Recession, credit crunch debt crises, subprime lending and the list go on with words that frequently made headlines during the last 4 years. Well, what it all boils down to is that lending money to an unsuitable candidate is bad for everyone, for the lending institution, the borrower and the economy in general. There may be those who miss the good times in 2005-2007 when money was abundant and banks were lending to anyone. The reality, however, is that this was never sustainable and should never have happened, and the strict lending criteria that we have today are a good thing. Getting and maintaining a clean credit score is not very difficult, and there are even some sneaky tricks you can use to get a great credit score.

How is the Credit Score Calculated?

There are five areas that determine your credit score. These are:

• Mix of credit
• Payment history
• Debt levels
• Age of credit
• Recent credit

Now, many people out there look at these five factors and feel comfortable that they are managing well on each of them, and therefore take it for granted that they have a good credit history. Never take your credit history for granted as mistakes are made all the time, and you may not be maximizing your credit score and therefore checking will help you track this.
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Amidst all the negative financial news of the surging credit card debt in the US and the constant debates on the raising of the debt ceiling, here’s something positive that can help you breathe a sigh of relief. According to recent reports, not many Americans are falling back on their monthly credit card bills by more than 90 days. Studies released by TransUnion suggest that the national credit card default rate has dropped to 0.82% in 2010′s last quarter, a drop of almost 33% since 2009. With such rates of credit card delinquency, most people refrained from seeking help of the credit consolidation options as they could well manage their rising debt burden.

More and more consumers are trying their best to reduce their credit card debt and stay current on all their monthly financial obligations. The average total credit card debt per user had dropped by 5.9% or by $287 to $4680 in the very first quarter of 2011 from a staggeringly high amount of $4966 in the last quarter of 2010. TransUnion has also mentioned in a statement that the most recent average was the lowest since the average amounts that was recorded in 2000 and considerably lower than the first quarter of 2009, during the US economic recession.

The number of credit-inactive consumers – Are they growing?

Recent reports say that nowadays most Americans are no longer using bank credit cards and in 2010, 70 million consumers did not use a bank-issued general purpose credit card. However, to add to this positive financial news in the US, it has also been noticed that during the course of 1 year, 8 million additional customers joined this rank of credit-inactive consumers.
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If you want to use lifetime balance transfer cards to pay down your debt you must take the time to compare offers. Just like anything, not all credit card offers are created equal and while there may be perks to some the decision has to come down to what will suit your bank account the best.

The idea of balance transfers is simple, save money in interest by moving your balance from a higher rate card to a lower rate one. That being said, you have to take into account not just the interest rate but the length of time you will be eligible for that rate.

This is where the idea of lifetime balance transfer credit cards comes into play. If you only have a small amount to transfer then you can use a zero interest balance transfer that is good for around six months.
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Credit cards are no more a luxury, they are almost a necessity. So, you would imagine a lot of people going for credit cards. In fact, a lot of people posses more than one credit cards. So, the credit card industry is growing by leaps and bounds. However, the credit card industry and credit card holders are posed with a big problem called ‘Credit Card Debt’.

In order to understand what ‘credit card debt’ actually means, we need to understand the workflow associated with the use of credit cards as such.
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