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	<title>Business &#38; MoneyCategory: Paying With Plastic &#124; Business &#38; Money &#124; TIME.com</title>
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		<title>Business &#38; MoneyCategory: Paying With Plastic &#124; Business &#38; Money &#124; TIME.com</title>
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		<title>4 Prepaid Debit Card Fees You Should Never Pay</title>
		<link>http://business.time.com/2013/04/18/4-prepaid-debit-card-fees-you-should-never-pay/</link>
		<comments>http://business.time.com/2013/04/18/4-prepaid-debit-card-fees-you-should-never-pay/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Thu, 18 Apr 2013 18:37:27 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Martha C. White</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Paying With Plastic]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Saving & Spending]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://business.time.com/?p=77879</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[The entrance of mainstream financial institutions transformed the prepaid debit card market. Customers have more options today, and many of the newer cards closely resemble the checking accounts they are replacing. The big difference is that prepaid cards are more lightly regulated than bank accounts, which is a concern to consumer advocates because the quality and consumer-friendliness of the cards on the market varies widely as a result. It’s still a buyer-beware marketplace, and Bankrate.com breaks down the details in its annual survey of the 24 biggest prepaid cards by market share.  A word about monthly fees: About two-thirds of the cards in Bankrate’s survey charge a monthly fee. Roughly half of those can be waived if you have a paycheck or benefits direct-deposited onto the card, but some of the thresholds are prohibitively high. For example, to avoid the $3.95 monthly fee charged by the READYdebit Control card, you have to have $1,500 loaded onto the card monthly. It’s the same story with the Moneygram AccountNow card, except the user has to have $2,500 deposited each month to avoid a $9.95 monthly fee. You can knock only $5 off the AchieveCard Visa’s $9.95 monthly fee, not eliminate it completely, and to do that you still have to have $2,000 deposited onto the card each month. All of these are considerably higher than the direct deposit thresholds Bank of America, Chase, Citibank, and Wells Fargo set to waive the fee for their basic checking accounts. But you shouldn&#8217;t choose a card based solely on its monthly fee or lack thereof. Some cards that tout no monthly fees stick in all sorts of other fees. Meanwhile, some cards that do charge monthly fees offer a lot of other features and services at no cost. The Chase Liquid card, for instance, charges $4.95 a month (waived if you already have a Chase bank account you link to the Liquid) but gives users access to many of the services regular checking account customers get. (MORE: Should You Get a Prepaid Debit Card?) Some<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=business.time.com&#038;blog=31173800&#038;post=77879&#038;subd=timebusinessblog&#038;ref=&#038;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></description>
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		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
	<primary_category>Paying With Plastic</primary_category><primary_category_link>http://business.time.com/category/saving-spending/paying-with-plastic/</primary_category_link>
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			<media:title type="html">marthacwhite</media:title>
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		<item>
		<title>Why Banks Love Debit Cards Again</title>
		<link>http://business.time.com/2013/03/28/why-banks-love-debit-cards-again/</link>
		<comments>http://business.time.com/2013/03/28/why-banks-love-debit-cards-again/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Thu, 28 Mar 2013 13:00:17 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Martha C. White</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Banking]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Paying With Plastic]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Personal Finance]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Saving & Spending]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[bank fees]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[debit cards]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Fees]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[interchange]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[interchange fees]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[overdrafts]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[swipe fees]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://business.time.com/?p=75869</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Debit cards were supposed to be toast. The industry started writing their obituary when financial reform targeted overdraft fees and interchange or “swipe” fees, which had made debit cards extremely lucrative for banks. So why is it that banks are now pushing debit cards like never before?  A couple years ago, the banking industry warned federal regulators that reform efforts could lead to both an increase in fees and a decrease in debit card usage. “Banks and credit unions could charge for various debit card‐related products and services that are now offered free of charge, such as free debit cards and free debit card transactions,” a consortium of financial industry executives wrote in a 2011 letter to the Federal Reserve arguing against reform. “Issuers could also be forced to discourage the use of debit cards for certain transactions &#8230; there could also be a reduction or termination of various products and services associated with debit card programs.” As it turned out, none of that really happened. After an initial retrenchment, banks now are marketing debit cards as aggressively as ever. They&#8217;re even adding back debit card rewards programs, which many had discontinued in anticipation of the hit the regulations would deliver to their bottom lines. New Federal Reserve data shows that the caps on interchange or swipe fees are working as intended. The average fee &#8212; the amount card issuers (banks) charged to merchants for each card swipe &#8212; dropped to 24 cents from 50 cents before the legislation took effect in 2011. CardHub.com crunched the numbers and estimated that big banks are losing about $8 billion a year as a result. (MORE: Another Swipe-Fee Battle Looms — This Time Over Credit Cards) Because banks are earning less from debit cards, you might think that they&#8217;d want to steer customers away from using them. In fact, just the opposite is true. Banks are trying to make up for the decrease in the amount collected per fee with increased volume. “You need economies of scale” to make today&#8217;s debit-based business model<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=business.time.com&#038;blog=31173800&#038;post=75869&#038;subd=timebusinessblog&#038;ref=&#038;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></description>
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		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
	<primary_category>Banking</primary_category><primary_category_link>http://business.time.com/category/banking-2/</primary_category_link><featured_image>http://timebusinessblog.files.wordpress.com/2012/03/identity_theft_02291.jpg?w=240</featured_image>
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			<media:title type="html">credit card, identity theft</media:title>
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			<media:title type="html">marthacwhite</media:title>
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		<title>How to Master the Allowance Question and Prepaid Cards in One Shot</title>
		<link>http://business.time.com/2013/02/15/how-to-master-the-allowance-question-and-prepaid-cards-in-one-shot/</link>
		<comments>http://business.time.com/2013/02/15/how-to-master-the-allowance-question-and-prepaid-cards-in-one-shot/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Fri, 15 Feb 2013 14:00:31 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Dan Kadlec</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Budgeting]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Credit Cards]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Decision Making]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Financial Education]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Financial Planning]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Giving]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Paying With Plastic]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Personal Finance]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Planning]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Saving & Spending]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://business.time.com/?p=70230</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Some years ago I was looking to set up a simple third-party automated allowance system for my three children and discovered that banks could be a costly facilitator. The fees for sub-accounts and weekly transfers were ludicrously high, given the small amounts of cash involved. But I was determined to get out of the business of handing cash to my kids either weekly or upon request. I was equally determined to put the kids on a budget and in charge of their own spending decisions, believing it to be the most effective financial teaching tool in the universe. So I chose the bank with the most efficient set-up, swallowed hard and signed up. At my Bank of America branch I was able to get the features I wanted most—automatic transfers to each child’s account either weekly or monthly with a provision that did now allow the accounts to become overdrawn. When the money was gone, they would get denied. (MORE: How to Celebrate Anti-Valentine&#8217;s Day) But I had to open both a savings and a checking account, and three sub-accounts. The complicated fee structure and transfer limitations were such that I deposited money in my savings account and then moved it to my checking account, and then moved it to the sub-accounts. Most of the accounts were subject to a monthly maintenance fee and there were the usual ATM withdrawal fees as well. It was a relatively costly and inconvenient system. But it was the best I could do. Today, parents have much better options by avoiding the banks altogether. An online cottage industry has emerged to simplify and automate allowances, allowing parents to track spending and, if they choose, tie their payments to chores. I count a couple dozen such websites, ranging from the fairly well known ThreeJars.com to recent entrant Tykoon.com. But as far as I can tell no one has attacked the issue more thoroughly than FamZoo.com, where founder and father of five Bill Dwight is now introducing a “family pack” of prepaid cards that will do<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=business.time.com&#038;blog=31173800&#038;post=70230&#038;subd=timebusinessblog&#038;ref=&#038;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></description>
		<wfw:commentRss>http://business.time.com/2013/02/15/how-to-master-the-allowance-question-and-prepaid-cards-in-one-shot/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
	<primary_category>Financial Education</primary_category><primary_category_link>http://business.time.com/category/planning/financial-education/</primary_category_link>
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			<media:title type="html">dankadlec</media:title>
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		<title>Misguided? Half of Adult Children Think Parents Made No Money Mistakes</title>
		<link>http://business.time.com/2013/02/04/misguided-half-of-adult-children-think-parents-made-no-money-mistakes/</link>
		<comments>http://business.time.com/2013/02/04/misguided-half-of-adult-children-think-parents-made-no-money-mistakes/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Mon, 04 Feb 2013 20:02:12 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Dan Kadlec</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Borrowing]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Credit Cards]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Financial Education]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Financial Planning]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Paying With Plastic]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Personal Finance]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Planning]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Retirement]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Saving & Spending]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://business.time.com/?p=69456</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Every parent can remember when their 9- or 10-year-old children began to question Mom and Dad’s infallibility on issues like bedtime and vegetables. Evidently it takes a lot longer for kids to question their parents knowledge of money matters, new data show. Nearly half of adult children past age 30 say their parents made no money mistakes, according to part two of Fidelity Investments Intra-Family Generational Finance Study. That’s a stunning result given the mortgage and home foreclosure crisis and the generally under-saved and highly indebted condition threatening the retirement of millions of boomers. (MORE: Student Loan Debt Crisis: How&#8217;d We Get Here and What Happens Next?) One in three people age 60-plus say they don’t feel prepared financially to live to 85; almost one in two say the same about living to 95, according to a Northwestern Mutual Life survey. The half of adult kids that do question Mom and Dad’s financial prowess cite woeful retirement savings and inefficient use of savings options as their biggest concerns, according to the Fidelity survey, which polled households with at least $100,000 in savings. For their part, parents are quick to list the financial miscues of their adult children: 42% say the kids have too much credit card debt; 38% say the kids are not saving enough for retirement; and 36% say kids do not have a large enough emergency fund. These are issues that broadly plague the parents too, though their adult kids don’t seem to grasp that. “They are projecting a little bit,” Kathleen A. Murphy, president of Personal Investing at Fidelity, says of the parents. “They don’t want their kids to make the same mistakes that they made.” The findings point up the importance of family discussions about money. While a broad movement rightly seeks to make financial education part of every school’s curriculum, kids most trust their parents when it comes to learning about money. It doesn’t seem to matter if parents have been poor money managers. They need to be part of the process. Parents can offer<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=business.time.com&#038;blog=31173800&#038;post=69456&#038;subd=timebusinessblog&#038;ref=&#038;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></description>
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		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
	<primary_category>Financial Education</primary_category><primary_category_link>http://business.time.com/category/planning/financial-education/</primary_category_link>
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			<media:title type="html">dankadlec</media:title>
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		<item>
		<title>Celebrity Prepaid Cards: Will Justin Bieber Fare Better than the Kardashians?</title>
		<link>http://business.time.com/2013/01/22/celebrity-prepaid-cards-will-justin-bieber-fare-better-than-the-kardashians/</link>
		<comments>http://business.time.com/2013/01/22/celebrity-prepaid-cards-will-justin-bieber-fare-better-than-the-kardashians/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Tue, 22 Jan 2013 17:00:26 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Dan Kadlec</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Borrowing]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Credit Cards]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Financial Education]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Paying With Plastic]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Personal Finance]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Planning]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://business.time.com/?p=67371</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Thank goodness for celebrities. Without them we might never fully appreciate blatant self-interest, and we definitely would not have so many occasions to discuss the evils of fee-laden prepaid debit cards. The latest star with plans to fleece his adoring public is teen hit-maker Justin Bieber—with a hearty assist from an online finanical firm that goes by the unfortunate name BillMyParents. The card, announced last fall, is set to go live in the next week or so. As part of the endorsement deal, Bieber is expected to appeal to young people to learn more about personal finance. If he is successful with such an appeal they won&#8217;t use his card. Go figure. With 50 million Facebook fans and 32 million followers on Twitter, a Bieber card might seem like money in the bank—for the Biebs and the sponsoring website. But hits are difficult to predict. You have to wonder if Bieber’s babysitters paid attention to the failed Kardashian Kard, launched in November 2010 and quickly taken off the market amid rampant criticism of its predatory fee structure. (MORE: Young Workers With a 401(k) Finally Get Diversified) The Kardashian sisters were subsequently sued for breach of contract. They prevailed in that legal entanglement. But what star needs this kind of publicity? Financial guru Suze Orman, whose prepaid card looks good next to other star-powered offerings, has endured grief as well. Orman’s Approved Card launched a year ago amid criticism that, as a trusted money adviser, she should always steer her fans to the most economical prepaid cards on the market. Her card would not qualify. Prepaid debit cards are not inherently evil, and there is a place for those marketed directly to young people. Among the advantages: Kids can use a pre-paid card to shop online. Parents get a detailed spending report. Over drafting is not a risk. Pre-paid cards are easy to re-load and thus may be good vehicles for paying allowance, assuming no or low re-load fees. Kids become familiar with plastic in a controlled environment. With the Bieber<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=business.time.com&#038;blog=31173800&#038;post=67371&#038;subd=timebusinessblog&#038;ref=&#038;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></description>
		<wfw:commentRss>http://business.time.com/2013/01/22/celebrity-prepaid-cards-will-justin-bieber-fare-better-than-the-kardashians/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
	<primary_category>Paying With Plastic</primary_category><primary_category_link>http://business.time.com/category/saving-spending/paying-with-plastic/</primary_category_link><featured_image>http://timebusinessblog.files.wordpress.com/2013/01/158288592.jpg?w=240</featured_image>
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			<media:title type="html">Power 96.1&#039;s Jingle Ball 2012 - Show</media:title>
		</media:content>

