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Ask Mr Credit Card announces a new Cash Back Credit Card Calculator on their website. This calculator allows consumers to find the best cash back credit card based on their credit card expenditure. The calculator will help consumers save time researching the different credit cards in the market as it does all the calculations in one easy step.

To make use of the calculator, input annual expenses broken down into various categories. These categories include spending at supermarkets, drugstores, gasoline, utilities, travel and even wireless expenses. The calculator allows you to find either the best card, or the best combination of cash back credit cards to carry.

Lily Lian, who owner of the website, says ” Credit Card companies have been coming up all types of rebate schemes that consumers need to do lots of research to find the most appropriate cash rebate credit card. We developed this calculator to help consumers navigate through the various different rebate schemes offered by credit card companies. The tool is free to use and we encourage consumers to use this to find the best cash back credit card”.

This calculator has been in beta for about a month and the feedback has been positive. Jim Schoenlank of GivingBean.com found this tool enlightening. He says “I get lots of junk mails from credit card companies and it is so confusing choosing a credit card. I was looking for a credit card that paid cash rebates as I paid my bills in full every month. This calculator saved me lots of time researching and I finally got a card that would have got me the most rebates according to my expenditure”.

For more information, visit askmrcreditcard.com

If you ask a seasoned economist how the U.S. economy is doing, he or she will probably tell you that overall, things are not bad right now. Unemployment is low, inflation is moderate and the economy is growing at a respectable pace. For many middle-class Americans, however, life is far from easy, especially considering the fact that average American households are having a difficult time saving their hard-earned dollars.

According to the Commerce Department’s Bureau of Economic Analysis, the personal savings rate in the United States has been in or near negative territory since the second quarter of 2005. With the knowledge of this startling statistic, it really comes as no surprise that the Citi® Upromise® Platinum Select® MasterCard®, a “no fee balance transfer” credit card that helps cardholders save for future college expenses, is now the most popular credit product recommended at the BalanceTransfer.cc website.

“The Discover® More American Flag Card, which is a fantastic card offering great value, used to be the most popular credit product recommended at the BalanceTransfer.cc website,” said Steve Brown, who maintains portions of the BalanceTransfer.cc website. “However, the Citi Upromise card, which has been a rising star at BalanceTransfer.cc since May of this year, is now generating more applications and approvals than the Discover More American Flag Card.”

Steve Brown manages and provides content for a number of finance-related websites, including sites about the U.S. Prime Rate, business credit cards and many more.

Brown continues, “I would recommend the Discover More American Flag Card to anyone. The card has lots of great benefits, including 0% intro APR on both new purchases and balance transfers for 12 months, no annual fee and a cashback rewards program. With the Citi Upromise card, however, you can transfer a credit card balance from a non-Citi card at zero percent intro APR for 12 months, and you don’t have to pay a balance transfer fee. And the Citi Upromise rewards program is great because you can use the card to shop for the things you’re probably going to buy anyway, like gas and groceries, and the rewards program will passively add funds to an easy-to-setup Upromise college-savings account.

“When choosing a credit card, a consumer’s priority should never be the rewards program. Consumers should be looking for the card with the most favorable features, terms and conditions, like 0% intro APR, feeless balance transfers, the absence of a universal default clause and no double-cycle billing. That’s why the Upromise card is such an excellent product: it’s a great credit card from a highly reputable bank, plus it has a truly beneficial rewards program associated with it.

“The costs associated with getting either a private or public university education will almost certainly rise with each passing year, so it’s really important for parents to start preparing themselves financially,” Brown added.

Setting up the Citi Upromise credit card for college savings is a simple matter. First, a consumer applies for the Citi Upromise credit card. Once the Citi Upromise credit card application has been approved, the consumer navigates to the Upromise.com website where the consumer signs up for a free account. Once the Upromise.com account has been activated, the consumer then registers their Citi Upromise credit card within their Upromise.com account to complete the process. To earn rewards from supermarkets or drug stores, all the consumer need do (in addition to the above) is register their supermarket or drug store loyalty card within their Upromise.com account.

Brown recommends to anyone interested in the Citi Upromise Platinum Select MasterCard to apply sooner rather than later, so as to take advantage of the card’s current benefits. As with any credit card, the terms and conditions associated with the Citi Upromise Platinum Select MasterCard are not set in stone, so it’s important to thoroughly review the card’s current terms before applying.

