Book Review: Credit Scores, Credit Cards

Recently, I received a couple of books related to personal finance as part of a contest that I entered. And since the books were related to personal finance and was part of a series that I had not seen before, I opted to work toward doing a review of the two books. The first book titled “Credit Scores, Credit Cards” by The Silver Lake is reviewed below. I will a link to this entry with a link to the second book once I have finished reading and reviewing it.

Setting Expectations

Since I didn’t have to pay for the book, I wasn’t expecting much. The list price on the back was 11.95. I don’t know if I would say that this is a fair price for this book. On the one hand, if you cannot get the information that is in the book elsewhere, (perhaps because you don’t have internet access or you aren’t savvy with the computer), it might be worth it. But I think that much of the information is available elsewhere.

Unique Structure

The book is definitely written for the masses. There is tons of advice contained inside and the information is divided into small, straightforward chapters. Callouts and bold text is used to call attention to the key points. It is entirely black and white and no graphics, really. But even still it employs techniques that are used to keep the reader on-task and help bring some interest to an otherwise boring topic.

Historical Context

In addition to the information provided, the book also cites laws and specific cases and legal proceedings to really confirm the points that are made. This is a nice technique to give some credibility to the authors and make you feel like the information that you are getting is really true and useful. I found tha these items also showed that the credit card companies are not a law unto themselves and these agencies are in fact fallible. Most importantly, you must read everything and protect yourself.

Getting Off Topic

On the flip-side, this book does end up off-roading into concepts like mortgage refinancing, budgetting, and debt snowballing and provides information that seems to be more of a personal finance 101 book rather than dealing with credit cards or credit reports. But I can forgive this minor point.

Overall

Overall this is a nice book and it does provide some interesting points of information. A nice quick-read at about 150 short pages (The book is pamphlet-style.), I think that this might be a nice book if you are a more savvy personal finance person and are interested in some of the more interesting and finer points of credit cards and techniques.

Don’t expect to save gobs of money, though. This book is a great refresher and in-depth/historical reference — not a great first-look tutorial into personal finance. If you are new to personal finance, there are many other, better, generalist books available. This book is most easily found online. It is unlikely to be found in your local borders or Barnes and Noble bookstore.

So, if you want to get it, try using the ISBN number: ISBN 1-56343-782-1

Again, the book is titled: Credit Scores, Credit Cards - How Consumer Finance Works How to Avoid Mistakes and How to Manage Your Accounts Well.