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			<media:title type="html">dankadlec</media:title>
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		<item>
		<title>The Rise of the Alterna-Banks: 4 Options Beyond Traditional Banking</title>
		<link>http://business.time.com/2013/01/17/the-rise-of-the-alterna-banks-4-options-beyond-traditional-banking/</link>
		<comments>http://business.time.com/2013/01/17/the-rise-of-the-alterna-banks-4-options-beyond-traditional-banking/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Thu, 17 Jan 2013 13:00:02 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Martha C. White</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Banking]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Mobile]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Paying With Plastic]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Saving & Spending]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Technology & Media]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[American Express]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[bank fees]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[banking]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[banks]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Bluebird]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[GoBank]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[GreenDot]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Kasasa]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Mango]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Mint.com]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Mobile Banking]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[online banking]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[overdraft fees]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[prepaid debit card]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[prepaid debit cards]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Simple]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Walmart]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://business.time.com/?p=66585</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Is it time to part ways your bank? There are more options than ever for people looking for a different kind of banking experience &#8212; many of them without the onerous fees and requirements of traditional bank accounts.  [Updated on 1/17/13] According to the FDIC, 821,000 households ditched their banks between 2009 and 2011. The financial crisis, the foreclosure robosigning scandal, and the huge amounts of money banks were raking in from fees turned consumers against their banks. Even as new regulations have forced banks to change some of their ways, more customers are expected to close their accounts going forward. A survey by Javelin Strategy &#38; Research found that 11% of Americans plan to switch banking institutions in the next year. If you&#8217;re one of them, it may be time to desert traditional banks entirely and consider one of these alterna-bank options: Full-feature prepaid debit cards Maybe you’ve been scared off from banks by overdraft fees and other zingers that sap your balance. You don’t mind paying a little bit, but you want to know what fees you’re paying upfront. You don’t really use paper checks, but you’d still like to get the other perks that come with a regular bank account. If these descriptions apply to you, look into prepaid cards. What’s good: There’s a lot more competition today. The prepaid landscape has expanded greatly over the past couple of years, prompting providers to lower fees and add features. (MORE: Should You Get a Prepaid Debit Card?) What’s not: Prepaid cards are still mostly unregulated, consumer advocates point out. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau will be taking a look at the prepaid debit card marketplace, but so far there&#8217;s limited oversight. Most prepaid debit card providers voluntarily comply with rules for regular debit cards, so that customers are protected if a card is lost or stolen. Still, providers aren&#8217;t required to comply. The lack of rules also means there is something of a free-for-all when it comes to fees. Many card providers claim transparency, but you still have to examine<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=business.time.com&#038;blog=31173800&#038;post=66585&#038;subd=timebusinessblog&#038;ref=&#038;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></description>
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		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
	<primary_category>Banking</primary_category><primary_category_link>http://business.time.com/category/banking-2/</primary_category_link><featured_image>http://timebusinessblog.files.wordpress.com/2011/07/108208176-e13098728095901.jpg?w=240</featured_image>
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			<media:title type="html">Bank</media:title>
		</media:content>

