How to Avoid Credit Card Late Fees
By Daryl Flagg 

Everyone hates late fees and being late will cost you dearly these days. For some credit cards today, if you are late, you will have to shell out as much as $40 each time. This can put a nice sized hole in your pocket really quick.

Below, I will provide you with some tips and strategies on how to steer clear of those monstrous late fees. This will not only save you a lot of money in the long run, but it will also keep those money-hungry credit card companies, I won?t mention any names, from getting your hard earned money.

Just pay your bill. One of the easiest ways of avoiding a late fee is to just pay your bill each and every month by sending in a check, money order, or other type of payment to your respective credit card issuer. Just make sure you follow the numerous guidelines, which are usually outlined on the back of each credit card bill, on how to send in your payment. These guidelines must be followed precisely if you want to guarantee that your payment will go through on time.

Payment guidelines may include everything from a specific payment address to the time of day by which the payment must be received to be credited that day. Many issuers also stipulate that payments must arrive in the preprinted envelope sent to the customer.

While the Fair Credit Billing Act requires issuers to credit payments the day they are received, each issuer is allowed to set specific payment guidelines. If any of the guidelines are not met, the issuer can take as many as five days to credit the payment.

An on-time payment could easily become late during that five-day period, so follow those payment guidelines carefully.

Just skip the payment. One of the more rare types of methods you hear of are Skip-A-Payment services. You can use these services to skip mortgage, credit card, or loan payments. Usually you would need to get in contact with your bank just to see if you even qualify or not. There are also independent companies out there that will allow you to do the same thing, no matter what bank you are a member of. Depending on whose service you use, the fee?s associated with it vary. When you use these types of services make sure you know how much you will be charged then decide if it?s worth it or not.

Pay minimum due immediately. One of the best ways to prevent a late fee from being charged to your account is to pay the minimum due immediately. As soon as you receive your bill, send in the minimum due. This will always insure that your credit card issuer received payment. You can always send in more money later if you decide otherwise. This is a great way to avoid missing a payment because if you forget to send extra money you can guarantee that you won?t be charged a late fee because the minimum due has been already been paid.

Move your due date. Are your credit card bills due at a time of the month when you're running low on cash? Many people have trouble saving money, so when it comes time to paying their credit card bills, they don?t have any cash to do so. One particular solution is to move your due date. Many credit card issuers will allow you to set your own due date to meet your specific needs. If you have trouble saving money, move your due date to a time when you do have money, like as soon as you get your paycheck. If you time your credit card bill to come the same day you get paid, you will always have cash to pay the bill.

Pay by phone. If you are one of those people that wait to the last minute to do everything or if you just forgot to send in your credit card payment early enough, you could always pay by phone. This guarantees that your payment will be on time. Just supply the representative on the other line with your checking account number and your bank routing number, which is printed at the bottom of each check. Usually the routing number is first and the account number is second. A lot of issuers allow you to pay by phone and some will charge you a pretty penny for doing so. Fee?s can range from $5 to $20.

Use other express methods. If your bank does not offer a ?pay by phone? service and you need to get your payment to your credit card issuer as soon as possible, I recommend either sending your payment in by express mail or by Western Union. Either one of these services can get your payment to your credit card issuer immediately. These express methods are costly, but it will always most likely be cheaper than any fees associated with being late. Make sure you send your express payment to the proper address. Many issuers have separate payment addresses for express payments. The last thing you want to do is slow the processing of an express payment by sending it to the wrong address.

Daryl Flagg is the founder and CEO of Next Month Online. Next Month Online is a service that allows its visitors to skip credit card payments. They can be found at http://www.NextMonthOnline.com. Sign up for free!

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/

Phishing - Identity Theft & Credit Card Fraud
By Ken Dennis 

What is Phishing?
Phishing is a relatively newly coined term for a kind of method for harvesting information for identity theft. Phishing is quite simply providing a person with false information or credentials to trick them in to giving you their personal information. This is done by a form of social engineering, by posing as a different person or organization that you already trust.

How does Phishing Work?
The most common form of Phishing is done by sending out fraudulent e-mails, that lead back to websites that look legitimate. Normally an e-mail is sent to a huge amount of people stating in very general terms that you should come to their website and update your information, or provide them with some new information they need, or some other similar excuse. When you click on the link in the e-mail it will take you to a website that looks very similar to the one you are expecting, you enter your information, and now they've got you. Another method is to open a popup windows asking information, on top of the real legitimate website.

How can I identify a scam e-mail?
There are several major things to look out for that will lead you to believe the e-mail is fraudulent. Quite often the e-mails will be HTML based, not plain text, this allows them to put active links that display a legitimate website, but the coding behind it takes you to a different website.

Often new websites are registered with altered spellings of major corporations and organizations, or the link will lead directly to an IP address (ie 24.38.122.156) instead of a website domain (ie www.website.com).

Another very quick way to identify a false e-mail is to see who it is address to. Normally e-mails that are fraudulent in nature are addressed to "Dear Customer" as opposed to your real name, and often they are e-mailed to many users at one time.

No legitimate organization should ever ask you to provide you with personal information via e-mail. If any e-mail ever asks you to e-mail them your private information, you should report this e-mail to the company they are posing as.

How can I avoid falling for a Phishing scam?
If you believe the e-mail could be legitimate, don't click on the link in the e-mail, instead open up your web browser, and use the link/favorite you already have, or type in the website yourself in to the URL box. This will guarantee that you are using the correct legitimate website!

Using the same method to get to the website as mentioned above, go to the organizations help page or contact page and ask them about the e-mail they may have sent you. You can also forward them the e-mail to a known legitimate e-mail address at their organization.

What if I already fell for this scam?
If you have mistakenly been taken in by this kind of scam there is several very important steps you need to take. First, report that you have been tricked by this method to your credit card companies, and other financial institutions.

Report that you have been tricked to the company that you thought you were legitimately updating information for. If you can provide them with the e-mail that tricked you, it may be useful for helping to reduce the impact on other people around the world.

Change all your passwords and PIN numbers for all your financial institutions and websites immediately.

Monitor your credit card statements, financial slips and balances. If you notice a discrepancy, immediately contact your financial organization and let them know about the fraudulent activity. In addition most banks should be able to add you to a fraud report list that will stay on your credit report that will make it harder for people to create new credit cards or open accounts without providing legitimate identification in person. Finally, you should contact your local police or law enforcement organization and file an incident report to cover yourself should illegal activities happen!

Ken Dennis http://KenDennis-RSS.homeip.net/

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/