The financial industry was stunned last summer when the Federal Reserve handed down a rule that effectively halved the amount banks could charge stores every time one of their customers swiped a debit card at a checkout terminal. …
Shoppers blew away even the most optimistic projections of retail analysts by dropping just over $52 billion on Black Friday weekend, according to the National Retail Federation. It’s a bonanza for merchants, but it comes with a dark flip side: Numerous surveys indicate that Americans are using their credit cards to fuel this buying binge.
Claims of lost or stolen credit cards go up by nearly 20% during the holiday season, according to PNC Bank. The reasons are twofold: We tend to use our cards more during this time of year, and thieves are smart enough to know that people tend to be rushed and distracted during this time of year. But some criminals don’t wait until the …
If you hit the mall on Black Friday, you could be under observation. Don’t look behind you, though; a signal emitted by your cell phone could be sending information to receivers that log your path from store to store. A pair of …
A lot of Americans are ticked off at their banks, and a new survey puts some numbers to that sentiment. Consulting firm cg42 says big bank customers will collectively withdraw $185 billion in deposited funds in 2012, and a total …
Dissatisfied customers or unruly protesters? That is the question. After being arrested in the wake of a protest at a New York City Citibank branch in October, Heather Carpenter and Julio Jose Jiminez-Artunduaga are now suing the city for false arrest.
Bank of America and Chase have abandoned controversial fees that were under consideration. But now banks are quietly calculating which other fees can take their place
It’s well-documented that people cut loose and spend more when they’re paying with a credit card rather than cash. Scientists refer to this as a “decoupling of purchase from the pain of payment” — essentially, we don’t perceive credit cards as “real money.” But a new study takes this observation a step further by postulating that we …
Chalk it up to the law of unintended consequences: A team of American and British researchers found that when debtors are presented with information about how much interest they will pay if only minimum payments are made — …
Bank fees are an annoyance, but is there an alternative besides either paying up or pulling up stakes and leaving? Maybe. If you want to keep your bank for other reasons — say, convenience — but the fees are pushing you out the …
Nearly half of all companies check the credit reports of at least some prospective employees during the hiring process, according to the Society for Human Resource Management. This is a daunting statistic for many job-seekers, …
