Think of credit card skins like the “skins” that people choose to dress up their iPod. It’s like a wardrobe of tiny clothing that won’t keep your card from working like it’s supposed to (unless you have a “smart chip” Visa). Credit card skins are basically super thin stickers that you apply to the front of your card with a hole over where your name, card number, and expiration date go.

There are websites where you can choose from a dizzying array of credit card skins with every kind of graphic or message you can imagine, from gay pride to preppy Argyle designs. Creditcovers.com has hundreds of designs to choose from and an opportunity to make your own design and make royalties from it if it sells.

Businesses can order custom credit card skins as unique and fun promotional giveaways. You can also make your own graphic credit card skins using a template in Adobe PhotoShop or a similar graphics program using t-shirt transfer paper and a color inkjet printer. Once you have the design the right size and the right shape (with the hole for your name, card number, and expiration date), print it out onto t-shirt transfer paper then cut the design out with scissors. You then put spray mount on the card, peel the backing from the transfer paper and place the design on the card. Put the ironing paper that comes with the t-shirt transfer paper over the card on an ironing board or reasonable facsimile. Preheat iron to “low.” Iron the card for 15 seconds. Check if the design adheres. If not, iron for 15 more seconds. But be careful, lest you melt your credit card with too much heat. Let cool. After the card has cooled cut away excess transfer paper with a mat knife.

Sometimes the best design for a credit card is the one that brings you the lowest interest rate. Once you have that, if it isn’t beautiful enough for you, then skins are the way to personalize your card into a statement about yourself.

About the Author:

Peter Carville is a freelance article writer who writes for Financial Facts about the current financial news and the credit crunch.

Most people, particularly if they travel, cannot do without a credit card. They can, however, do without eight or nine credit cards. Most money experts suggest having two credit cards, both of which provide a backstop in times of trouble. For those with multiple credit cards, there are several options for paying off your debt.

One option is transferring debt onto a new credit card with a low introductory interest rate and putting all your effort into paying that debt off before the “teaser” interest rate expires. It sounds like a great idea in principle, but if you can’t pay off €4,000 indefinitely with 14.9% interest, it isn’t that much more likely you’ll be able to pay it off in the 10 months or so that you have the low rate on the new card.

There are two approaches to paying off credit card debt. One is to pay off the one with the highest interest rate first. It makes sense that you’d want to pay off your most expensive debt before paying off your cheaper debt. If you choose to do this, and the card with the high rate has a big balance, you can certainly do it, but it will take serious discipline. If you can look at your statements online and watch as the balance falls, however, you can really draw motivation from that to keep working on the debt.

Another technique for paying off credit card debt is the “snowball” technique. That means you pay off your smallest debt first, then close the account, on the theory that you’ll be really chuffed at having got rid of an entire card’s worth of debt. Repeat with the new smallest debt, etc.

Either technique will work, and there is discipline involved in both. Which method you choose depends on your particular personality and what motivates you.

Consolidating loans may sound like a great way to get out of debt, but human nature being what it is, the sense of relief causes a lot of people to run up a whole new cycle of debt. In other words, borrowing your way out of debt is usually counterproductive.

Author : Peter Carville is a freelance article writer who writes for Financial Facts about the current financial news and the credit crunch.