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			<media:title type="html">marthacwhite</media:title>
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	</item>
		<item>
		<title>Why More Americans Will Fall Behind on Credit-Card Bills This Year</title>
		<link>http://business.time.com/2013/01/07/why-more-americans-will-fall-behind-on-credit-card-bills-this-year/</link>
		<comments>http://business.time.com/2013/01/07/why-more-americans-will-fall-behind-on-credit-card-bills-this-year/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Mon, 07 Jan 2013 10:21:01 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Martha C. White</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Banking]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Credit Cards]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Paying With Plastic]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Saving & Spending]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://business.time.com/?p=65753</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Our collective exercise in austerity appears to be over. Americans are adding to their credit-card balances again, and experts warn more of us are likely to get in over our heads this year. A quarterly report issued last month by the Federal Reserve Bank of New York said that, although our total debt dropped by $74 billion in the third quarter, our credit-card debt actually rose by $2 billion in the same time period. Even as we’re paying down our mortgages (which is where that reduction came from), we’re hitting running up other debts. Credit-card debt isn’t the only problem child here: we also added $18 billion in car loans and $23 billion in new student-loan debt during the quarter. The average borrower had $4,996 in debt as of the third quarter of 2012, according to credit bureau TransUnion. That amount is expected to rise to $5,446 by the end of this year, the highest it’s been since 2009, when our average debt topped out at $5,776. So far, we’ve been able to stay on top of this rising debt load. New data from the American Bankers Association (ABA) found that delinquencies on bank-issued credit cards were as low as they’ve been in nearly two decades in the third quarter of 2012. Don’t pat yourself on the back just yet, though; ABA chief economist James Chessen says this could change very quickly. (MORE: Is a $1 Trillion Coin a Good Way to Avoid Another Debt-Ceiling Impasse?) “The lack of broad-based improvement remains a cause for concern &#8230; slow job growth, continued uncertainty and falling consumer confidence could signal rising delinquencies in the year ahead,” he warns in a statement. The expiring payroll-tax cut also means that the average household will have about $1,000 less in take-home income this year. In a November forecast, TransUnion also said the percentage of people more than 90 days late on their credit-card bills would creep up this year, in a large part because banks are once again signing up customers who are more likely to<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=business.time.com&#038;blog=31173800&#038;post=65753&#038;subd=timebusinessblog&#038;ref=&#038;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></description>
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		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
	<primary_category>Credit Cards</primary_category><primary_category_link>http://business.time.com/category/saving-spending/credit-cards-saving-spending/</primary_category_link><featured_image>http://timebusinessblog.files.wordpress.com/2013/01/credit.jpg?w=240</featured_image>
		<media:thumbnail url="http://timebusinessblog.files.wordpress.com/2013/01/credit.jpg?w=240" />
		<media:content url="http://timebusinessblog.files.wordpress.com/2013/01/credit.jpg?w=240" medium="image">
			<media:title type="html">Credit Card</media:title>
		</media:content>

		<media:content url="http://0.gravatar.com/avatar/9a5a9e4f28beb5afb59b1202632d219a?s=96&#38;d=http%3A%2F%2F0.gravatar.com%2Favatar%2Fad516503a11cd5ca435acc9bb6523536%3Fs%3D96&#38;r=G" medium="image">
			<media:title type="html">marthacwhite</media:title>
		</media:content>
	</item>
		<item>
		<title>What&#8217;s Hot on the Dating Scene? Good Credit</title>
		<link>http://business.time.com/2013/01/02/whats-hot-on-the-dating-scene-good-credit/</link>
		<comments>http://business.time.com/2013/01/02/whats-hot-on-the-dating-scene-good-credit/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Wed, 02 Jan 2013 16:00:21 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Dan Kadlec</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Borrowing]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Credit Cards]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Decision Making]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Financial Education]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Financial Planning]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Paying With Plastic]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Personal Finance]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Planning]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Saving & Spending]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Smart Spending]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://business.time.com/?p=65216</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Tall. Brunette. Active. Likes running, tennis, traveling, and sipping tea in front of a roaring fire. Great credit score. Wait a minute. Wha? Great credit score? Yes, good credit is an attribute that has become worth shouting about on dating websites. That, anyway, is the theory behind creditscoredating.com and datemycreditscore.com, matchmaker websites addressing the concerns of the fiscally prudent lovelorn. (MORE: The Top 5 Tech Business Stories of 2012) Never mind that these sites don’t appear to be attracting a lot of traffic. They wouldn’t exist at all if not for a burgeoning trend where mate seekers long for a peek under your balance sheet before they peek under anything else. This is especially true of young people, who may bring tens of thousands of dollars of student debt to a relationship. That is such a turn-off. The New York Times interviewed more than 50 daters under 40 from around the country and found that many of them regarded a good credit score as a prerequisite for a good date. As the Times reported: “‘Credit scores are like the dating equivalent of a sexually transmitted disease test,’ said Manisha Thakor, the founder and chief executive of MoneyZen Wealth Management, a financial advisory firm. ‘It’s a shorthand way to get a sense of someone’s financial past the same way an S.T.D. test gives some information about a person’s sexual past.’” Is this taking the beau-vetting process too far? I don’t think so. Landlords and lenders may look at your credit score to help determine if you are worth taking a chance on. Even employers may do a credit check on you. Why not a prospective mate? How you handle money says a lot about your ability to be organized and responsible. Why would anyone with options risk falling for someone likely to bring heavy debt and poor spending and saving habits to a union? (MORE: 10 Big Retail Trends from the 2012 Holiday Season) Your credit score is a complex calculation based on your debts and payment history. A low score<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=business.time.com&#038;blog=31173800&#038;post=65216&#038;subd=timebusinessblog&#038;ref=&#038;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></description>
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		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
	<primary_category>Financial Education</primary_category><primary_category_link>http://business.time.com/category/planning/financial-education/</primary_category_link><featured_image>http://timebusinessblog.files.wordpress.com/2012/05/credit-cards.jpeg?w=160</featured_image>
		<media:thumbnail url="http://timebusinessblog.files.wordpress.com/2012/05/credit-cards.jpeg?w=160" />
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			<media:title type="html">credit cards</media:title>
		</media:content>

