Retailers have been fighting for the right to charge people more if they pay with a credit card. They may soon win that battle.
MasterCard
Why You Should Be Happy Online Shopping Checkout Is Such a Hassle
According to the findings of a new survey, one of the biggest complaints among online shoppers regards the checkout procedure. Specifically: Having to enter payment and shipping information before finalizing a purchase. But is …
Road Trip! U.S. Gas Prices Now Expected to Average Well Below $4 This Summer
Gas prices in the U.S. soared through early 2012, and amid forecasts anticipating $4 —or $6! — per-gallon rates, surveys indicated that Americans were scaling back summer travel plans, perhaps even looking to stay closer to …
Visa, MasterCard Suffered ‘Massive’ Data Breach
A security industry blog warned on Friday of a potentially “massive” data breach affecting as many as 10 million Visa and MasterCard accounts.
Skittish Market’s Winners and Losers Point the Way
A highly volatile stock market may have given you whiplash in 2011. But as the year draws to a close, the final numbers don’t look so dramatic: the S&P 500 is poised to end the year almost exactly where it began, and about as …
Now Credit Card Companies Want Your DNA
A Wall Street Journal article earlier this week reported that Visa and MasterCard are exploring new ways to take data about your buying habits in the brick-and-mortar world and let online marketers use that information to target …
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 …
Free Movie Tickets Used to Push Prepaid Plastic
The push is on: Financial institutions are doing their darnedest to get consumers into the habit of using reloadable prepaid cards—which can be used similarly to credit cards or standard debit cards tied to bank accounts, but …
Mobile Payments Are Coming — But When?
Tech companies and the financial industry promise us that smartphones will replace our wallets. Analysts say "don't hold your breath." Find out how these tools will make everything from shopping to commuting easier — and how …
Prepaid Debit Cards: Buyer Beware, Be Really Aware
Prepaid debit cards are attractive to certain consumers—immigrants and low-income people in particular—because they can be purchased quickly and easily in drugstores or Wal-Mart, and there’s no I.D. or paperwork necessary. What people who use these reloadable cards often fail to understand is that they’re …
