Not All Credit Cards Carry the Same Credit-Worthiness

I was pretty excited to see that I accumulated $1,800 in travel dollars on my visa card only to find out I'd been had!  Well, maybe....

Sometimes we just accept status quo for awhile thinking we have the best financial products available or maybe we tend to give our local bank all of our business but is it always the best solution for us?  Often, we do have the best product available when we first got our cards but our world is dynamic, not static, so what was the best financial product out there simply isn't any longer.  With today's competitive world we have to re-think our financial picture, at least annually.

Credit cards are a hopeless mire of confusion...obviously meant to be, to confuse the consumer. I mean why have a two tiered system...." for every dollar you spend you get 3 travel points and you need 10,000 travel points to get a $50 credit towards your travel".  Why not say "you have to spend $3,333 to get $50 travel points"?  Because it seems like a lot to spend for such a little reward, right?  Not only that but some cards offer bigger rewards for groceries and fuel as opposed to purchases made with our "disposable' income...or credit...for that matter.

If you want to do a quick comparison of what is the best deal for you, if you are interested in travel cards, check out this website http://www.rewardscanada.ca/cccompare.html

If your focus is not on travel then this website compares all the cards http://www.redflagdeals.com/deals/main.php/articles/credit6/ and it takes out the ones you want to cull, based on the service provider and some of the more classic features that credit cards tend to reward it's holders with.

In the end it appears shopping "for" a credit card can be much more difficult than shopping "with" a credit card!

The Debits and Credits of Divorce

The financial aspects of a divorce can play out differently for every divorcing couple.  At a time of high emotion you may want to protect yourself, financially by making some prudent choices.  Your bank ~ you want to make sure that they know about your situation.  Any money held in joint accounts likely only needs one signature to withdraw so you want to ensure you take your half out and place it in an account in your name only.  Ensure the bank also puts a hold on any credit cards that you jointly share.  Those country songs about seeking revenge and making the other spouse pay through reckless credit card spending came from somewhere.  You want to make sure that it doesn't happen to you.  Remember, you are still jointly responsible for that debt.  That means that even if your spouse is not paying the monthly payments on those credit cards...you should.  Any repayment can, hopefully, be settled through the separation agreement as part of the negotiation.  It's better to do it that way than end up alone with bad credit.  Another good exercise would be to close any credit cards you don't need. 


Remember those investment accounts, especially the registered ones?  Registered Retirement Savings Plans and Registered Pension Plans (as well as Tax-Free Savings Accounts) often ask for the account holder to determine a beneficiary.  If you chose your spouse you may want to contact the financial institution managing these accounts to change your beneficiary.  


Now that you have looked after the registered savings what about the regular savings investment s that you have?   Those assets and their distribution are covered in your Will so you will want to re-write that too. 


Your not finished yet....while you are re-writing your Will  you may want to consider re-writing your Powers of Attorney (PA).  Your PA covers both medical and financial matters should you become incapacitated. The last thing you want is your spouse to be calling the shots with the doctor as to your care, if you can't speak for yourself!!!