		<media:content url="http://1.gravatar.com/avatar/d69b05e696e822e7e41ae630be72226a?s=96&#38;d=http%3A%2F%2F1.gravatar.com%2Favatar%2Fad516503a11cd5ca435acc9bb6523536%3Fs%3D96&#38;r=G" medium="image">
			<media:title type="html">dankadlec</media:title>
		</media:content>
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		<item>
		<title>Beware Panic Shopping! How to Make a Last-Minute Gift Count</title>
		<link>http://business.time.com/2012/12/19/beware-panic-shopping-how-to-make-a-last-minute-gift-count/</link>
		<comments>http://business.time.com/2012/12/19/beware-panic-shopping-how-to-make-a-last-minute-gift-count/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Wed, 19 Dec 2012 16:53:26 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Dan Kadlec</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Budgeting]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Decision Making]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Financial Education]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Financial Planning]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Paying With Plastic]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Personal Finance]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Planning]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Psychology of Money]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Smart Spending]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://business.time.com/?p=64507</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[With just days remaining before Christmas, the panic-shopping season is upon us. This is a dangerous time of year when desperate consumers bust the budget on silly gifts like a cheeseburger telephone or wasabi lip balm. Forget re-gifting; such items will be in the trash by New Year’s Day. That won’t stop the bill from coming a couple weeks later. Three quarters of adults say they have not finished shopping, according to a new survey from Visa. They expect to spend $304, on average, in the final days leading to Christmas. These numbers are in line with previous years, suggesting that procrastination and wasteful spending is an annual rite. The numbers are fairly consistent across regions, with those in the south and Midwest having the fewest procrastinators (69%) and those in the west (79%) and northeast (78%) having the most last-minute shoppers. Men (72%) and women (74%) procrastinate at about the same rate. (MORE: Why the Fiscal Cliff May Cost You $6,000 in 2013) But men plan to spend another $399, on average, while women plan to spend an average of just another $218. Clearly, a lot of men haven’t yet gone to Jared. Last-minute shoppers over 65 plan to spend the most this week: an average of $402. Somewhat alarming is that young adults aged 18-24 plan to spend another $241, a potentially significant amount of money for an indebted college student or recent graduate in a tough labor market. “When it comes to reaching the Christmas panic shopping cliff, teens are particularly vulnerable because they are the least likely to make a holiday gift budget,” says Jason Alderman, senior director of global financial education at Visa. “Many teens will make the mistake of overspending in order to get a gift, any gift, in time for Christmas. But the people you’re giving gifts to don’t want you to overspend or go in debt, no matter how perfect the present.”  A California Institute of Technology study suggests that customers are willing to pay 50% more for impulse items they see in<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=business.time.com&#038;blog=31173800&#038;post=64507&#038;subd=timebusinessblog&#038;ref=&#038;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></description>
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		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
	<primary_category>Smart Spending</primary_category><primary_category_link>http://business.time.com/category/saving-spending/smart-spending/</primary_category_link><featured_image>http://timebusinessblog.files.wordpress.com/2012/12/gifts.jpg?w=240</featured_image>
		<media:thumbnail url="http://timebusinessblog.files.wordpress.com/2012/12/gifts.jpg?w=240" />
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			<media:title type="html">Christmas</media:title>
		</media:content>

		<media:content url="http://1.gravatar.com/avatar/d69b05e696e822e7e41ae630be72226a?s=96&#38;d=http%3A%2F%2F1.gravatar.com%2Favatar%2Fad516503a11cd5ca435acc9bb6523536%3Fs%3D96&#38;r=G" medium="image">
			<media:title type="html">dankadlec</media:title>
		</media:content>
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		<title>Is This the Best Way to Curb Your Kid&#8217;s Excessive Spending?</title>
		<link>http://business.time.com/2012/11/30/is-this-the-best-way-to-curb-your-kids-excessive-spending/</link>
		<comments>http://business.time.com/2012/11/30/is-this-the-best-way-to-curb-your-kids-excessive-spending/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Fri, 30 Nov 2012 17:56:34 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Zac Bissonnette</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Paying With Plastic]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Saving & Spending]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Smart Spending]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://business.time.com/?p=62470</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[The problems with prepaid debit cards have been so well chronicled by the media lately that anyone launching one has to come up with a new hook that obscures what the product really is: a no-frills checking account with high fees and less flexibility. When he unveiled his RushCard, hip-hop mogul Russell Simmons touted it as a salvo in the battle against the exploitation of just about every disadvantaged group you could imagine: “Debit cards are what keep the under-served &#8212; including minorities, immigrants, the poor, soldiers, veterans and students &#8212; from the claws of payday lenders and check cashers, from humiliating lines waiting to cash their paychecks and then more lines to pay their bills.&#8221; But one of the more intriguing entrants into the prepaid card industry is a small company called BillMyParents, which has embarked on an aggressive marketing campaign to pitch the prepaid card CEO Mike McCoy, former President of Wells Fargo Consumer Credit Cards, told me represents “an opportunity to teach responsible spending and to do it before young adults have developed poor spending habits.” (MORE: Making Personal Finance Cool to Kids) The prepaid card comes with some added bonuses&#8211;and that is where the potential teachable moments come: You can load the card with your kid’s allowance and then, every time your kid makes a purchase, you’ll receive a text message notification. If you&#8217;ve decided he’s spent too much and needs to learn a lesson about restraint, you simply text “1” to the company to lock the card, and then you can text “2” to unlock it. The card is blocked from being accepted at liquor stores and casinos and, in the future, McCoy says, you’ll able to block the card from being used at whatever retailers you decide you don’t want your kid shopping at (I’d block Hot Topic). On the plus side, there’s also a feature to let you (or a friend or relative) transfer funds into your kid’s account instantly from your smart phone in the event of an emergency. It is, the<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=business.time.com&#038;blog=31173800&#038;post=62470&#038;subd=timebusinessblog&#038;ref=&#038;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></description>
		<wfw:commentRss>http://business.time.com/2012/11/30/is-this-the-best-way-to-curb-your-kids-excessive-spending/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
	<primary_category>Smart Spending</primary_category><primary_category_link>http://business.time.com/category/saving-spending/smart-spending/</primary_category_link><featured_image>http://timebusinessblog.files.wordpress.com/2011/07/creditcard21.jpg?w=240</featured_image>
		<media:thumbnail url="http://timebusinessblog.files.wordpress.com/2011/07/creditcard21.jpg?w=240" />
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			<media:title type="html">Credit card</media:title>
		</media:content>