For more information, visit balancetransfer.cc

In response to the ever growing crime of Identity Theft, Synesis has created a toolkit that allows a person to quickly and effectively recover from the burden of identity theft.

Because there is no known way to effectively prevent identity theft, Synesis created the only commercially available Identity Theft Recovery Toolkit. The toolkit allows for an individual to quickly get control of their identity back. Synesis has also created an instruction manual for safeguarding your identity during a disaster.

For more information, visit learnprivacy.com

American consumers who are bold enough to take a mid-summer pulse of their personal finances may find more debt than ever before. American families owed a total of $895 billion on credit cards at the end of May (Source: Federal Reserve) — and Bills.com co-founder and co-CEO Brad Stroh reports that Americans must take steps now to end the vicious cycle of debt.

“Debt has become a growing problem, and many Americans need to find a solution.

With uncertainty about the future of housing prices, the high cost of oil, and record hikes in health care and higher education costs, many people are on the precipice of financial disaster. Americans are playing with fire by maintaining an average credit card debt load approaching $10,000 per household (Source: CardData.com),” Stroh said. “At the same time, the stock market is at record levels, but most Americans cannot benefit from this potential prosperity because they are crippled with debt.

For those with debt, now is the time to tackle it.”

Money Smarts Slump

With an estimated 8 billion credit card offers going to mailboxes to lure Americans into debt last year, consumers are managing their money less responsibly than ever before:

* U.S. consumers racked up an estimated $51 billion worth of fast food on their personal credit and debit cards in 2006, compared to $33.2 billion in 2005. (Source: CardData.com)

* Just 18 percent of credit card debt is paid off each month. (Source: CardData.com)

* Since the early 1980s, personal saving as a share of disposable personal income has dropped from a range of 8 to 10 percent to a negative 1.3 percent over the past year. (Source: American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research)

* The U.S. personal savings rate has been negative for eight consecutive quarters, reaching a 73-year low. This means Americans are dipping into their savings to make ends meet, rather than accumulating savings. (Source: U.S. Department of Commerce)

* At the same time, personal spending in the United States jumped in December 2006 by the highest amount in five months. (Source: U.S. Department of Commerce)

“The great news is that no matter how serious the situation - no matter how much an individual owes or why - it is possible to achieve freedom from debt,” said Stroh. “Eliminating debt can be very challenging, but it changes people’s lives forever. By ending the vicious cycle of debt, people truly become free and in control of their lives.”

5 Steps to Stop the Cycle

Stroh’s company, Bills.com is a free online consumer portal that provides personal finance education and resources to help individuals manage their finances. To stop the cycle of debt, Stroh suggests individuals take these actions:

1. Learn the basics of personal finance. Everybody can find a style of personal financial management that suits them. The Internet is loaded with free information. Most importantly, Stroh said, a system that makes sense will be easiest to use.

2. Make a spending plan. Bills.com offers a free guide to personal finance that details how to create a spending plan. “Each month, plan how you will spend every dollar you earn,” Stroh suggested. “You’ll know if you can have some ‘fun’ money one month — or if you need to be especially cautious. A budget is a great way to gain the freedom of knowing you are in control.”

3. Pay secured debt first. Payments were behind on 4.56 percent of credit card accounts in late 2006 (Source: American Bankers Association), and foreclosures are tripling in some parts of the country. Consumers should remember they are in the strongest financial position when they pay secured debt first. Secured debt is a loan for a tangible object such as a home or car. If individuals do not pay these bills, they risk losing the object through foreclosure or repossession, with a major impact on their finances and on their lives.

4. Pay more than the minimum. Half of all credit card holders pay only their minimum monthly payments (Source: Experian-Gallup Personal Credit Index survey).

Consumers can slash repayment time - and total payment costs - by paying more than the minimum payment. Stroh advises making the highest payment on the credit card or loan with the highest interest rate. When that debt is repaid, add the higher payment to the next-highest-rate debt until that loan is paid off. “At first, the process can feel slow, but eventually you will see exciting progress,” Stroh said.

5. Seek help. For those with serious debt that they can’t pay, help is available, especially if the situation was caused by a short-term problem such as a medical emergency. According to Demos, 29 percent of low and middle-income households with credit card debt reported that medical expenses contributed to their current balances. Other emergency options include borrowing from relatives, borrowing against life insurance or retirement funds, or, possibly, a form of debt consolidation.

If still more support is needed, seek out a trustworthy debt resolution advisor.

For more information, visit bills.com