Orchard Bank Platinum MasterCard

Enjoy the prestige of Platinum with no up front fees
Premium Platinum benefits including Purchase Protection
Great credit card to strengthen your credit
Reports to all 3 credit bureaus monthly, which can help improve your credit score


Take your credit to the next level, with an Orchard Bank Platinum MasterCard®. With a unique approach of educating customers on all aspects of obtaining and managing credit, the Orchard Bank MasterCard® continues today as a leader in the credit card industry.

Orchard Bank Platinum MasterCard®

• Enjoy the prestige of Platinum with no up front fees
  
• Premium Platinum benefits including Purchase Protection
  
• Great credit card to strengthen your credit
  
• Reports to all 3 credit bureaus monthly, which can help improve your credit score
  
• Free Online 24-hour Account Access and Bill Pay
  
• Periodic credit limit increases

DID YOU KNOW?

	Information is one of the keys to profit. Naturally you have to know what money is coming in. But if you track where your money is going, you can more easily adjust or reduce your monthly expenditures without changing your lifestyle. All you need are four statements to determine how you are making and spending your money: Your credit card bill A monthly bank statement Your income tax report Your investment statement from your broker or mutual fund company Your credit card can become one of your most valuable tools in your personal financial plan. The credit card provides you with free credit on a short-term basis, if you pay the balance in full every month. The many cards in the marketplace make it appealing to make as many of your purchases as possible on plastic, to collect the various air miles, cash rebates, or other points that are available. Just as importantly, the monthly statement will provider you with most of the information you need to track your monthly spending. The next important piece of paper is your bank statement. It will fill in the holes that the credit card statement doesn’t answer. You can examine your bank statement to see how often you used an ATM or how much you spent with direct and preauthorized payments. It is a good idea to establish as many pre-authorized payments as possible including the gas bill, the phone bill, and your mortgage. You should try to pay for all your bills using your credit card, pre-authorized payments, and debit card transactions and then easily track all your expenses with the exception of some spending money. Your Tax report will provide a summary of your taxes and credits. Your last vital statement comes from your investment broker or mutual fund company. This statement will provide you with essential information such as how much money you have made from your investments, what and where you have invested, what your average purchase cost is, and whether you have unrealized gains or losses. Keep all these records in one place where you can access them easily. At the end of each month you will be able to determine how much money came in and how much money went out of your bank account, and more importantly, where it all went. It is worth your while to spend some time with these statements to understand your earning, spending, and investing to make adjustments that can benefit you in the short and long term.

If you have high debt, and are in trouble, you have probably heard the term “credit counseling,” but do you understand what it is? Oftentimes this term is used in the same sentence as debt negotiation or debt settlement, but actually, it’s a completely different process. With credit counseling, you will actually work with a professional credit counselor to pay off your debt in lower, monthly payments that you can afford.

The people most likely to need credit counseling are those who are receiving troubling phone calls from bill collectors, or whose accounts have gone to collection agencies. If you think that you may benefit from using a service like this, please read on to find out the best way to work with a credit counseling company.

First, you’ll need to be able to find a good credit counseling company, and not fall victim to one of the many credit counseling scams that are out there. Start by avoiding any ads that promise you quick fixes for your credit report. There is no such thing. Instead, look for a reliable company that is accredited by Consumer Credit Counseling Services.

Next, you’ll have to meet with a professional credit counselor, and provide them with all of the details of your debt. Don’t be tempted to leave anything out because they will need the information in order to create a re-payment plan made just for you.

Now, you can sit back and allow your professional credit counselor to work for you. They will contact all of your creditors and inform them that you are trying to create a plan that will allow you pay off your debts. They will work with them all and coordinate a re-payment schedule that you can live with. Many times, they will be able to lower your interest rates in order to allow for lower payments.

Some credit counseling services offer a debt management system. What is it? Instead of having to keep up with all of the payments yourself, you will have the option of submitting one lump sum payment to the credit counseling service and they will do it for you. One note of caution here: there have been instances of a credit counseling services paying their client’s payments late, and if that happens, your credit report will suffer for it. Knowing that, be sure to check out the company thoroughly, by checking references, before signing up for their debt management program.

What will you pay for all of these services? A reputable Credit Counseling Service will only charge you a small fee, somewhere around fourteen dollars per month. If they are asking for alot of money up front, they may not have your best intests at heart. Be on the look out for potenial scams.

You should also be aware that working with a credit counseling service can do some damage to your credit report. However, the good does out weigh the bad. After all, it’s much easier to explain an honest attempt to get your finances in order than it is to explain a bankruptcy or a credit report full of charge-offs.