Use your credit cards wisely

NEW York | - Recognition card game are a convenient manner of paying measures and covering day-to-day expenses, but they do it far easier for the financially challenged to carelessly rack up debt, cripple their recognition evaluation or autumn quarry to personal identity thieves. In the book ''On My Own Two Feet,'' Manisha Thakor and Sharon Kedar, both hired fiscal analysts, offering guidelines for responsible recognition card management:
Watch those involvement rates! Recognition card companies often entice clients by offering low pressure involvement rates in the beginning. But these rates be given to hit up after the introductory time period expires. Worse, sometimes you never even acquire the charge per unit you believe you signed up for, because it's only available to those who ''qualify'' -- and unbeknownst to you, you didn't.

Wage all your measures on time. Not just your recognition card bills: All your bills. Because it's legal for recognition card companies to raise your involvement rates if you're late on anything. Don't utilize hard cash progresses or ''free'' checks. As a rule, the involvement rates are much higher on hard cash progresses and recognition card bank checks than they are on your existent recognition card. Limit the figure of cards. The danger of having too many card game is that it acquires harder to track your spending. State no to ''add-ons.'' Somes batch of recognition card companies offering add-ons, such as as disablement coverage or account-monitoring services, but don't take the bait. Report purloined card game right away. If you describe a lost or purloined card within 24 hours, you're only responsible for $50 worth of charges. Shred unsought offers. Never throw recognition card offerings in the rubbish without destroying them or you go forth yourself open up to personal identity theft.

Banks battle for Airmiles customers

Hundreds of thousands of NatWest customers will have to take out a Lloyds TSB credit card if they want to keep on collecting Airmiles while spending on plastic.

And the evidence so far is that they may well do just that, with 25,000 applying in just five days.

NatWest has dumped the Airmiles reward scheme after 19 years of letting customers collect miles via their credit card spending.

From 1 June, the bank is offering a new scheme called YourPoints, linked to the Ebookers travel website and Easyjet.

This will let members of the new scheme use their points to book flights on any airline available via Ebookers, including other low-cost airlines.

Less popular

NatWest will not reveal exactly how many of its credit card customers are members of the Airmiles reward scheme, other than to say that they are in the minority.

NATWEST CHANGES

Airmiles scheme: One mile for £20 spent - ends from date of June statement

Airmiles Mastercard: Stops working altogether from 31 July

YourPoints scheme: Starts from 1 June on offer to existing Airmiles scheme members - costs £3 a month unless you spend at least £1,000 a month

But its research has found that the scheme has become less popular with them over the years.

"There was a lack of flexibility to get seats on the days they wanted or the seats they wanted," said a NatWest spokeswoman.

When Airmiles, partly owned by British Airways, was first launched 19 years ago, the only flights available were on the big and expensive national airlines.

But the past decade has seen a revolution in international travel, with the advent of low-cost airlines flying passengers around Europe and now even further afield, as well as people using the internet to book their own flights.

New cards

From the beginning of next month, anyone still wanting a credit card that accumulates Airmiles will have to sign up for the new Lloyds TSB cards.

LLOYDS TSB SCHEME

Airmiles Duo: Offers one Amex card and one Mastercard

Amex card: One Airmile for every £10 spent

Mastercard: One Airmile for every £20 spent until 30 November, one Airmile for every £50 spent thereafter

These are branded as Airmiles Duo, as the bank will supply both an American Express credit card and a Mastercard credit card for the account.

NatWest customers who collect Airmiles through either a NatWest card or one issued by Coutts bank will not be able to accumulate them any more from the date of their June statement.

But they will still keep their separate Airmiles account, while any points still in them can be spent any time they like.

However, people with an Airmiles Mastercard credit card, also issued by NatWest, have a possible problem.

This bit of plastic will stop working altogether from 31 July, once NatWest breaks its link with Airmiles, and will be completely redundant.

NatWest says it will be issuing them with a new NatWest Platinum credit card, with the same account number and credit limit as their current card.

Again, the accumulated Airmiles will still be available to the card holders.

Better deal?

Lloyds TSB claims it will offer a much better deal, letting people run up twice as many miles for each pound spent as on the existing NatWest cards.

But that depends on which of its two cards you use.

Twenty-five thousand applications demonstrates the lure of Airmiles

Lloyds TSB

The Duo American Express credit card will indeed offer one mile for every £10 spent on it.

That is twice as good as the one mile for every £20 spent on NatWest credit cards.

But the Duo Mastercard will still accumulate one mile for every £20 spent, and only until 30 November 2007.

After that, the rate at which miles build up on the credit card will be much more meagre - just one mile for every £50 spent.

The bank explained that the Mastercard was really a back-up for customers who found themselves in the 20% of retail outlets that do not accept American Express.

