cardtart: The official blog of cardtart.com

Tuesday, September 25, 2007

Barclaycard Tightens The Belt

Today the Telegraph reports that Barclaycard is rejecting about 55% of new credit card applicants and is also cutting the credit limits for users. Although the widely reported credit crunch may be to blame for the increase in rejected card applications, Barclaycard are reported to have been lowering credit limits for 500,000 of its customers over the past 18 months.

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Tuesday, February 27, 2007

Debt Blogs

One of the latest trends in America is to blog about your debts. Debt blogs are rapidly springing up as people who find themselves in debt post about their struggles in maintaining the credit card bills, loans and other finance. Typically, such blogs are not online begging letters but more of a way to let the debt blog author relieve themselves of the pressure, even guilt, that debts can sometimes create. Many authors feel that the blogging process helps instill discipline and discourage them from increasing their debt. A kind of online, debtors anonymous I suppose.

One popular debt blog is authored by a woman named Tricia, who posts to bloggingawaydebt.com. She describes why she blogs about her debts...

I’ve debated for some time whether to let others in on my financial life. After all, it is a very personal thing. I’m not proud to be in debt and I am rather ashamed. I shouldn’t have let things get as far as they have. Granted, I am not in debt as much as some others are; I do not have bill collectors knocking at my door. But I am very close to having that happen, and I have to do something about it.

I’ve decided to take all the steps that I need to take to finally become debt-free. I am going to use this blog to chart my progress as well as share information that I have learned along the way. I think debt is something that is crippling many of us. Once we get in debt, it is so hard to get out of.

I hope the information that you learn from me will help you become debt-free. Or, if you are free of debt, it will make you think twice before getting a credit card. There will be humor, there will be anger and I am sure some of my posts will be written with tears streaming down my face.

I'd be interested to hear about any UK debt blogs - please comment if you are aware of any.

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