A whole lot of people arent fans of the banking types who run credit card companies. Indeed, this very news blog once accused those executives (when banks again started giving cards to subprime borrowers) of lacking a connection to reality greater than that of a goldfish on LSD. Think you could do better? Well, heres your chance.
Credit card that puts you in the boardroom
Barclaycard US has unveiled a new credit card that is going to allow customers to participate in key management decisions, including setting fees and credit card rates, and determining how services are delivered. The company also plans to pay a dividend to cardholders in the form of a profit share.
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American consumers can justly give themselves a collective pat on the back, as shoppers across the country tightened their wallets and reduced their spending by lowering overall credit card debt by 11 percent in 2011.
This information, gathered by CreditKarma.com, reveals that consumers are getting wise to the dangers of high credit card debt, and acting accordingly.
Of course, consumer credit card debt remains at a high level overall, which is why so many Americans have asked how Chapter 7 bankruptcy can help them escape their debt woes.
As reported by CNN.com, taking information from CreditKarma.com, credit card debt is losing momentum fast:
- Debt decline. In 2011, average credit card debt loads dropped in all 50 states, and by a total of 11 percent nationwide.
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Its official. Fewer consumers are filing complaints against credit card companies. Recently, both the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and the Better Business Bureau (BBB) published analyses of their 2011 data, and each showed significantly fewer grumbles about plastic compared to the year before.
Credit card companies do better, says FTC
The FTC says that it received 37,932 complaints about credit cards last year. That sounds like a lot, but is actually only 2.09 percent of the 1,813,080 total across all categories. In 2010, 2.33 percent of all complaints concerned plastic, while in 2009 it was 3.26 percent.
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Taxpayer-owned Lloyds Banking Group is pulling out of the charity credit cards market, because it says that offering cards that donate to good causes is “no longer cost-effective”. 
The company has been offering these cards for over 23 years, but has written to customers informing them that their charity cards will be replaced by standard credit cards that do not offer a charity donation.
The charities hit by the withdrawal include Cancer Research UK, which has received over £15m from the credit cards. as well as the NSPCC and the Scottish SPCA. Lloyds said it had offered to help each charity find a new issuer “should that be the route they wish to pursue in the future”.
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Some common kinds of credit card fraud acts include stolen credit cards, obtaining access to credit card information and identity theft. Usually in such a case, contacting credit card providers promptly to secure the credit card account and avoid further thievery can solve the problem. Government regulations eradicate or decrease a credit card fraud victim from monetary accountability for illicit charges or purchases. Consumers can help locate credit card fraud by closely examining their credit report frequently and probing credit card account receipts for factual errors.
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Average credit card spend has fallen four per cent over the past 12 months, according to new analysis of customer spend data by Santander Credit Cards. The data reveals that while the total number of transactions made per regular card user has increased by one per cent over that time period, the value of transactions per card user has decreased.
The majority of the retail sector has seen decreases in the value of spend, resulting in an average reduction of 5 per cent per card user over the year. Sports and toy spending has been worst hit, with a massive 24 per cent reduction in the value of card spend per user over this period and clothes stores with a 6 per cent decrease.
Customer card spend on holidays also has decreased, with the amount spent on travel agencies down 13 per cent year on year, airlines down 9 per cent and hotels down 4 per cent.
By contrast, people are still spending on little luxuries like eating out – restaurants and bars have seen a 4 per cent increase in value of spend per user. Mail order is also defying the downturn with the biggest increase in card expenditure of all, showing a 22 per cent uplift in the number of transactions per card user and an 8 per cent increase in the value of spend in this sector.
Callum Gibson, Managing Director at Santander Cards, commented: “During times of austerity, youd expect cut-backs to hit non-essential items like holidays and clothes, and our customer data supports this. How
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Verizon Wireless has announced plans to implement a charge for customers who choose to pay wireless bills via debit or credit card over the internet using Verizon bill pay or phone.
The new $2 “convenience charge” instituted by the nation’s largest wireless company will go into effect on Jan. 15.
Verizon Wireless Credit Card Fee
According to Verizon Wireless, the new convenience charge is meant to address an issue that the wireless provider has with costs incurred during single bill payment options.
When a customer makes a one-time payment, rather than allowing for a recurring billing option, the company says it suffers greater losses. In a s
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Diners at some of New York’s most popular restaurants had their credit card details stolen by waiters working for gangs who targetted American Express black cards then spent millions of dollars on luxury clothes and vintage wine, it is alleged. 
By Jon Swaine, Washington
10:42PM GMT 20 Nov 2011
The cards of wealthy customers at Smith and Wollensky’s, Capital Grille and Wolfgang’s steakhouses were allegedly “skimmed” and used to buy Rolex watches, Jimmy Choo shoes and Chanel handbags.
Almost 30 people have been charged with crimes including racketeering, conspiracy and grand larceny, after the alleged fraud ring was broken by police in Manhattan.
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U.S. Senators Jack Reed (D-RI), Charles E. Schumer (D-NY), Bill Nelson (D-FL), and Robert Menendez (D-NJ) sent a letter earlier this week to the Federal Reserve urging it to crack down on credit card companies who, the senators say, are surreptitiously marketing business credit cards to consumers in an attempt to avoid the new protections surrounding credit card billing practices that were put in place last year.
These protections do not apply to business credit cards, and the problem, the democratic law makers say, is that the credit card companies are not clearly identifying their marketing material as being for business credit cards and that anyone can get one.
In a press release, the senators wrote that a recent study done by The Pew Charitable Trusts revealed “that over ten million business credit cards are offered to consumers every month – the majority of which have terms that would be illegal in consumer cards.”
In their letter, the senators asked the Federal Reserve to immediately begin requiring that companies offering business credit cards clearly state in all correspondence and marketing material that the card being offered is a business card and does not have the same protections that consumer cards do. Also,
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