		<media:content url="http://1.gravatar.com/avatar/417d007b9da4268a2be678bcdb827f22?s=96&#38;d=http%3A%2F%2F1.gravatar.com%2Favatar%2Fad516503a11cd5ca435acc9bb6523536%3Fs%3D96&#38;r=G" medium="image">
			<media:title type="html">zacbissonnette</media:title>
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		<title>A Credit Card Promises to Do the Price-Matching Legwork for You</title>
		<link>http://business.time.com/2012/11/19/a-credit-card-promises-to-do-the-price-matching-legwork-for-you/</link>
		<comments>http://business.time.com/2012/11/19/a-credit-card-promises-to-do-the-price-matching-legwork-for-you/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Mon, 19 Nov 2012 19:14:08 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Brad Tuttle</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Credit Cards]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Paying With Plastic]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Saving]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Saving & Spending]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Smart Spending]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[ad-matching]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Amazon]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Best Buy]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Christmas]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Citi]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Citi Price Rewind]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[holiday shopping]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[PayPal]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[price matching]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Target]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Walmart]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://business.time.com/?p=61392</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[In today&#8217;s nonstop-discount marketplace, virtually every shopper has purchased an item at what seems to be a fair price — only to kick oneself a week later when it pops up in a much cheaper sale. At no time of year is this scenario more likely than the winter-holiday shopping period, overloaded as it is with furious promotions, aggressive price wars and one-upmanship among retailers. Taking advantage of retailer price-matching guarantees is one way to protect oneself from the possibility of overpaying. Walmart is known for ad matching year-round, though like most retailer policies, it only guarantees to match the prices listed in the brochures of physical retail competitors. For the 2012 holidays Best Buy and Target are raising the stakes with promises to match competitors&#8217; online prices as well. Some have described online price matching as an especially risky gambit. Amazon routinely underprices Best Buy and other brick-and-mortar-based retailers, and by one estimate Best Buy could lose as much as $400 million in sales by dropping prices to Amazonian levels, if and when called upon by price-matching customers. (MORE: Is the Daily-Deal Model Dying a Slow Death?) Payment processor PayPal has also launched price matching for the holidays, ensuring reimbursements in case a consumer pays for an item (using PayPal, of course) and later finds the identical item for sale at a cheaper price. PayPal&#8217;s offer is in effect for purchases made by Dec. 31, and the cheaper price must be found advertised within 30 days of the original purchase. What the price-matching guarantees of PayPal, Walmart and the others all have in common is that the onus is on the consumer to invoke the policy. It&#8217;s entirely up to the customer to shop around — before and after the initial purchase — in order to find out if a better price is out there. If the shopper doesn&#8217;t take these steps, the price-matching policy is useless. Citi, a new entrant in the price-matching mix, promises that it&#8217;ll take on the burden of shopping around for weary, shopped-out customers.<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=business.time.com&#038;blog=31173800&#038;post=61392&#038;subd=timebusinessblog&#038;ref=&#038;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></description>
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		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
	<primary_category>Paying With Plastic</primary_category><primary_category_link>http://business.time.com/category/saving-spending/paying-with-plastic/</primary_category_link>
		<media:content url="http://0.gravatar.com/avatar/f8de938518e7b986d552694ed99aa54d?s=96&#38;d=http%3A%2F%2F0.gravatar.com%2Favatar%2Fad516503a11cd5ca435acc9bb6523536%3Fs%3D96&#38;r=G" medium="image">
			<media:title type="html">bradtuttle</media:title>
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		<title>Study: Credit Card Comparison Sites Don&#8217;t Work as Promised</title>
		<link>http://business.time.com/2012/11/09/study-credit-card-comparison-sites-fall-short-of-promises/</link>
		<comments>http://business.time.com/2012/11/09/study-credit-card-comparison-sites-fall-short-of-promises/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Fri, 09 Nov 2012 18:30:51 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Martha C. White</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Paying With Plastic]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[American Express]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Bank of America]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Capital One]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Chase]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Consumer Action]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Discover]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://business.time.com/?p=60048</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Credit card comparison websites can help consumers pick the best card for their needs, but the services come with a big possible conflict of interest. Most of these sites have a business model that relies on affiliate marketing: You click and apply for a card, and the site earns a commission. Why is this a problem? It can leave users wondering (or completely unaware) whether or not the cards that have been selected based on the criteria they plug in are the best choices for them, or simply the biggest moneymakers for the site. When we evaluated  nearly a dozen comparison sites a few months ago, we found most of the search results lacking. The same handful of cards showed up numerous times, and sometimes didn&#8217;t mesh up with the requirements we requested. It appears as if the problem is the pay-to-play business model, which skews the results heavily in favor of a small group of cards issued by an even smaller number of banks. Advocacy group Consumer Action just released the results of a much larger study, and the conclusions were similar. The group sifted through 54 websites that let people compare credit card offers. The results weren&#8217;t pretty; only 13 sites were ranked &#8220;useful and complete,&#8221; and even those sites weren&#8217;t all that great. (MORE: The Credit Card Companies With the Most Consumer Complaints) &#8220;Our search results show that the same or similar credit cards from the same top five issuers tend to dominate searches on many sites,&#8221; the group said in a release. &#8220;For example, out of 21 results for “zero percent” balance transfer offers, the Discover More card showed up 9 times, the Capital One Platinum Prestige card four times and Chase Slate three times.&#8221; It found similar results when looking at two dozen cash back offers: Six were for the Capital One Cash Rewards card, five were for the Discover More card and four were for the American Express Blue Cash Everyday card. That&#8217;s almost two-thirds of the results going to just three cards. This flawed<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=business.time.com&#038;blog=31173800&#038;post=60048&#038;subd=timebusinessblog&#038;ref=&#038;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></description>
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		<slash:comments>4</slash:comments>
	<primary_category>Paying With Plastic</primary_category><primary_category_link>http://business.time.com/category/saving-spending/paying-with-plastic/</primary_category_link><featured_image>http://timebusinessblog.files.wordpress.com/2011/08/creditcardrates1.jpg?w=240</featured_image>
		<media:thumbnail url="http://timebusinessblog.files.wordpress.com/2011/08/creditcardrates1.jpg?w=240" />
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			<media:title type="html">Credit Cards</media:title>
		</media:content>

