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| TERMS & DEFINITIONS |
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| Annual Fee: This is the amount charged on an annual basis by the issuer of the credit card to the cardholder. |
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| APR: An acronym for "annual percentage rate". This is usually the rate charged for holding a credit balance. |
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| ATM: An acronym for "automated teller machine". This is a machine that, with a debit or credit card and a PIN, you can check your balance, transfer money, make a deposit or a withdrawal of money from a savings or checking account 24 hours a day. |
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| ATM Balance Inquiry Fee: For some ATMs there will be a $1.50 (or other) transaction fee. If you are using a debit card that is from the same bank as the teller machine that you are using there may not be any transaction fee. |
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| Balance Transfer: This is when a balance is transferred electronically from one account to another account. There is a list of the best credit cards for balance transfer on this site. |
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| Catalog Credit Card: This is a line of credit issued almost exclusively to use at specific internet shopping catalogs and web sites. |
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| Cash Advance Transaction Fee: The amount charged per transaction to the account holder for receiving cash through the use of their card at an ATM. Usual this is a flat rate, such as $3. |
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| Cash Withdrawal Fee: It is often the amount charged if the cash advance transaction fee is less than the cash withdrawal fee. The cash withdrawal fee is usually a percentage, such as 3%. |
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| Charge Card: A line of credit, that functions like a credit card, except that it must be paid in full each month. |
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| Check Card: Its basically the same as a debit card. |
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| Co-Signer: An additional signer to the principal signer. This is used to verify the authenticity of the principal signature and to provide financial responsibility if the loan goes into default. |
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| Corporation: An entity given legal authority by the state, that can act as a person, separate from the individual shareholders who make up the corporation. |
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| Credit Card: A plastic payment card with a magnetic strip issued to purchase goods, services and get cash against a line of credit established by the issuer, whether the issuer is a bank, corporation, company, trust or retail store. |
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| Customer Reimbursement Fee: The fee charged to process the reimbursement of funds to a credit or debit card account. |
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| Customer Service Inquiry Fee: This fee, if it applies, is charged for calling the customer service hotline of a particular card issuer. |
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| Debit Card: A by-product of a bank account, used in place of cash. When purchases are made funds are automatically deducted from the bank account connected with the debit card. |
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| Default Rate: This is the interest rate that a credit account reverts to when the introductory period has run out of time or the minimum monthly payments are not made. |
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| Finance Charge: This is the interest charged to a revolving credit card account, billed monthly. The monthly finance charge can be determined roughly by dividing the APR by twelve and multiply it by the debt or credit balance. |
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| Fixed Interest Rate: A predetermined interest rate that will stay fixed by remaining the same throughout the life of a loan or mortgage. |
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| Grace Period: The number of days before a credit card issuer starts to charge interest on a newly made purchase - usually twenty to twenty-five days. |
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| Late Payment Fee: The fee is charged to your account when it is not paid in full by the payment due date. Usually this is a flat rate, like $20 or $25. |
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| LLC: An acronym for "Limited Liability Corporation". This type of business organization protects the owners from being personally liable in the event that their company gets sued. |
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| Merchant Account: An account with a bank (processor) that allows a merchant (seller) to accept credit card payments from a customer (buyer). Accounts opened in this way usually start off processing only Visa® (issuer) and MasterCard® ( issuer) credit cards and it will usually take a few more steps to be able to accept Discover® (issuer) or American Express® (issuer) credit cards. Once payments are accepted, funds are then transferred electronically to the merchant's bank account about one to four days later. |
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| Money Manager Account: An account for an individual who is responsible for managing the financial portfolios of other people and/or entities. In the case of an offshore money manager, this would give client investments distinct tax advantages. |
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| Non-Profit Corporation: A corporation formed, not with the intent to realize a profit, but instead established for charitable, educational, literary, scientific or religious purposes. Non-profit corporations, by definition, are granted tax-exempt status at the federal and state level. |
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| Over-Limit / Overdraft Fee: A fee that is billed when the charges exceed the available credit line. This is how, and probably why, some card issuers allow you more credit than what is stated as your official available line of credit. |
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| PIN: An acronym for "Personal Identification Number". In order to withdrawal cash from an ATM a PIN is always required. |
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| Prepaid Card: A card that will work exactly like a credit card, except that money must be deposited in it first for it to have any credit in the account. |
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| Processing: This involves authorizing credit cards, managing credit card payments and withdrawing funds into your bank account. This can take place almost instantly or it can take more than half a week depending on the form of payment and the merchant service used to process the transaction. |
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| Incorporation: This is the actual process of becoming a corporation, whether it is a limited liability a corporation, a non-profit corporation, or a s-corporation. |
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| Introductory APR: This is the annual percentage rate for the introductory period of a new credit card that usually lasts about six to nine months. However, this rate is only valid if the minimum monthly payments are made on time during for the introductory period. |
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| Replacement Card Fee: The fee that is charged to replace a card when it has been lost or stolen. |
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| Returned Check Fee: When a check is returned due to insufficient account funds this fee that will be charged. Most companies charge $25 for returned checks. |
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| Secured: Debt, or a line of credit, that is backed by a pledge of collateral. Secured debts have security, which means that a borrower is subject to having a creditor take property and assets in the event of default. |
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| S-Corporation: This is a corporation with special tax status that avoids double taxation. Small business owners and entrepreneurs use this type of corporation to get taxed as if they were sole proprietors or business partners. |
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| Statement Fee: The fee charged for the written statement of your monthly account activity, sent by post to the mailing address of the account. |
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| Stored Value: Basically the same thing as a debit card, except that a stored value card may only be loaded with by a payroll check or by a deposit at an accepted financial institution, like Western Union®. |
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| Terms and Conditions: This is the most important piece of information regarding any financial offer. It usually tells you the issuer's name, the APRs, the fees, the rates, the rules and the stipulations, etc. |
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| Trust: A legal arrangement involving the person who created a trust giving fiduciary control of said property over to the trustee, which would be another person or an institution. This web site only has information about offshore trusts. |
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| Unsecured: Credit backed not by collateral, but instead only by the personal integrity of the individual borrower. |
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| Virtual Terminal: This is a secure internet browser-based credit card processor that gives businesses an interface with which to authorize and manage credit card transactions from any computer in the world with Internet access. The virtual terminal allows the operator of a business to manually enter (and process) "over the phone" or "mailed in" credit card order details. |
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