If you haven’t been reading those notices that come in your credit card statement, or if you haven’t looked on your statement for your credit card interest rate, you may be in for a rather unpleasant surprise.
Some credit card companies (Discover notable among them) are in the habit of periodically checking your credit report. They look for things like increased purchases or credit inquiries that result in a lower score. And then they use it as an excuse to jack up your interest rate. This is a somewhat cruel and disheartening practice for some, especially since it makes it extra …read more

For October, as Get Rich Slowly points out, Consumer Reports did an issue on credit cards. My husband, always helpful, pointed this out to me when his CR arrived. “Look!” he said, “Can you use this at all?” I became excited as well. Less so when I found out how “crappy” my credit cards are rated. But I’m still happy about them because they do what I need them to do, and give me rewards that I can use. But the piece of information I found really helpful was the information about getting a lower credit card interest rate:
Readers who …read more