Personal Finance and Money Management

Leaps in technology generally don’t obliterate older methods overnight. As you might imagine, there are often transitional developments which help to act as bridges from one generation of technology to another.

We’re currently seeing this take place in the auto industry as we work to move away from fossil fuels and into something more sustainable. Likewise, we’re seeing a huge transition take place in the credit card industry. Soon, NFC chips will most likely replace our current standard wallets. But until that shift actually occurs, we’ll continue to see technologies like Square and Card.io become transitional players in the industry.

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Citi ran a great promotion in October on a few sites, including Creditnet, which ended up only lasting a few weeks before it was pulled offline. Well, it’s back!

The Citi ThankYou Preferred Card is once again offering new cardholders the opportunity to earn up to 50,000 bonus points during the first year of use.  If you want to read all the details about the pros and cons of this credit card, check out my original post:  Citi ThankYou Preferred Card Review: 50,000 Bonus Promotion.  For a brief update, read on.

The reason this card offer is worth mentioning again is because we frankly don’t see many no annual fee credit cards that come along offering $500 bonuses.  I tho

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Dear Creditnet: I have interest in applying for a secured credit card. I found one that I really like and it says that for every 3 months I pay my bills on time my interest rate will be reduced. The confusing thing is that there is also a 7-month 0% APR period.

My question to you is will my interest rate be reduced during that 7-month introductory period as I make payments on time ?

Answer: It’s difficult to answer this question with absolute certainty since you haven’t provided the name of the specific secured credit card, but my best guess is yes – the regular interest rate that will kick in after the 0% promotional period ends can still be adjusted downward during the first 7 months of timely payments.  I rec

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The 50,000 point signup bonus for the Southwest Rapid Rewards Plus Card is unfortunately flying away just as fast as it flew in last month.

I doubt the promotion is getting the axe due to lack of popularity.  In fact, my guess is this card offer has been extremely popular among the millions of consumers searching for ways to bring down the cost of their holiday travel this year.  It’s difficult to turn down over $800 in free money for travel, even if there is a $69 annual fee attached to the card!

If you’ve been waiting to pull the trigger and bank enough points for 2 free roundtrip tickets on Southwest, you’ve only got until midnight tomorrow, 11/11/11 (wow, what a cool date!) to do it.  After

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