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CEO & Co-founder
Andrew started his career at a Chicago hedge fund and quickly noticed a problem: the people who most needed financial guidance weren’t getting any. He co-founded Money Crashers in 2009 to fix that with free, plain-language money education. He’s been interviewed by MSNBC, CBS News, NBC News, and Fox News, and featured in Forbes and US News & World Report. Off the clock he plays ice hockey and tennis, and meditates. Andrew holds a bachelor’s in economics from Brown University.
A credit card beats a debit card on fraud protection, the right to dispute charges, rewards, and building credit. But carry a balance, and on average the interest and fees outweigh the rewards. Put everyday spending on credit only if you pay the full balance every month.
Two facts settle most of the choice between Chapter 7 and Chapter 13 bankruptcy. Income above your state’s median for your household size means a second test for Chapter 7. Property a Chapter 7 trustee could sell, like home equity, points to Chapter 13, which lets you keep it. Check both before you call a lawyer.
Cash back sits in your card account until you redeem it, and closing the card can wipe it out. Some issuers also take it after months without activity or when you fall behind on payments. Before you close or downgrade a card, redeem the balance as a statement credit or deposit, which pays full value at most issuers.
Missing your credit card’s minimum payment starts a clock. A late fee can hit right away, a credit report mark at 30 days, a penalty rate at 60, and collections near 180. Each stage is easier to stop than the one after it, so call your issuer before the due date and pay the missed minimum before day 30.
Selling your car can free cash for your other debts when the sale clears the auto loan and whatever replaces the car costs less each month than the car does now. Check both before you list it, then send every freed dollar to your highest-rate debt.
Co-signing a credit card makes you liable for every dollar someone else charges, with no say in how they spend. An authorized user’s charges are yours to pay too. If you want to help someone build credit, put them on your own card as an authorized user instead, where you can cut off their spending anytime.
Switching your Chase Sapphire Preferred to the Chase Sapphire Reserve® keeps your account and points but gives up the Reserve’s sign-up bonus, now worth $1,000 at a cent a point, $205 more than its $795 annual fee. If you’ve never had the Reserve, apply for it as a new card first, and upgrade only if you can’t get the bonus.
A rotating-category card pays 5% only if you activate each quarter’s categories. Skip activation and most of those purchases earn just 1%. Set a recurring reminder for the first day of every quarter and activate that day, since some issuers pay the 5% only from your activation date forward.
Many business credit cards don’t require a limited liability company (LLC) or an employer identification number (EIN). If you freelance, do gig work, or run a side business, apply as a sole proprietor, with your own name as the business name and your Social Security number as the tax ID.
Swiping lets a hidden skimmer copy your card’s magnetic stripe, and a thief can turn that data into a fake card. A chip or a tap sends a one-time code, though a skimmer inside a pump or ATM can still read an inserted card’s stripe. Tap when you can, insert the chip when you can’t, and swipe last.
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