards had such outlandish interest rates. Which is a grave mistake to make if you’re trying to clean up your credit. You have to know what you’re paying. I knew that Hooters was pretty high and Target, just because it’s Target. I did not really know Orbitz and Best Buy were though, which is another reason to keep a spreadsheet of your credit cards.

The good news is that the Target card and Best Buy card have the two lowest balances, so essentially the Snowball Method would work. I could pay those off and then “snowball” those monthly payments onto the next lowest balance. BUT, the next lowest balances, are the lowest APR’s on my list of credit cards which are Capital One Platinum (13.99%) and Juniper (15.99%). So paying in order by highest APR is not always going to work with the Snowball Method.

I think instead, I’ll go to the next credit card with the highest APR as these are not only ridiculous but a large chunk of money. The two very lowest APRs are the Chase cards that I’m on the Hardship Program with. Part of the agreement with them is that my APR would be lowered to 6.00%, but the cards are closed. I’m not even fiddling with those at the moment because the payments are taken directly from my bank account and aren’t costing me as much in interest as a couple of the other cards. I also have to keep in mind that my debt to credit ratio has to lower to increase my credit score, which means I need to pay down the cards with the high balances.

Something else I’ve realized is that after bankruptcy, you may be stuck with some pretty crappy cards that require a lot of fees and are at the bottom of the credit card food chain. Even though I waited and avoided those cards, I still ended up with a lot of cards that are not much better than the bottom ones. Yes, they’re unsecured and no they don’t have additional fees or annual fees, but all in all, they’re still pretty crappy credit card deals. I would advise bankruptcy filers to hold out for the best cards with low APRs, which you can get…it  just takes a little time and patience. Once I get these paid down, I may try for some better credit cards but as far as bad deals and extreme interest rates go, I’m pretty much done with them.

By the way, that Walmart credit card is pretty useless. But I’ll cover that some other time.

If you are ever in a similar situation and have accidentally missed your credit card payment, it’s not the end of the world. Unless you “forget” a lot, then those late payments are wreaking havoc on your credit report.

Here are a couple fixes that have worked for me, so far:

Call the Creditor ASAP

As soon as you realize you’ve missed the due date, call the creditor on the phone. Don’t email and wait or write a letter. This will take far too much time. Call the creditor and let them know of your error (or if it’s their error, if it is) and apologize. It seems like a bunch of beggary I know, but sometimes acknowledgment and a simple “I’m sorry, I completely missed it,” go a long ways.

Ask the Credit Card Company to Remove the Late Fee

I’ve done this maybe twice and it both times they have removed any late fees. Although I am aware that it is my fault and I deserve the late fee, it doesn’t hurt to ask and has saved me some money.

Ask that the Payment is Not Reported as Late

This doesn’t always work, after all the payment was late, but you never know. Besides if you catch the missed payment early enough, it won’t be reported as late anyway.  Most companies don’t report a late payment until it is past 30 days. If the payment is still reported as 3o days late, it won’t harm your credit much. 60 days late probably will, but I doubt a payment is accidentally missed when you get to 60 days. As I noted in the beginning, if your payments are consistently late, it will damage your credit report, but one payment a year may not.

Set Up Automatic Payment

I don’t have an automatic payment set up on my cards because even though I am a strictly online person, I don’t have enough confidence in my financial situation to set up a regular monthly payment. This method of payment helps a lot of credit cardholders to stay on top of their payments though without worrying that they may accidentally miss one.

Things come up and it’s a simple mistake that I would guess is fairly common, unless you pay your credit cards off every month. I haven’t gotten to that point yet. If you’ve filed bankruptcy, you want to make sure you stay on top of your payments though to prevent ruining the credit history you’ve work so hard to repair.

The weekend will be the true test as I’m sure I’ll be embarrassed to post what I’ve spent, but I’m guessing that having the blog in mind will also help me not to spend money on frivolous expenses.

