Credit card companies' evil tricks

By Liz Pulliam Weston

Parents spend the first several years of children's lives teaching them how to play fair. By the time we hit elementary school, most of us are pretty good at knowing what's just and what's not.

That sense of fair versus foul, though, tends to get tangled up in the world of credit cards. Some practices that seem egregious at first glance actually make sense when you understand their rationale. Other policies don't hold up so well to scrutiny, even though they're widely accepted in the industry.

What makes matters more complicated is that a few credit card issuers are bad to the bone. Some of the companies that have the most consumer-friendly practices in one area turn around and punish their customers unfairly in another.

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Why the Fed's rate cuts won't help you

By Jon Markman

In its efforts to keep irresponsible bankers on Wall Street afloat, the Federal Reserve is spurring inflation, crippling the dollar and cutting into retirees' incomes. And mortgages and car loans won't get any cheaper.

The Federal Reserve today continued its attempt to get out in front of the worst financial crisis to hit the world banking system in five decades by slashing short-term interest rates by three-quarters of a percentage point, to 2.25%, the lowest level since 2004.

But the Fed's effort will have little effect on the ability of the average American to get a cheap loan for a new home, car or college education even as it has a large effect on U.S. banks' ability to fix their balance sheets by racking up fat profits.

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What Buyers Want

By: Chris Lytle
Never approach a customer unprepared. According to a survey by Purchasing magazine, lack of preparation is the number one dislike buyers have about sellers, with a lack of interest or purpose following close behind. "Hello, your account has just been assigned to me," is blatant behavioral evidence that the salesperson is going through the motions. [READ MORE]