		<media:content url="http://0.gravatar.com/avatar/9a5a9e4f28beb5afb59b1202632d219a?s=96&#38;d=http%3A%2F%2F0.gravatar.com%2Favatar%2Fad516503a11cd5ca435acc9bb6523536%3Fs%3D96&#38;r=G" medium="image">
			<media:title type="html">marthacwhite</media:title>
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		<title>With Obama Win, Wall Street Cop Stays On the Beat</title>
		<link>http://business.time.com/2012/11/08/with-obama-win-wall-street-cop-stays-on-the-beat/</link>
		<comments>http://business.time.com/2012/11/08/with-obama-win-wall-street-cop-stays-on-the-beat/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Thu, 08 Nov 2012 15:02:29 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Martha C. White</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Banking]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Borrowing]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Credit Cards]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Economy & Policy]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Educational Financing]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Federal Reserve]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Financial Education]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Financial Regulation]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Paying With Plastic]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Smart Spending]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[cfpb]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Consumer Financial Protection Bureau]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Elizabeth Warren]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[overdraft protection]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[overdrafts]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[payday loans]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[prepaid debit cards]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Private Student Loans]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Richard Cordray]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://business.time.com/?p=60476</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[This week’s election was a cliffhanger for many people, but the stakes were higher than most for the director and staff of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. The agency, which opened its doors in July 2011, was a lightning rod for Republican criticism of how the Obama Administration and a Democratic-led Congress responded to the financial crisis. During the campaign, Mitt Romney had promised that, if elected, he would repeal the Dodd-Frank financial reform legislation that called for the CFPB’s creation.  Although Governor Romney spoke about the need for financial oversight during his first debate with President Obama, he expressed discontent with the current regulatory framework. He has plenty of company in his party; Republican lawmakers agitated for changes to the CFPB’s structure since it was developed by Massachusetts Senator-elect Elizabeth Warren. Warren was initially considered a shoo-in for the role of director at the CFPB, but Republican backlash prompted President Obama to choose someone considered less controversial: former Ohio Attorney General Richard Cordray, who rose to prominence for his campaign against the foreclosure robo-signing fraud. Nevertheless, GOP senators held up the appointment of Cordray as CFPB director. Cordray eventually was appointed by President Obama in a controversial recess appointment last winter, a move that gave the CFPB the authority to oversee non-bank financial institutions like credit bureaus and payday lenders and do more in the way of rule-making and enforcement. (MORE: Why Dirty-Looking Money Makes Us Spend More) The lawmakers who object to the CFPB, along with the banking industry, said it had too much autonomy; they wanted the agency to have its budget controlled by Congress rather than by the Federal Reserve. They also wanted to see it led by a committee rather than a single director. Consumer advocates said both moves would water down the agency’s authority and make it more like existing regulators — the ones that were unable to stop the financial crisis from happening. Since Cordray took the reins, the CFPB has acted on behalf of the little guy on several different fronts, and<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=business.time.com&#038;blog=31173800&#038;post=60476&#038;subd=timebusinessblog&#038;ref=&#038;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></description>
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		<slash:comments>5</slash:comments>
	<primary_category>Financial Regulation</primary_category><primary_category_link>http://business.time.com/category/economy-policy/financial-regulation-economy-policy/</primary_category_link><featured_image>http://timebusinessblog.files.wordpress.com/2012/11/1500_cord.jpg?w=240</featured_image>
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			<media:title type="html">Richard Cordray</media:title>
		</media:content>

		<media:content url="http://0.gravatar.com/avatar/9a5a9e4f28beb5afb59b1202632d219a?s=96&#38;d=http%3A%2F%2F0.gravatar.com%2Favatar%2Fad516503a11cd5ca435acc9bb6523536%3Fs%3D96&#38;r=G" medium="image">
			<media:title type="html">marthacwhite</media:title>
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		<title>The Poet Laureate of Identity Theft</title>
		<link>http://business.time.com/2012/10/25/the-poet-laureate-of-identity-theft/</link>
		<comments>http://business.time.com/2012/10/25/the-poet-laureate-of-identity-theft/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Thu, 25 Oct 2012 12:00:10 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Martha C. White</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Credit Cards]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Identity Theft]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Paying With Plastic]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Personal Finance]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Saving & Spending]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Scams]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[hackers]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Ice Storm]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Nigerian hackers]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Rick Moody]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[scams]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://business.time.com/?p=54389</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[To literary-minded Americans, he&#8217;s a scribe of suburban ennui. To a loose confederacy of Nigerian hackers, he&#8217;s a potentially lucrative collection of account numbers and passwords. In both cases, he&#8217;s Rick Moody. And after a rough, confusing experience with identity theft, the celebrated author isn&#8217;t quite sure who he is anymore. “We imagine that our own name actually refers to us,&#8221; Moody explains. &#8220;It&#8217;s a very basic feeling about how life works. I know &#8212; because I&#8217;m not unknown in my profession &#8212; that in some ways &#8216;Rick Moody&#8217; does not always refer to me, but rather to ideas people have about the guy who wrote The Ice Storm. But in this case, my identity theft, that feeling was amplified.&#8221; &#8220;I started to feel a bit that my name didn&#8217;t refer to me. It had its own life.&#8221; Almost a year ago, Moody slipped down the rabbit hole of identity theft, an account of which was published this month in The Best American Nonrequired Reading 2012, edited by Dave Eggers. Identity theft is a stressful, deeply disconcerting crime to be a victim of, its effects as hard to eradicate as an infestation of termites. (MORE: 25 Best Blogs 2012) Financial writers like to focus on the concrete: Why it&#8217;s important to be proactive against identity theft, how to avoid it, and what steps to take if it happens to you. We tend to shy away from what it really feels like to have your identity yanked out from under you. There&#8217;s no good answer or pat solution for dealing with that stew of emotions, so why dwell on it? But in Moody&#8217;s piece &#8212; a sort of essay written in the form of a letter to the identity thieves who victimized him &#8212; he delves into the disequilibrium, frustration, and self-blame that many other victims of identity theft surely can identify with. Since an author like Moody should be better than most at putting into words what the experience is like, we asked him tell us more about it, including<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=business.time.com&#038;blog=31173800&#038;post=54389&#038;subd=timebusinessblog&#038;ref=&#038;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></description>
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		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
	<primary_category>Identity Theft</primary_category><primary_category_link>http://business.time.com/category/saving-spending/identity-theft-saving-spending/</primary_category_link><featured_image>http://timebusinessblog.files.wordpress.com/2012/10/moody.jpg?w=240</featured_image>
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			<media:title type="html">La Milanesiana - July 4, 2012</media:title>
		</media:content>

		<media:content url="http://0.gravatar.com/avatar/9a5a9e4f28beb5afb59b1202632d219a?s=96&#38;d=http%3A%2F%2F0.gravatar.com%2Favatar%2Fad516503a11cd5ca435acc9bb6523536%3Fs%3D96&#38;r=G" medium="image">
			<media:title type="html">marthacwhite</media:title>
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		<title>4 Ways You Pay Too Much&#8211;and What to Do About It</title>
		<link>http://business.time.com/2012/10/23/4-ways-you-pay-too-much-and-what-to-do-about-it/</link>
		<comments>http://business.time.com/2012/10/23/4-ways-you-pay-too-much-and-what-to-do-about-it/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Tue, 23 Oct 2012 17:16:19 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Dan Kadlec</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Borrowing]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Financial Education]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Financial Planning]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Paying With Plastic]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Personal Finance]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Planning]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Saving & Spending]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Smart Spending]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://moneyland.time.com/?p=46041</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Am I paying too much? It’s a question most consumers ask daily as they whip out their wallet to buy something at the store. Why then don’t they ask the same question monthly as they whip out their pen to pay the interest on their loans? The answer: Most believe they got the best rate possible at the time of the loan, and that may in fact be the case. What they don’t realize, though, is that over a period of months or years a lot can change to drive down borrowing costs—and not just with mortgages. So they keep writing the same old checks. Two in three consumers are paying more interest than they need and one in three is paying significantly more—in effect flushing away an average of $541 a month, according to Credit Sesame, an online consumer debt management tool. That comes to $6,492 of excessive payments each year on their mortgage, auto loan, personal loans and credit cards. People with a mortgage generally pay attention to rates, and look to refinance when possible. Yet mortgages still account for the biggest part of household debt overpayment, Credit Sesame reports. Certainly, refinancing has been problematic since the housing collapse. Homeowners may not have the equity needed to take advantage of lower rates. But many simply assume the mortgage market is frozen. It’s not—and with real estate finally recovering mortgage holders should take another look. Consumers are paying too much on other common loans too, says Adrian Nazari, CEO of Credit Sesame. “The biggest thing they have to understand is that their situation changes and the market changes,” he says. Perhaps they have built a better credit score. Sometimes a new zip code or older age qualifies for a lower rate. When market rates decline it’s usually clear. But market innovations aren’t so obvious. New products like peer-to-peer lending have driven down borrowing costs for millions of people. The most common ways consumers end up paying too much: Credit cards It’s easy to end up in the wrong card<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=business.time.com&#038;blog=31173800&#038;post=46041&#038;subd=timebusinessblog&#038;ref=&#038;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></description>
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		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
	<primary_category>Smart Spending</primary_category><primary_category_link>http://business.time.com/category/saving-spending/smart-spending/</primary_category_link><featured_image>http://timebusinessblog.files.wordpress.com/2012/10/1500_money_loans_1023.jpg?w=240</featured_image>
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			<media:title type="html">Crumpled twenty-dollar bill</media:title>
		</media:content>