I’ve also decided not to include the household bills that I have to pay because there isn’t anything I can do about those at this point. I will be including any money I spend on anything else though.

As far as the snowball method on the credit cards goes, I intend on just reporting on that once in a while since very little will change from month to month. I’ll only notice it working when the first card with the lowest balance is paid off and the payment is applied to the next card. Seems like an excruciatingly slow process but when it comes to the credit cards I don’t have many options and I desperately want to get those under control.

So far at the end of Day 3, it doesn’t look so bad. Obviously if I were only spending a dollar on a bag of chips and nothing else, I wouldn’t be in the situation I’m in financially so I’m sure my spending will pick up. Either way, wish me luck…

1. Accepting all those Damn Credit Cards

My intention was to hang on to them for emergencies and not use them. The open lines of credit actually made my credit score look even better. The problem only occurred when the emergencies came up, combine that with the irresponsible not quite emergencies and the credit cards ended up all being used and not saved. The concept of just hanging on to a credit card works for other more responsible people, I just know now that I’m not one of those folks. I should’ve just stuck with 2 main cards and I wouldn’t have some of the problems I have right now.

2. Bankruptcy is Embarrassing

The fact that I had to file in the first place is one of my biggest regrets. It’s embarrassing to me, when I have a credit report pulled, even when my credit score was good. Bankruptcy has to be an absolute last resort and I wonder to this day if somehow I could’ve worked out my finances and avoided filing at all.

3. Letting Medical Bills Run Amok

I can’t say that this was entirely my fault but I do regret not keeping up with the medical bills better and getting them paid off sooner. I’ve learned a lot about working with creditors and making payment plans but initially, the bills would bother me so much that I’d just try to ignore them until the absolute last minute.

4. Not Living Frugally or Budgeting Sooner

I don’t know if I had even heard of the word “frugal” at the time and I certainly wasn’t looking for ways to cut costs. Everything seemed to be going well so I didn’t worry about expenses or finding better deals on stuff. It wasn’t that I had a ton of money, I just figured that my bills were being paid so I didn’t have to worry about it. Don’t wait til you need to budget to budget.

5. No Savings Account

Younger people are smarter now and it isn’t unusual for a teenager to have a bank account with enough money saved for their entire college education. In my case, though, I figured savings was something I would worry about when I was older. I wasn’t a teenager after my bankruptcy, but I still felt young enough that I didn’t have to worry about it. If I had saved then, undoubtedly my savings would be drained by now to pay some of my medical bills and credit cards, but I wouldn’t have those bills to worry about and could be building up the savings account again.

Unfortunately, as the cliche goes, you can’t change the past you can only learn from it. I’m happy to say I’ve learned quite a bit on this journey. I just hope that one of these days I learn enough to stop making mistakes.

I’ll post about the good things that stemmed from my bankruptcy (believe it or not, there are some.)

Have a great Labor Day weekend, and don’t do anything you’ll regret later!

Here are their reasons for canceling the cards (2 credit cards/2 letters):

Total available credit on bankcards is too low. (Really? They were fine before Chase dropped my credit limit.)

One or more accounts have high balances compared to credit limits. (They dropped the limits on both cards.)

Too many active bankcard accounts. (I concur. I do.)

My favorite part of the letter, “You may make at least the minimum monthly payment until the balance is paid in full or you may elect to pay the entire balance.” Gee, that’s nice. The third choice could’ve been “You may also be stung by a million wasps every day for the rest of your life,” and I would’ve picked it.

Okay. Maybe not.

I’m assuming interest will still accrue per the “currents terms and conditions,” and I’m also assuming that it doesn’t help your credit to have two credit cards cancelled.

I need to go research. If the number one reason for people randomly yanking out huge handfuls of hair is not because of Chase Bank…I’ll eat my hat.

This is the initial post regarding the credit cards which defends my use of the word “rape”. I also want to mention that it seems I’m taking the issue with Chase Bank lightly, but if I wrote what I really wanted to say, it would just be a bunch of cuss words.