Free From Broke

A Personal Finance Blog for Regular Folks

Credit Card Use and Reviews

Credit cards can be a gateway to debt but can also be a powerful personal finance tool. See articles that will teach you about credit cards,keep you up to date on credit card rules, show you the best credit cards, as well as show you reviews.

Continental Airlines OnePass® Plus Credit Card from Chase – Miles and More – Review

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Do you fly Continental Airlines? If so then you need to look at the benefits of the Continental Airlines OnePass® Plus Card credit card!  Read on for our review.

This credit card, backed by Chase, is an interesting airline miles card, giving you benefits on Continental Airlines as well as airlines miles credit for United as well (they are merging).

[Please note: The Continental Airlines OnePass card is no longer being offered due to the merger of United and Continental.  The Continental card has been merged into the United MileagePlus® Explorer Card.]

Let’s take a look at what the Continental Airlines OnePass® Plus offers:

Bonus Miles

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Lending Club Peer to Peer Lending for Investors and Borrowers – Review

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Lending Club is an online website that offers a unique borrowing and investing model to individuals who need funds and those who are looking to make some money.

Credit-worthy, pre-screened borrowers are paired up with savvy investors in what Lending Club calls a win win situation for all.  Peer to Peer or Person to Person lending is the basis of the site.  Investors sign up to make money and borrowers sign up to reduce their cost of paying back debt.  In summary, investors fund loans for approved borrowers.  Borrowers save over bank interest rates and investors profit with returns as high at 9% annually (about the average).

Information for Investors


Lending ClubInvestors make their money from Lending Club when they invest in 3 to 5 year notes.  Investors get to choose which notes they want to purchase by looking through selection criteria.  Once you purchase a note you will then begin to receive monthly payments directly from Lending Club as the note is being paid back by the borrower.  Lending Club will take 1% of each payment for their fee and you get to keep the rest.  You make your money on the interest collected.  Since 2007, when Lending Club was launched, investors have earned, on average, a net annualized return of 9.5%.
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Shred Your Credit Card – Giving Away Over $2000 to See You Destroy Your Credit Card

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Are you sick of your credit card? A lot of people are!  Now you have a chance to win cash prizes by destroying your credit card.

Perkstreet Financial and Lending Club are teaming up to help people end their reliance on credit cards. They are declaring January 31,2011 Shred Your Credit Card Day.  When credit isn’t used wisely it can snowball into tremendous debt.  Perkstreet and Lending Club want you to know there are alternatives to using a credit and that you can end your debt!

Shred Your Credit CardFrom December 15th, 2010 through January 29th, 2011, can can enter a video of yourself destroying your credit card(s) or why you are done with credit in 2011. Upload the video to ShredYourCreditCard.com and you can be entered to win!

Why you should participate (from the ShredYourCreditCard site):

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Miles by Discover® Card Review

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As the name of the card clearly implies, the Miles by Discover® Card is a travel rewards card.

But this is not your typical travel rewards card.  Users can generate massive miles rewards while at the same time retaining an enormous level of flexibility in determining how to redeem their rewards.

Here’s a quick rundown of some of the benefits of the Miles by Discover® Card:
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Building Credit From Scratch – Are Young Adults Doomed for Financial Failure?

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Young Adults: Doomed for financial failure?

Young adults are faced with a unique set of challenges that cause many to struggle with credit. Inexperience, school loans, social pressures, and financial optimism all lead down the path of least resistance – a really bad credit score.  However, it’s important to remember that there are long-term consequences of bad credit, and restraint today can pay off big time down the road.
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