March 19th, 2010
10 Fun Facts About Credit That Will Surprise You
Who thought credit cards and credit scores were boring? Here are Credit Karma’s favorite quirky and interesting facts about the plastic in your wallet.
- Think you have it bad with a hiked up 29.9% interest rate? In the UK in 2008, retail giant Argos rolled out with a branded credit card with a ridiculous 227% APR!
- Your email domain can tell others more than just your nickname or birthday. Credit Karma compared credit information of users categorized by email address and found out that Comcast users have the highest average credit score of 692, while Yahoo users were at the bottom of the barrel with an average 652. Maybe switching email providers will have karmic effect on your credit score.
- Can you guess America’s No.1 fear in the global financial crisis? It’s not terrorism, health or computer viruses, or personal safety. What strikes the most fear in the hearts of Americans is… credit and debit card fraud. (Source: Unisys Security Index: United States, March 2009)
- 2/3 of American adults– 144 million people—haven’t looked at their credit report in the past year. In addition, more than 1/3 of American adults admit to not knowing their credit score. Don’t be part of this statistic! Get your score immediately and absolutely free at Credit Karma! (Source: National Foundation for Credit Counseling, 2009 Financial Literacy Survey, April 2009)
- Did you know you can opt out of annoying credit card offers sent in the mail by going to OptOutPrescreen? Each American household receives an average 6 offers a month in the mail. Opt out and you can save trees while reviewing credit cards on Credit Karma.
- For the inner math nerd in you: Credit card numbers follows the Luhn formula, a simple checksum formula to verify if a credit card number is valid. Start from the right and double each second digit (ex. 1111 becomes 2121), add them together and a real credit card number should result in a sum evenly divisible by ten.
- Will your credit card really “expire”? That expiration date is misleading; you can use the card after the deadline because the card number on it stays the same as in your new card. The expiration date is for the magnetic strip on the card, which goes through a lot of wear and tear when swiping and is only good for about 3 or 4 years.
- Don’t be fooled by a really low minimum payment on your credit card! If you had a $2,000 balance on an average credit card and only paid the 2% minimum payment every month, it would take a little over 19 years to pay off and will cost you an added $2,995 in interest. Rethink what you pay monthly!
- The blue on the Visa logo represents the California sky and the gold represents the color of the California hills, the state where Bank of America was founded. Who knew credit card issuers were so poetic?
- Arguably the most exclusive and expensive credit card membership is American Express’s black Centurion card, which has a $2,500 annual fee and a $250,000 annual spending requirement. If this is out of your budget, stick to these great no annual fee or low interest rate cards instead.
Several facts sourced from Bargaineering and CreditCards
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