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			<media:title type="html">dankadlec</media:title>
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		<title>Think You Just Bought Your &#8220;Real&#8221; Credit Score? Think Again</title>
		<link>http://business.time.com/2012/10/02/think-you-just-bought-your-real-credit-score-think-again/</link>
		<comments>http://business.time.com/2012/10/02/think-you-just-bought-your-real-credit-score-think-again/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Tue, 02 Oct 2012 12:00:08 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Martha C. White</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Paying With Plastic]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Personal Finance]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Saving & Spending]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[cfpb]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[credit report]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[credit scores]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[FICO]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Good Credit Score]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://moneyland.time.com/?p=45164</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Conventional wisdom says before you make a big purchase like a house or a car, go online to check your credit score. Although you can get one report per bureau per year for free through annualcreditreport.com, you have to pay to see the actual numeric score. The trouble is, the score you pay for isn&#8217;t the score lenders use, and a new study shows roughly one in five of us get a score that&#8217;s very different from the one lenders see — and there&#8217;s no way to find out if you&#8217;re in that unlucky minority.  We&#8217;ve discussed earlier how the scores you can buy generally aren&#8217;t the same ones seen by lenders, but no study has ever explored just how different those figures could be until now. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau looked at 200,000 anonymized credit files and compared the scores consumers get when they buy with the ones that lenders purchase. It used four credit-quality brackets for the study: below 620, 620-680, 680-740 and above 740. In 73% to 80% of cases, the results were pretty close, enough so that people stayed in the same credit bracket. However, the CFPB found that in 19% to 24% of cases, the differences between scores were big enough that people jumped up or down one credit category. Up to 3% of consumers&#8217; files had scores that were so far off it would knock them two categories up or down the spectrum. &#8220;If some creditors use narrower score ranges, then a smaller share of consumers going to those creditors would have an accurate view,&#8221; the report says. (MORE: Credit Bureaus Will Get New Federal Oversight) The study shows not everyone is equally affected by the discrepancies. Older, higher-income people and those who live in zip codes with lower minority populations tend to have greater fluctuations between scores, an occurrence the CFPB attributes to the relatively higher average scores of these groups. &#8220;It is easier to statistically distinguish a consumer that poses, e.g., a 20% default risk from a consumer that poses a 10% default risk<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=business.time.com&#038;blog=31173800&#038;post=45164&#038;subd=timebusinessblog&#038;ref=&#038;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></description>
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		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
	<primary_category>Paying With Plastic</primary_category><primary_category_link>http://business.time.com/category/saving-spending/paying-with-plastic/</primary_category_link><featured_image>http://timebusinessblog.files.wordpress.com/2011/10/88621207-e13179246477241.jpg?w=240</featured_image>
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		<media:content url="http://timebusinessblog.files.wordpress.com/2011/10/88621207-e13179246477241.jpg?w=240" medium="image">
			<media:title type="html">Credit cards</media:title>
		</media:content>

		<media:content url="http://0.gravatar.com/avatar/9a5a9e4f28beb5afb59b1202632d219a?s=96&#38;d=http%3A%2F%2F0.gravatar.com%2Favatar%2Fad516503a11cd5ca435acc9bb6523536%3Fs%3D96&#38;r=G" medium="image">
			<media:title type="html">marthacwhite</media:title>
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		<title>We Finally Have Slightly Better Credit, Not That It&#8217;s Doing Us Much Good</title>
		<link>http://business.time.com/2012/09/28/we-finally-have-slightly-better-credit-not-that-its-doing-us-much-good/</link>
		<comments>http://business.time.com/2012/09/28/we-finally-have-slightly-better-credit-not-that-its-doing-us-much-good/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Fri, 28 Sep 2012 17:15:00 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Martha C. White</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Paying With Plastic]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Personal Finance]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Saving & Spending]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Average Credit Score]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[credit scores]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Experian]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[FICO]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Raise Credit Score]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[VantageScore]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://moneyland.time.com/?p=45122</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Americans’ credit scores finally appear to be inching back up after taking a beating during and after the last recession. But for a whole host of reasons, this might not have as much practical benefit as you’d expect. While improving credit is good news, it’s just part of the picture, and the rest of that picture is still pretty gloomy.  According to a recent study from Experian, the average credit score squeaked up to 750 this year, a one-point increase over last year. (Experian used the VantageScore model for its calculations, which has a range of 501-990, so that 750 isn’t as impressive as if it were on the more common FICO scoring system, which ranges from 300 to 850. On the VantageScore scale, a 750 is considered midrange, like a C letter grade) A new analysis by FICO drew similar conclusions. Fewer Americans are in the lowest-tier bracket of 300-499 today than in 2008. “This means that about 800,000 fewer people have such low scores today,” FICO says, and the number of people in the the top range of 800-850 is now above pre-recession levels. (MORE: New Score Says You Have Better Credit, But Will It Get You a Mortgage?) Not everyone is sharing in this improvement equally, though. There were sharp regional differences in Experian’s study, which showed Minneapolis on top with a score of 787, versus Savannah&#8217;s 713 average. New research from CardRatings.com also found big disparities based on geography: It named (in order) North Dakota, Vermont, South Dakota, Montana and Iowa as the states with the best credit conditions. Experian’s study had cities in South Dakota and Iowa in the top five, as well. The also showed that some areas hard hit by foreclosures such as Bakersfield, Ca., and Las Vegas made the greatest improvements, likely reflecting a recovery in these foreclosure-stricken real estate markets. An analysis in yesterday’s New York Times of the benchmark Case-Schiller index of home values found “lower-price homes are catching up, rising slightly faster in value than homes in the middle and upper<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=business.time.com&#038;blog=31173800&#038;post=58542&#038;subd=timebusinessblog&#038;ref=&#038;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></description>
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		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
	<primary_category>Paying With Plastic</primary_category><primary_category_link>http://business.time.com/category/saving-spending/paying-with-plastic/</primary_category_link><featured_image>http://timebusinessblog.files.wordpress.com/2012/08/88621168.jpg?w=240</featured_image>
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			<media:title type="html">Credit Card Debt</media:title>
		</media:content>

