Some interesting news out today regarding credit cards and the economy at large, as numbers from May trickle in. According to USA Today (via statistics from the Federal Reserve), credit card usage - and balances - were up considerably from May to April.

Quarter 3 starts in less than a week, which means Citi® Dividend Platinum Select® Visa® Card members can soon begin earning 5 percent cash back on new bonus categories just announced.

I'll admit that I'm a bit of a newbie when it comes to peer-to-peer lending. I heard of the idea a while back, but only recently started researching it as a legitimate refinancing tool for consumers in credit debt. As it turns out, peer-to-peer lending could be a very useful means for consumers mired in interest-heavy debt to pay it down at a lower rate, depending on their credit score.

Before we dig too deep into how this works, here's a quick summary on peer-to-peer lending...

The longest day of the year might feel like today, Monday, but it's actually this Friday, June 21st. Yup - June is somehow already half over, meaning July is just a couple of weeks off and - with it - the beginning of Quarter 3.

Q3 kick-off is a holiday in credit card circles. (Yes, those exist.) Why? Because the beginning of the new quarter means the start of new rotating cash back categories going live! Discover, Chase and Citi all have featured cards whose quarterly rotating categories are set to go live on July 1st.

Low interest credit cards keep the dangers of snowballing debt low, even for those consumers that carry a higher balance. Look - anytime you can avoid carrying a balance, you should. No matter how low an interest rate is, any interest paid still hurts your overall bottom line. That said, sometimes carrying a balance is unavoidable - be it because of emergencies or otherwise - and in those instances, having a low ongoing interest is crucial to your ability to pay down your debt.