All of a sudden, the whole world wants to loan me money

[Reverend Conehead]

I'm almost done paying off my 5-year car loan, and now all of a sudden I'm getting all these offers for credit cards and loans. The only credit card I have is one with an auto repair company. I have about $625 in debt on that card, and am determined to pay it off.

I have considered getting a regular credit card for other emergencies, like if someone dies, I can just get a plane ticket and go to the funeral if I need to.

How do I know these offers aren't scams? How can you tell a good credit card offer from a bogus one?

 

[RJ_MacReady]

Because the Loan agencies are stuck between a rock and a hard place (high interest rates that are not enticing to borrowers).

I recently refinanced my home at the end of 2020 (when the rates were criminally low) with a 2.1% fixed (previous loan was at 3.7%). I didn't take any cash and just had it thrown into the principal to bring my mortgage down ~300 bucks a month.

Fast forward to 2022 and the same bank I'm financed through (so they know the details of my loan) is badgering me to refinance.
After the first two calls, I told myself, if they call again, I'm going to ask the salesman a question. Sure enough, a month or two later, I get another call from my Lender.

After his initial sales pitch, I asked "Well, ok. Pretend you're me. My rate is 2.1%. Would you refinance out of that to now be stuck with 6%+ or whatever the going rate is, add back on the 2 years to the term, all for a little bit of 'cash out'?"

He hemmed and hawed and said something like "Well, we don't know what the interest rates would be yet, but it will certainly be 'competitive', and we can move forward with an application to see how much money we can save you, blah blah."

"Yea, I'm not really interested right now. Thanks, though." CLICK.

 

[big dog cowboy]

How can you tell a good credit card offer from a bogus one?

Just stick with the big names. Nationally known companies. Put the rest in the shredder.

 

[Runwildboys]

I've only ever applied for credit cards through mail offers. I wouldn't advise doing that online.