Government Credit Unions, Bank Closings

Looking for a Credit Card for Christmas Shopping? Before you submit a credit card application, first review the main points which will help you choose the right credit card for your needs.

What Charges You'll Make - If you're going to use the credit card mainly for booking airline reservations and hotels, it might be best for you to get a travel credit card that offers sky miles and hotel points or cashback. If this will be an emergency credit card only, then your main concern may be for a low interest rate credit card with low fees.

When You'll Repay Charges - Will you pay off credit card charges in full every month, or will you carry a balance month to month? If you're going to carry a balance, you want the lowest possible interest rate as well as a low introductory rate. But if you'll payoff balances in full every month, then interest rate really doesn't matter so no annual fee and/or a long grace period would be a bigger concern. If you're going to carry a balance, be concerned about how the finance charge is calculated. The most common method is the Average Daily Balance, which means that the daily balances are added together and then divided by the number of days in the billing cycle. Stay away from credit cards that compute the balance using two billing cycles, as this method costs more money in financing fees.

What Amount You'll Charge - If you're going to use the credit card for all your monthly expenses, then you need a card that has a high credit limit and a high cashback percentage.

More info about Interest Rates, Credit Limits, Incentives, Fees and Penalties

Interest Rates - The interest rate (Annual Percentage Rate) APR can either be a fixed rate or a variable rate that is tied to another financial indicator, most commonly the prime rate. With a fixed rate credit card you know what the interest rate will be every month, whereas a card with a variable rate can fluctuate. Of course, even the interest of a fixed rate card can change based on certain events, such as paying your credit card bill late, exceeding your limit, or simply because the credit card issuer decides to change it after providing you ample advance notice.

Credit Limit - This is the amount of money the credit card company will let you charge to the card. This amount varies depending upon the card offer and your credit history. Be sure to get a credit card with an ample limit, because getting close to your max can hurt your credit score. Just remember that you don't have to max out your limit just because it's available.

Incentives - To compete for and to gain customers, many credit card companies offer rewards. Even if you normally use cash, why not use your credit card and then use the cash to make the payment during the grace period? You still won't pay interest and meanwhile you'll rack-up rewards. A credit card with 5% cashback will earn you $5 for every $100 charged. If your total bills come to $2,000 per month, you'll earn a free $100 every month. Look for a rewards program that you'll use and which offers flexibility, such as cashback or travel.

Fees and Penalties - Compare common charges such as late fees, overlimit fees, balance transfers, cash advances, and for making payments by telephone. Regarding balance transfers, look for credit card offers with no transaction fees and zero percent interest for at least 12 months.

Affiliate Program

» Articles » News » Government Credit Unions, Bank Closings

Credit Federal

Personal loan and credit card resource serving millions of good and bad credit U.S. consumers.

View all news by Credit Federal...

Government Credit Unions, Bank Closings

By Credit Federal | Published 03/24/2009

Government Controlled Credit Unions and Bank Closings:

Federal regulators have taken control of two corporate credit unions, one in Kansas and one in California and placed them in conservatorship. Conservatorship allows the government to operate a financial institution. Even though under the control of regulators, the NCUA (National Credit Union Administration) will continue without having any affects on its millions of members who belong to the retail credit unions nationwide. A corporate credit union provides financing and investment services to retail credit unions. While some corporate credit unions have experienced losses, some retail credit unions have experienced growth.

What Happened to All of Your Money?

Did YOU Spend It All?
Did Your SPOUSE Spend It All?

Was It Wasted on 'MISC' Expenses?

Track, Sort, and Itemize Expenditures

Also Ideal for Itemizing Tax Deductions

FREE, Easy to Use Software, Functions like an Electronic Checkbook Register.

The NCUA watches over more than 8,000 federally insured credit unions. The agency will guarantee uninsured deposits at all corporate credit unions through February, after that it will be on a voluntary basis to December 2010. The agency has supplied billions to some corporate credit unions and gave 2 billion to help struggling homeowners. The NCUA may attempt to restructure the corporate credit union system to lend more stability.

Apply online for a bank checking account.

Search for government grants.

