Most people today are living paycheck to paycheck and do not always have enough money to get them through the day. But consumerism being the call of the day we all enjoying spending extravagantly. Enter the requirement to better your financial situation by borrowing from friends or apply for a consumer credit card.

A lot of us lack basic financial intelligence and discipline where our money is concerned. Most of us use credit cards today. It is a most helpful concept in this age of online transactions and electronic payments. You can avoid carrying large sums of cash and in case of emergencies, putting down payments on a new/used car etc. Your monthly payments depend on the amount you spend.

 A credit card is only bad when you over step your spending boundaries. If your expenditure begins to exceed your income its only obvious that you are digging yourself a hole!

Now, Home equity line of credit is another form of credit akin to the business line of credit. This type of credit is used against the equity of your home. Homeowners use a home equity line of credit for paying off debt, emergencies, paying for education etc. Since the loan is guaranteed by the equity of your home it usually has low introductory rates and negotiable fixed interest rates. Since the loan is secured by your home you can have the interest deducted.

Some lenders may want to look at your income, credit history, debts, and other financial obligations to determine your credit limit and how much you may actually be able to repay. But if you shop around a bit with the help of mortgage brokers and lenders you can find the best deal for yourself.

In conclusion, the amount you can qualify for on a credit card is going to be determined by your income and credit history whereas with a home equity line of credit the amount you can qualify for is determined by the value of your home.

The HELOC is nearly worth the price of your home. With a credit card you build up credit that you may qualify to purchase a home, new car etc. With a HELOC it is possible for you to have your interest deducted.
Now after a little customized research, the choice is yours!

The Federal Reserve received around 56,000 responses from angry credit card customers with regards to the new rules it proposed against abusive credit card practices. The rage over arbitrary hike in interest rates based on factors apart from the consumer’s credit history is apparently pretty wide spread.

A long list of factors is contributing towards making unethical or usurious practices in banking industry the norm. The consumer rights bill sponsored by House Financial Services Committee Representative Carol Mahoney moves toward preventing credit card companies from arbitrarily raising interest rates on a balance incurred under an old rate or for unrelated reasons.

One of the major factors motivating abusive lending is the trend of larger and larger corporations. The big banks such as Bank of America, Citi Group and Chase that issue most of the credit cards can take credit risks and absorb the damage in the form of spiked interest rates and sale of bad debts.

Another factor is the focus of the company management solely on meeting the expectations, unrealistic as they may be, of the stock holders who pay them. The interests of the customers are being compromised for increased ROI’s and salaries of the upper echelons.

Not to entirely absolve the consumers and the government, the practice of encouraging expenditure in the absence of liquidity with unsecured credit cards has ruined all hopes of economic stimulus through conspicuous consumption. These lead to abusive lending practices which is another source lost for ready cash like the time when the subprime mortgage crisis hit us.

So, credit card reform is most definitely overdue but first and foremost we need a pool of people who make enough money to cover their basic needs and still have some left to spend on consumer goods. These will require some systemic changes that cannot be accomplished without bloodshed.

The bill is a good start to all of this, but the banks are ferociously fighting the bill, despite its fairly modest restraints. This resistance by the industry makes me wonder- “Has the banking industry completely lost whatever moral compass it might once have possessed?”

In a recent article at http://www.huliq.com/46843/which-credit-card-best-you the author says that choosing the right credit card is as important as choosing the right mortgage or car loan.

He further says that -

The right credit card for you might not be the right one for someone else. How can that be? Because different people use credit cards in different ways and for different purposes. The WAY you use your credit card determines which card will save you the most money.

For example, if you obsessively pay off your balance every month without fail then you may very well need a different card from someone who carries a high balance every month and only pays the minimum due. Let’s take a closer look at this so you can understand why.

If you pay the total balance due on your card every month then the interest rate that your card carries is of no concern to you whatsoever. What is of concern to you is the grace period that your card offers between the time that you make a purchase and the time that interest begins accruing, and, quite possibly, the other perks that your card offers.

In other words, if you always pay your card in full every month then you need to find a card with the longest grace period possible and you would want to look for a card that has other perks that you could use such as car rental coverage or bonus points that could be redeemed for cash or gifts at some point or low fees for cash advances.

On the other hand, if you habitually carry a balance on your card from month to month then the grace period that a card offers is meaningless to you (there is no grace period if you carry a balance from one month to another) and what you need to search for is a card with the lowest possible interest rate.

In either case the most important thing you need when looking for a credit card is CHOICE. You need to be able to see the features of dozens of cards side-by-side so that you can pick and choose which card has the best interest rate, grace period and other features that make that card a perfect fit for you, your lifestyle, and for your particular financial situation.