Adam Jewell - Search & Affiliate Marketing

Reported by MarketWatch - Citi says credit card losses may rise through 2009

Unless you’ve been locked in a cave for the last year or two, you are probably aware of the financial crisis. Home loans were handed out like lollipops on Halloween. Unsuspecting prospective home owners were given what they thought were “treats” that turned out to be tricks. THese were loans on unaffordable homes that will lead them into foreclosure and are leading to an unwinding of highly leveraged worldwide financial markets.

For years, the US has lived on credit and imaginary “wealth”. Much of this imaginary weath was tied to home values. In a market where home prices could only go up, you could buy a house with no money down and take out an Option ARM (Adjustable Rate Mortgage) and have the option to make a payment so small tht the balance of the loan would actually go up each month. There were many other creative financing options made avaialble to promote home “ownership” as well. Once you “bought” a home and the value went up, you could refinance and take money out of the housing ATM or simply take out a home equity loan. The Sub-prime debacle is already in full swing and there is more to come as shown in this article on the the tidal wave of mortgage resets coming our way.

When consumers are desparate, when their homes are worth less than the outstanding balance on their home loans, when they can no longer tap home equity loans, when they are experiencing stagnant wages or losing their jobs, where are they going to turn? Why credit cards of course. It is the American way!

It is nice of Citi to at least acknowledge that their credit card losses “may” rise though 2009. Shouldn’t that say WILL rise through 2009 (and probably dramatically)? Lookout below! We’ve got billions more in exotic mortgage resets coming in the next few years, probably billions in unsecured credit card losses by the likes of Citi and other banks ready to hit as people pay their mortgages (and everything else) with their credit cards.

If it wasn’t such a bad situation, it would be comical to see how this financial crisis is being handled, the PR used to spin major losses and how the tax payers are being fleeced to try to fix this whole problem.

• Do you want free Subaru service and free Subaru parts?
• Do you spend at least $3,333.00 per year on a credit card?

If you answered yes to both of these questions then you are in luck!  When you get the Subaru MasterCard from Chase Bank, you get 3% of your purchases back in the form of “Subaru Bucks” which can be used for Subaru parts, accessories and service at a Subaru dealer. 

Every time your rewards balance reaches $100, you get a Subaru Buck good for $100 towards almost anything Subaru from Subaru.  The card has a limit of $500.00 in rewards per year so if you are a big spender and spend more than $16,666.67 per year on your credit card you will want to have a second rewards card that you can continue to accumulate rewards on. 

One way to get around the annual limit on the Subaru rewards card is to simply get more than one Subaru Rewards card. Each of the $100 Subaru Bucks coupons is good for 5 years so between a trade in and as much as $2,500 in coupons per card over the course of 5 years, you could fairly easily get a free Subaru when you go to trade yours in for a new one if you get multiple cards.  The dealer may or may not go for something like this but in any case you can get up to $2,500 off your new Subaru “playing by the rules” with just one card.

As with any credit card, make sure you pay off the balance in full each and every month.  If you don’t you’ll pay the typical credit card interest charges which add up to a ton of cash and will be far in excess of any rewards you will get for using the credit card.

If you don’t have a Subaru, there are other great rewards credit cards including the MBNA (now Bank of America) World Points credit card and the Fidelity World Points card which is an even better deal if you have a Fidelity investment account.