Now lets look at same example using rate of 2% minimum monthly payment. Your monthly payment drops to just $50.00 a month. You might be tempted to think “wow, I’ve got an extra $12.50 a month to play with, yippeee!”. Not so fast! That lower minimum payment now means it will take you 34.5 YEARS to pay off your balance of $2500.00 and you’ll wind up paying $6,430.93 in interest!

Consumer Action also reports that many credit card companies are imposing higher late payment fees and “more than a third of card issuers said they will raise existing cardholders' rates because of poor credit histories -- with other creditors -- even if consumer has made regular, timely payments with that issuer”.

My advice is to watch your use of credit carefully, always pay more than minimum monthly due, and be sure to read fine print on any credit card offers or changes to your existing accounts.

The scammer will send a message stating that your account information needs to be verified because their files were hacked into, their database crashed or they believe that someone has tried to steal your account information and they want to verify your information in order to protect your account. The con artist then uses information supplied to “verify” your account to run up fraudulent charges.

NEVER give personal information to a company, such as AOL or Ebay, that already has it. If you are suspicious about being contacted, contact company yourself before giving out any personal information.