A few months ago, I predicted that credit cards offering 5% cash back rewards on gas purchases would begin scaling back their rewards programs. This was back when gas prices were hovering around $3.40/gallon. As you are no doubt aware, gas prices are now 15-20% higher than that, and we now have our first victim…
American [...]

Posted in Credit Card News, Credit Card Offers, Reward Cards 4 Comments »

Discover (DFS) posted higher than expected earnings this week on the strength of their third-party payment processing network. Interestingly, while the lending business is struggling, customers are increasingly turning toward plastic (either credit or debit) when it comes to making payments. This translates directly into profits for Discover (and other card issuers) as they take [...]

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Back in November of 2004, American Express (AXP) filed an anti-trust lawsuit accusing Visa (V) and MasterCard (MA) of illegally blocking them from the bank-issued credit card business in the US market. More specifically, AmEx alleged that Visa and MasterCard had colluded to keep their member banks from issuing cards branded by American Express or [...]

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Late last week, I received an envelope from Citi, but I didn’t get around to opening it until just this morning. In it, I found two new Citi Dividend Platinum Select cards along with a note saying that our old cards would stop working on June 30, 2008. Here’s the text of the insert:
IMPORTANT SECURITY [...]

Posted in Credit Card News, Identity Theft 1 Comment »

Yesterday I wrote about the recent TransUnion class action settlement. In short, if you had a credit card, loan, or credit account in the last 21 years, you qualify and can get free credit monitoring, credit scores, or money. Well, guess what? There’s another settlement out there kicking around. As a result of Townes v. [...]

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If you, like most everyone else, had a credit card, loan, or credit account anytime between January 1987 and this past Wednesday (May 28th, 2008), then you’re eligible to file a claim in a preliminary settlement of a class-action lawsuit against TransUnion.
This lawsuit, which dates back eight years, stems from allegations that TransUnion violated federal [...]

Posted in Credit Card News, Credit Reports, Credit Scores 1 Comment »

In their “100 Best” issue, Money Magazine recently rate the three best credit cards for various purposes.
First off, Discover More is the best card if you carry a balance. Not only do they have a 0% balance transfer offer, but they also cap the transfer fee at $75. And if you don’t pay it off [...]

Posted in Credit Card News, Reward Cards No Comments »

Over the past few months, the Federal Reserve has repeatedly cut rates. Since these short-term rate cuts directly impact the prime rate, it seems like everyone that carries a credit card balance should benefit. Right?
Well… As it turns out, some card issuers have actually increased rates over the past few months. In fact, the base [...]

Posted in Credit Card News 2 Comments »

The word on the street is that credit card issuers have wised up and started cancelling the accounts of individuals that stage an App-O-Rama. In case you’re not familiar with the term, an App-O-Rama refers to applying for a bunch of credit cards in rapid succession in hopes of getting them all approved before the [...]

Posted in Credit Card News 3 Comments »

First we started hearing about arbitrary increases in credit card interest rates, and now this… According to a recent blurb in Money Magazine, however, credit card issuers have recently started reducing credit limits for some borrowers, even those with good credit records.
Factors that put you at risk are making an occasional late payment, living in [...]

Posted in Credit Card News, Credit Card Tips, Credit Scores 6 Comments »