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AllAboutCredit.net offers a useful service which answers all your queries related to credit cards. The site already has an extensive database of questions which have been answered by credit card experts. The site also provides online credit card feedback on almost all the credit cards available in the market. Credit card holders having any queries or issues related to any of their credit cards can first browse through the comprehensive list of qquestions answered by experts in the site’s question bank. If it is found that their query has not been answered previously, they can raise the question by using the simple form available on the website. The form has 3 fields, one each for name, email ID and the question. Questions are usually answered by experts with 48 hours of being posted. As mentioned earlier, the site also provides online credit card feedback on various types of credit cards and also recommends the best credit cards in each of the categories.

The global credit crunch that has been affecting the UK’s financial markets has been making financial headlines since last summer, having wreaked havoc in all areas of the financial sector, including credit cards. However, despite the worsening credit crunch, which has deeply impacted on the availability of finance for consumers, it appears that many consumers are still falling over themselves in order to try and get a 0% balance transfer card onto which to transfer debts of high interest credit cards.

A recent report suggested that many 0% balance transfers no longer offered capped rates on their transfer fees, but this does not appear to have put consumers off, with nearly three quarters of a million cardholders trying to transfer a collective £1.1 billion every month. These figures are despite the fact that many credit card providers have tightened up on their lending criteria, and according to some industry officials around half a million consumers have a credit card application rejected every month in the UK.

The data suggests that many consumers are still facing crippling repayments on high interest debts, such as balances on expensive credit cards, and whilst many are flocking to try and transfer their balances on to 0% credit cards, thus benefiting from the opportunity to save a small fortune in interest on their debt, many will find that the increasingly stringent criteria in place from lenders will ruin their chances of being able to make this saving.

One industry official stated: ‘There is a significant market for cards offering balance transfers as our research indicates that 40% of card holders think it will take longer than one month to clear their current balance.’

Secured lender Firstplus, which has the television star Carol Vorderman advertising its loan products in glossy television advertisements, has been criticised over a loan offer that it has recently launched, which critics have described as a debt trap. The recently launched loan offers a discounted rate of interest for ninety days, enticing cash-strapped consumers to take out finance. However, after the ninety day period the interest rate on the loan nearly doubles, which means that consumers will be left having to pay huge sums of interest on their borrowing, having been drawn in by an initially enticing rate for just a short period of time.

The secured loan is only available to homeowners, as the finance is secured against the home. The initial interest rate that is offered to consumers starts at 4.9%. However, this is for ninety days only, and after this initial period the typical APR leaps to 8.5%. The minimum term of the personal loan is five years, and many consumers with less than perfect credit could end up paying a way higher rate than the typical 8.5% advertised.

The timing of the loan offer has also been slated, as it comes at a time when consumer debt levels are high, credit conditions are tight, and many lenders are reining in their lending. One official from the consumer campaign group Which? stated: ‘The initial rate is low enough to attract borrowers desperate for credit and who may be struggling to find it elsewhere. Yet 90 days offers negligible benefits and many people may not understand fully that the rate will soar in a very short time. This is a debt trap.’

Officials from the lender, FirstPlus, responded by stating: ‘Consumers don’t have many options at the moment and we are responding to this.’

Reliance Energy has gone in for a name change from Reliance Energy Limited to Reliance Infrastructure Limited. The company think tank feels that from being a pure power generation, transmission and distribution company Reliance Energy has moved on to tap the potential of the Indian infrastructure sector. Hence the name change from Reliance Energy to Reliance Infra will more aptly reflect the the space in which the company operates. The Reliance Infrastructure name change will not cause loss of any shareholder rights.