YourPoints

The new YourPoints scheme now being offered to NatWest customers is not quite a direct replacement for the outgoing Airmiles scheme.

For a start, only people who are already NatWest Airmiles customers can join up.

And if they spend less than £1,000 a month on their card, they will be charged £3 a month for YourPoints membership.

The Airmiles business is now encouraging current NatWest customers to sign up for its new Lloyds TSB Duo offer instead.

It sent letters to all of them last Friday. As of Wednesday this week, it had received 25,000 applications from NatWest customers keen to keep racking up their miles.

A Lloyds TSB spokeswoman said this was a phenomenal response.

"Twenty-five thousand applications demonstrates the lure of Airmiles," she said.

American Express Launches Gift Card Campaign

American Express says it is experiencing growing customer demand for year-round gift-card giving. In fact, the company says, last year alone it sold more gift cards than in all previous years combined.

With that in mind, it is launching three special occasion gift cards to help boost gift-card spending outside the holiday season, MediaPost. The Especially for Movie Lovers Gift Card is being launched in support of the sixth annual . There is also a card specifically geared toward dining out and one for bride and groom. Cards are $1 off when purchased online between April 25 and May 31.

American Express has replaced its "My life. My card," slogan with a new campaign that asks, "Are you a cardholder?"

Wally Weitz on Washington Mutual (WM), American Express (AXP), UPS (UPS) and TD Ameritrade (AMTD)

left;">Wally Weitz’s commentaries on some of the stocks he just bought or sold: Washington Mutual (WM), American Express (AXP), UPS (UPS) and TD Ameritrade (AMTD) etc.

Wally Weitz, known as the other Oracle of Omaha, had a good year. For the 12 months ended on March 31, his Value Fund and Partners’ Value Fund returned more than 18%, and the more concentrated Hickory Fund 16.6%. For reference, S&P500 gained 11.8% in the same period. Over the past 20 years, his funds outperformed S&P500 by more than 3% per year. These are some of his commentaries on his recent buys and sells.


Washington Mutual (WM) -- Sold
We first bought Countrywide Financial and Washington Mutual (WaMu) in the early 1990’s. Countrywide has gained market share through internal growth and very efficient operations. Washington Mutual grew through acquisitions, and while it was not as strong as Countrywide from an operating perspective, it grew steadily and treated shareholders well with a combination of generous dividends and stock buybacks. Both have been very good investments for us. We sold our WaMu in the first quarter of (calendar) 2007 because of its exposure to subprime and Alt-A (what some refer to as "the mysterious middle ground between subprime and prime") and because we had less confidence in management’s ability to successfully cope with a crisis in the mortgage industry.


UPS (UPS) -- Buy
UPS is another wonderful business that we have admired for a long time. UPS dominates the U.S. ground parcel market and has a growing global transportation and logistics network that would be nearly impossible for a new entrant to replicate. The company continues to invest in that network (at high rates of return) to help cement its competitive advantage. The stock has declined lately due to a temporary slowdown in earnings, and while not quite cheap enough to take a full position, we have bought a modest number of shares and are hopeful that near-term economic weakness may give us the opportunity to buy more.

TD Ameritrade (AMTD) -- Buy
TD Ameritrade is a leading online discount brokerage firm based in Omaha. Their recent merger with TD Waterhouse helps diversify their business, adds meaningful scale, and provides the opportunity for significant cost savings in consolidation. We believe the stock is very cheap based on post-merger earnings power.

Dell (DELL) -- Buy
Dell is a direct marketer of computers and other electronic equipment that we have discussed in previous letters. Our bet is that Dell’s self-inflicted problems are fixable and that its highly efficient business model is not broken.

Apollo (APOL) -- Buy

Apollo is a leader in for-profit higher education. Apollo’s (and its peers’) earnings growth rate has slowed, but it still generates a growing stream of free cash flow which it can use for expansion and share buybacks. We believe that Apollo sells at a discount to its private market value. We would be happy to own it for many years and to participate in the growth in the value of the business, but the company might also find its way into a private equity portfolio at a healthy premium to its current price.
Mohawk (MHK) and USG (USG) -- Buy

Mohawk and USG (formerly U.S. Gypsum, when companies had names that meant something) are building materials companies that hold dominant positions in their industries (flooring and wallboard, respectively). Both are diversified among new home, remodel, and commercial construction markets, but are clearly cyclical businesses. Their stocks are depressed because of the current slowdown in residential construction and fears of a recession that would affect commercial construction. Both have demonstrated the ability to earn high returns and increase market share over the course of a business cycle.

American Express (AXP) -- Buy

American Express returned to our portfolios this year. Amex is a great business with a dominant payments franchise, a wonderful consumer brand, and an entrenched competitive position. The business earns over 30% on equity, has high-return reinvestment opportunities and returns substantial amounts of cash to shareholders through dividends and share repurchases.



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