Rewards credit card offers can often provide excellent value and real benefits for cardholders. However, it is important not to choose a credit card based on these benefits only, and it will be important to consider other aspects.

The first criterion to consider is whether the card itself is a good value in terms of available credit, interest rate and fees, in addition to costs that may be incurred for the general maintenance of the account. Full article…

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The Home Affordable Refinance Program (HARP) is a U.S. government program that helps homeowners refinance, even if they are underwater. The first version of HARP had problems, and relatively few homeowners were helped.

The latest version of HARP, which debuted at the end of 2011, should remove many of the obstacles to refinancing, even for people with bad credit. Mortgage lenders began accepting applications for this program on December 1, 2011.

If you tried to refinance under the old HARP, you were probably disappointed. There were multiple reasons that HARP failed to provide widespread help to homeowners. Many homeowners owed more than the maximum allowable 125 percent of their home’s value, or had seen drops in income or credit scores that made them ineligible for refinancing. In addition, refinance fees were too high for many to consider one.

Mortgage lenders’ and insurers’ interests were also stacked against HARP 1.0.

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As you read over your credit report, you may run across accounts that you have closed in the past. Each of the accounts will have a reason for having been closed. You may have finished paying off the loan, such as a car, mortgage, or student loan. Or, you may have, in an attempt to curb your own spending, requested that a credit card company close your account, leaving you to pay off the balance as per the usual payment plan. In a worst case scenario, your crediting agency may have closed your account, themselves, in a negotiation to reduce your interest rate and expedite your ability to pay off the card. The credit card company may have also closed your account because you don’t make regular enough payments on it.

If your creditor closed your account, it will show up on your credit report as “closed by grantor” or “closed at grantor’s request”. This usuall

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Just as it was recovering (sort of) from its PR nightmare, BP decided to slash rewards on its branded credit card, the BP Visa. The card, once considered among the best gas cards available, is now mediocre-bordering-on-sucks. Originally, it gave 5% back on BP gas, plus 2% on travel and dining and 1% elsewhere. The best part? It gave double rewards – that’s 10%, 4% and 2% for the first 60 days. Now, well, not so much. Its a veritable minefield of terms and conditions gotchas, and for all its nice looks, its a disaster of a rewards program (too soon?).

How far the mighty have fallen

Unwilling to have even one good thing associated with their brand, even if it’s just a credit card, BP sent out a mailer to cardholders announcing a change to its rewards structure. Effec

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It slipped by me at the time, but Constellation Software took itself off the market two weeks ago, having announced last April that it was considering strategic alternatives. With two large shareholders in OMERS and Birch Hill Equity Partners , most assumed that a sale would come to pass last summer.

At the time of the for sale press release, with the stock at $65/share, the market cap was around $1.385 billion; before any takeover premium. Thats a hefty MA bite for most software or service firms, leaving only big players such as INFOR as viable bidders. Im sure that Merrill and BMO did a good job on the sell-side, but with a tough debt market limiting PE options and an apparently unwilling management team, the outcome might not have been much of a surprise. At least with the benefit of hindsight. Just because it has been a great investment post-IPO doesnt guarantee a successful sale transaction, unusual as that is to say.

Now that the stock is over $84, thanks in part to a new 5% dividend that pushed the quote up despite being pulled off the market, perhaps theres still a deal to be done at CSU.

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