Home Selling and Buying

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 » Home Selling and Buying

Credit Federal

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

View all news by Credit Federal...

Home Selling and Buying

By Credit Federal | Published 06/16/2009

Some consumers who are trying to sell their homes are having a tough time and consumers wanting to purchase a home are not getting the financing they need. Renting to own or leasing may be a solution for both parties.

Are you trying to sell a home which you still owe a mortgage on, and want to buy another home? You could refinance your existing mortgage balance and apply the equity towards the new home purchase, or to give you cash to hold you over until you can sell your existing home. Apply for either a new home loan or for a refinancing quote.

Being able to sell condos in some states has proven difficult and many are sitting empty. Some condo owners are offering the rent to own option with 100% of the rent going toward the purchase. To make the offer even better, up front fees are being eliminated.

One reason sellers may be offering the rent to buy option is due to owning two homes. Some consumers have tried to sell one home and have already purchased a second home. This may be due to relocating in order to get a job or keep a job. A rent to own option helps the seller with the costs of two mortgage notes.

Renting to own can help a buyer build equity over a few years and help with building credit. In addition, it can be helpful to occupy the home to try out the house and the neighborhood before getting locked into a contract for a mortgage. If the buyer is not happy later, it is easier to walk away.

The rent to own and a lease option allows the buyer to pay extra over the amount of the rent toward the purchase of the home. Buyers may or may not have to give a down payment. The extra paid with the rent payment could be applied toward the down payment each month.

Usually there is a contract, the contract may require the buyer to act within a certain time to purchase the home. If the buyers decides not to purchase the home, they may loose the down payment and the extra money paid every month. They simply walk off from the deal.

There have been some scams revolving around the rent to buy option. A seller could be in foreclosurer and the buyer does not know. The bank repossess the home and the rent to own buyer has to be evicted. They loose all the extra money that was paid toward owning the home.

Recent scams have included foreclosure prevention. The scammers in some way get the title to a home. The scammer will let renters pay extra thinking they are paying toward owning, but the scammer simply pockets the extra money. The renter looses in the end.

Renters must consider that mortgage rates change and by the time they are able to get a loan, interest rates could be higher. Another problem is that the renter applies to be approved for a loan and due to bad credit the loan has higher rates. Higher rates mean higher payments and this could cause problems for the buyers later.

Renting and leasing options to own a home can be great for buyers as long as all the details are defined. This can help eliminate any possible problems. In many cases with the right buyers and the right sellers, this can be successful.

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).

Home Selling and Buying - by <a href=http://creditfederal.com>CreditFederal.com</a> <div style="text-align: left; font-family: Verdana;">Some consumers who are trying to sell their homes are having a tough time and consumers wanting to purchase a home are not getting the financing they need. Renting to own or leasing may be a solution for both parties. Are you trying to sell a home which you still owe a mortgage on, and want to buy another home? You could refinance your existing mortgage balance and apply the equity towards the new home purchase, or to give you cash to hold you over until you can sell your existing home. Apply for either a <a target='_top' href="http://creditfederal.com/home-loan.html">new home loan or for a refinancing quote</a>. Being able to sell condos in some states has proven difficult and many are sitting empty. Some condo owners are offering the rent to own option with 100% of the rent going toward the purchase. To make the offer even better, up front fees are being eliminated. One reason sellers may be offering the rent to buy option is due to owning two homes. Some consumers have tried to sell one home and have already purchased a second home. This may be due to relocating in order to get a job or keep a job. A rent to own option helps the seller with the costs of two mortgage notes. Renting to own can help a buyer build equity over a few years and help with building credit. In addition, it can be helpful to occupy the home to try out the house and the neighborhood before getting locked into a contract for a mortgage. If the buyer is not happy later, it is easier to walk away. The rent to own and a lease option allows the buyer to pay extra over the amount of the rent toward the purchase of the home. Buyers may or may not have to give a down payment. The extra paid with the rent payment could be applied toward the down payment each month. Usually there is a contract, the contract may require the buyer to act within a certain time to purchase the home. If the buyers decides not to purchase the home, they may loose the down payment and the extra money paid every month. They simply walk off from the deal. There have been some scams revolving around the rent to buy option. A seller could be in foreclosurer and the buyer does not know. The bank repossess the home and the rent to own buyer has to be evicted. They loose all the extra money that was paid toward owning the home. Recent scams have included foreclosure prevention. The scammers in some way get the title to a home. The scammer will let renters pay extra thinking they are paying toward owning, but the scammer simply pockets the extra money. The renter looses in the end. Renters must consider that mortgage rates change and by the time they are able to get a loan, interest rates could be higher. Another problem is that the renter applies to be approved for a loan and due to bad credit the loan has higher rates. Higher rates mean higher payments and this could cause problems for the buyers later. Renting and leasing options to own a home can be great for buyers as long as all the details are defined. This can help eliminate any possible problems. In many cases with the right buyers and the right sellers, this can be successful. </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.