Once upon a time, cash was king. But more and more technology has tied purchasing power to credit and debit cards for their ease of use. Smartphones are even beginning to play a part in the credit-card payment business with …
credit cards
Back-to-School Special: 5 Top-of-the-Class Credit Cards for Students
While the Credit CARD Act cut down on a lot of the shady marketing practices credit card issuers used to target college students, there are still a plethora of cards out there for the campus crowd, and wading through them can be …
Back-to-School Special: 9 Credit-Card Tips For Students
Even as school starts up again around the country, students may already be falling behind in one critical area of knowledge: How to choose and use credit cards. Unfortunately, until financial education is taught in high schools …
When is $11.4 Trillion in Debt an Improvement?
The Federal Reserve Bank of New York released a report on Monday that shows America is chipping away at its collective debt — but slowly. According to the Quarterly Report on Household Debt and Credit, overall consumer debt was down by $50 billion at the end of June. If that seems like a lot, it’s not; in fact, it’s a measly 0.4 percent …
Visa Puts Its Weight Behind New Smartphone Payment Systems
This week, Visa began campaigning to get retailers in the U.S. to upgrade their payment terminals — what we used to call cash registers — to devices capable of reading EMV chips, the technology behind “chip-and-pin” cards now …
Did Capital One Just Buy Your Credit Card?
Capital One’s been on quite the buying spree lately. Earlier this year it acquired online bank ING Direct, and now it’s just tossed the U.S. credit card portfolio of HSBC Holdings into its shopping cart, as well. HSBC has been …
Get Ready: Your Credit Card Rates Are Going Up
The full impact of ratings agency Standard & Poor’s downgrade of U.S. debt remains unclear. But one outcome credit analysts say is almost certain is higher consumer interest rates.
How College Kids Can Build Credit by Graduation
I never thought it would happen. I’ve been throwing away credit card offers addressed to my daughter for years. But now that she’s 21, entering her senior year of college, I figured it was time for her to experience plastic, …
CFPB Will Tackle Credit Card Issues Soon, Advocates Predict
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau officially opens its doors today. Conceived in the wake of the subprime meltdown and the subsequent financial market crash, the CFPB was envisioned as a financial services version of something like the Consumer Product Safety Commission, except that instead of pulling lead-tainted toys or …
5 Money-Saving Credit Card Tricks for Travelers
Everybody knows about reward credit cards that let you accrue points or miles toward your next getaway. But there are other ways your credit cards — and how you use them — can save you money. You can stretch your summer …
College Revenues From Credit Card Companies Hit the Skids
A new Federal Reserve report shows that in 2010, credit card issuers paid $73 million to colleges as part of marketing deals — down 14% from $85 million in 2009.
How Banks Are Aiding and Abetting Identity Theft
Why in the world are banks still using SSNs as a major form of customer identification?