		<media:content url="http://0.gravatar.com/avatar/9a5a9e4f28beb5afb59b1202632d219a?s=96&#38;d=http%3A%2F%2F0.gravatar.com%2Favatar%2Fad516503a11cd5ca435acc9bb6523536%3Fs%3D96&#38;r=G" medium="image">
			<media:title type="html">marthacwhite</media:title>
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		<title>Which Cost Less: Checking Accounts Or Prepaid Debit Cards?</title>
		<link>http://business.time.com/2012/09/11/when-all-is-said-and-done-which-cost-less-checking-accounts-or-prepaid-debit-cards/</link>
		<comments>http://business.time.com/2012/09/11/when-all-is-said-and-done-which-cost-less-checking-accounts-or-prepaid-debit-cards/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Tue, 11 Sep 2012 19:29:24 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Martha C. White</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Paying With Plastic]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Personal Finance]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Saving & Spending]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[banking]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[checking account fees]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Prepaid Card]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[prepaid debit card]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Reloadable Prepaid Cards]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[unbanked]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://moneyland.time.com/?p=44448</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Unless you&#8217;re a whiz at managing your money, a checking account is going to cost you more than a prepaid debit card, a new report concludes. And if you do a really poor job handling your personal finances, you could end up paying as much as $65 per month extra for a checking account. Updated at 6:35 ET on 9/13/12 Banks have been pushing prepaid debit heavily, both to get unprofitable customers off their deposit accounts and to circumvent the interchange fee cap on conventional debit cards. Consumers who have been burned by $35 overdraft fees and escalating monthly maintenance fees have embraced the cards. There&#8217;s a trade-off, however: The prepaid market has little to no regulatory oversight, a wide variety of fees that make it tough for people to comparison-shop, and some outright predatory practices. In a new study, the Pew Charitable Trusts looked at 52 prepaid debit cards that comprise 75% of the market. It compared the costs of using these cards to the cost of having one of the 237 conventional checking accounts offered by the 12 largest banks in the United States. Researchers created three model customers: a financially savvy one who makes every effort to avoid fees, an &#8220;average&#8221; one who overdraws or has their card declined once a month, and a hapless one who tends to overdraw, use out-of-network ATMs, and racks up considerable service fees. It set some baseline assumptions, like a $1,500 direct deposit and 17 point-of-sale purchases (the average among debit users) every month. (MORE: Study: Banks Still Doing a Crummy Job Disclosing Fees Even as They Raise Them) Budget-minded people fare slightly better with checking accounts; the average monthly service fees come to $3.99 for a checking account, versus $4.50 for a prepaid card. For everybody else, though, even people who handle their money responsibly most of the time, prepaid debit is cheaper. The &#8220;average&#8221; model customer would pay $28 in checking account fees and $22.15 in prepaid debit card fees monthly. For people who can&#8217;t or won&#8217;t be mindful of their<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=business.time.com&#038;blog=31173800&#038;post=44448&#038;subd=timebusinessblog&#038;ref=&#038;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></description>
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		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
	<primary_category>Paying With Plastic</primary_category><primary_category_link>http://business.time.com/category/saving-spending/paying-with-plastic/</primary_category_link><featured_image>http://timebusinessblog.files.wordpress.com/2011/07/checkbook1.jpg?w=240</featured_image>
		<media:thumbnail url="http://timebusinessblog.files.wordpress.com/2011/07/checkbook1.jpg?w=240" />
		<media:content url="http://timebusinessblog.files.wordpress.com/2011/07/checkbook1.jpg?w=240" medium="image">
			<media:title type="html">Checkbook</media:title>
		</media:content>

		<media:content url="http://0.gravatar.com/avatar/9a5a9e4f28beb5afb59b1202632d219a?s=96&#38;d=http%3A%2F%2F0.gravatar.com%2Favatar%2Fad516503a11cd5ca435acc9bb6523536%3Fs%3D96&#38;r=G" medium="image">
			<media:title type="html">marthacwhite</media:title>
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		<title>Who Says Kids Are Spoiled? Parents Expect Pre-Teens to Start Saving for College</title>
		<link>http://business.time.com/2012/08/30/who-says-kids-are-spoiled-parents-expect-pre-teens-to-start-saving-for-college/</link>
		<comments>http://business.time.com/2012/08/30/who-says-kids-are-spoiled-parents-expect-pre-teens-to-start-saving-for-college/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Thu, 30 Aug 2012 12:00:51 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Martha C. White</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Educational Financing]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Paying With Plastic]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Personal Finance]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Planning]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Saving & Spending]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[529 College Savings Plan]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[529 Plans]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[college]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[college savings]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[College Tuition]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[credit card rewards]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[credit cards]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[education]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[family]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Fidelity]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Fidelity Investments]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[kids]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Student loan debt]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[student loans]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://moneyland.time.com/?p=44257</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[One-fourth of parents today expect their kids to start socking away the contents of their piggy banks to help pay for college, starting before the age of 13.<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=business.time.com&#038;blog=31173800&#038;post=44257&#038;subd=timebusinessblog&#038;ref=&#038;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></description>
		<wfw:commentRss>http://business.time.com/2012/08/30/who-says-kids-are-spoiled-parents-expect-pre-teens-to-start-saving-for-college/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
	<primary_category>Educational Financing</primary_category><primary_category_link>http://business.time.com/category/planning/educational-financing/</primary_category_link><featured_image>http://timebusinessblog.files.wordpress.com/2012/08/75627505-1-e13462814577911.jpg?w=240</featured_image>
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		<media:content url="http://timebusinessblog.files.wordpress.com/2012/08/75627505-1-e13462814577911.jpg?w=240" medium="image">
			<media:title type="html">Mortarboard and College Diploma</media:title>
		</media:content>

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			<media:title type="html">marthacwhite</media:title>
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		<title>Your Credit Card Rewards Aren&#8217;t Worth As Much As You Think</title>
		<link>http://business.time.com/2012/08/23/your-credit-card-rewards-arent-worth-as-much-as-you-think/</link>
		<comments>http://business.time.com/2012/08/23/your-credit-card-rewards-arent-worth-as-much-as-you-think/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Thu, 23 Aug 2012 16:30:36 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Martha C. White</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Borrowing]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Paying With Plastic]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Personal Finance]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Saving & Spending]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[annual fees]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[APR]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[australia]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Balance]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[cash back]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[credit card rewards]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Rewards Programs]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://moneyland.time.com/?p=43935</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Those rewards are probably worth way less than you would have imagined. Then there's the possibility they could easily be wiped out with just a short stint carrying a balance.<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=business.time.com&#038;blog=31173800&#038;post=58381&#038;subd=timebusinessblog&#038;ref=&#038;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></description>
		<wfw:commentRss>http://business.time.com/2012/08/23/your-credit-card-rewards-arent-worth-as-much-as-you-think/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
	<primary_category>Paying With Plastic</primary_category><primary_category_link>http://business.time.com/category/saving-spending/paying-with-plastic/</primary_category_link><featured_image>http://timebusinessblog.files.wordpress.com/2012/03/cred1.jpg?w=240</featured_image>
		<media:thumbnail url="http://timebusinessblog.files.wordpress.com/2012/03/cred1.jpg?w=240" />
		<media:content url="http://timebusinessblog.files.wordpress.com/2012/03/cred1.jpg?w=240" medium="image">
			<media:title type="html">Credit Card</media:title>
		</media:content>

		<media:content url="http://0.gravatar.com/avatar/9a5a9e4f28beb5afb59b1202632d219a?s=96&#38;d=http%3A%2F%2F0.gravatar.com%2Favatar%2Fad516503a11cd5ca435acc9bb6523536%3Fs%3D96&#38;r=G" medium="image">
			<media:title type="html">marthacwhite</media:title>
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