Bank failings are another area of concern as regulators recently shut down the federally insured bank, First City Bank, in Georgia. More banks are expected to fail due to the ongoing recession. The FDIC (Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.) will mail checks to the depositors of the bank and direct deposits from the federal government like Social Security and Veteran�s benefits payments will be transferred to the Sun Trust Bank. First City was not the only bank closed in Georgia as the Freedom Bank was closed a few weeks earlier.

There were 25 banks that failed in 2008 and about 18 have failed for 2009. As the economy remains unstable and with loan defaults still elevated, the FDIC expects bank failures will cost the insurance fund around $65 billion through 2013.

President Barack Obama has outlined a federal budget proposal to try to rescue the financial industry and seeks to spend up to $750 billion in addition to the already $700 billion that was approved.

Share this Financial Article with a Friend - click here

Webmasters: Free Financial Content for Your Website!

Multiple ways to use our financial content:

1) You can use our RSS Feeds for automatic insertion and updates

2) You can simply link to this article

3) You can copy/paste the HTML code below (do not remove any links).

Government Credit Unions, Bank Closings - by <a href=http://creditfederal.com>CreditFederal.com</a> <div style="text-align: left; font-family: Verdana;">Government Controlled Credit Unions and Bank Closings: Federal regulators have taken control of two corporate credit unions, one in Kansas and one in California and placed them in conservatorship. Conservatorship allows the government to operate a financial institution. Even though under the control of regulators, the NCUA (National Credit Union Administration) will continue without having any affects on its millions of members who belong to the retail credit unions nationwide. A corporate credit union provides financing and investment services to retail credit unions. While some corporate credit unions have experienced losses, some retail credit unions have experienced growth. <table border="1" bordercolor="#003300" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" width="625"><tbody><tr><td width="100%"><table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" width="625"><tbody><tr><td align="left" valign="top" width="322"><a target='_top' target="_top" href="http://creditfederal.com/track-expenses.html"><img src="http://creditfederal.com/software-track-expenses.jpg" border="0" height="170" width="322"></a></td><td align="left" bgcolor="#f0efd3" valign="top" width="303">What Happened to All of Your Money?Did YOU Spend It All? Did Your SPOUSE Spend It All?Was It Wasted on 'MISC' Expenses? Track, Sort, and Itemize ExpendituresAlso Ideal for Itemizing Tax Deductions FREE, Easy to Use Software, Functions like an Electronic Checkbook Register.</td></tr></tbody></table></td></tr></tbody></table> The NCUA watches over more than 8,000 federally insured credit unions. The agency will guarantee uninsured deposits at all corporate credit unions through February, after that it will be on a voluntary basis to December 2010. The agency has supplied billions to some corporate credit unions and gave 2 billion to help struggling homeowners. The NCUA may attempt to restructure the corporate credit union system to lend more stability. <a target='_top' href="http://creditfederal.com/free-checking-account.html">Apply online for a bank checking account</a>. <a target='_top' href="http://creditfederal.com/government-grant.html">Search for government grants</a>. Bank failings are another area of concern as regulators recently shut down the federally insured bank, First City Bank, in Georgia. More banks are expected to fail due to the ongoing recession. The FDIC (Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.) will mail checks to the depositors of the bank and direct deposits from the federal government like Social Security and Veteran�s benefits payments will be transferred to the Sun Trust Bank. First City was not the only bank closed in Georgia as the Freedom Bank was closed a few weeks earlier. There were 25 banks that failed in 2008 and about 18 have failed for 2009. As the economy remains unstable and with loan defaults still elevated, the FDIC expects bank failures will cost the insurance fund around $65 billion through 2013. President Barack Obama has outlined a federal budget proposal to try to rescue the financial industry and seeks to spend up to $750 billion in addition to the already $700 billion that was approved. </div> This article provided courtesy of <a href=http://creditfederal.com target=_new>www.CreditFederal.com</a>, a personal credit resource of good or bad credit credit cards and loans.

Credit Tip: Need a high limit for Christmas credit card charges? If you have bad credit, consider a personal loan by refinancing your mortgage. Even if you have cash to buy Christmas presents, we recommend using a prepaid card to make purchases because it's safer than carrying cash.