Posts about Mastercard
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MasterCard spends $960,000 in 4Q to lobby Congress [AP via LowCards] More »
(Photo: Marike79)
—>If you want to spread some fiscally sound good cheer this year, consider asking your friends, relatives, and coworkers not to give gift cards backed by the major credit card companies. Why am I making such a sour suggestion? Because a new study from two consumer advocacy groups indicates that most of the population still doesn't recognize what a money trap those little plastic cards can be. More »
—>Without warning, Citi decided to close a swath of gas-station co-branded Mastercard accounts nationwide. The trouble seems to have started October 15. Quan was one of the affected customers and the credit card company was pretty disingenuous about it when called. More »
—>Dan wrote in to let us know his $8,800 GEICO Mastercard now has a $500 line of credit. "It's not you, it's us," is basically what GEICO told him in their letter on March 12th. They also say they're doing this to every one of their Mastercard holders. Dan notes, "Interestingly enough, this new limit is less than the 6 month rate GEICO was charging me for my two cars, meaning that I couldn't even use their preferred card to pay their premiums." You can read their letter below. More »
—>Don't be too surprised if you get a letter from your bank or credit union in the next few weeks telling you it's replacing your credit card. If your data was among the latest set compromised, Visa and Mastercard are already alerting financial institutions so they can cancel the account number. More »
—>We've seen food items, airline mile programs, and credit card limits all shrink as the economy worsens. Now it's time for other rewards programs to become just a little less rewarding—and somewhat sneakily, too, in these two stories recently sent in by readers. More »
—>USAToday says that panic by the credit card industry is squeezing customers who ordinarily would be able to pay their bills — pushing them toward financial ruin and foreclosure. More »
—> Once upon a time, Peter Finch won an Oscar for telling us to go to our window, open it, and yell, "We're mad as hell and we're not going to take this anymore!" Now thousands and thousands of consumers are doing just that, but instead of yelling out their windows, they're yelling at the Federal Reserve in the form of a record breaking number of public comments about some proposed credit card reforms. Not as sexy as yelling like a madman, but far, far more effective. More »
—>One of the tricks that seasoned travelers know is to always deny the insurance when renting a car. Why? Because the credit card that they are using already comes with insurance that they are familiar with, and because you are required to deny coverage from the rental car company in order to take advantage of your credit card's insurance. But how do you pick a credit card that has good rental insurance? More »
—>We've posted a lot of stories of businesses requiring customers who pay with a credit card to make minimum purchases, or pay a surcharge, or show ID. And as we've repeatedly said, the businesses' merchant agreements with the credit card companies forbids these practices. A reader wrote in to argue that this might not be true, as many businesses contract with third-party credit card processors, and are not bound by the merchant agreement. So we did some investigating. More »
—>Are you smarter than a credit card company? They've got billions riding on their belief that you're not. Check out these 10 methods, via the Americans for Fairness in Lending, credit card companies use to make extra money off you that you may not even be aware of, knowledge that could save you hundreds in extra fees. More »
—>Reader Brandon sent us this picture of a McDonald's violating its merchant agreement by charging a fee for using a credit or debit card. The text reads, "FEE ASSOCIATED WITH CREDIT/DEBIT CARD OF 25¢ WILL BE APPLIED TO CARD TOTAL." More »
—>A MasterCard spokesperson has confirmed, just like we've been telling you all along, that a store cannot refuse to sell you something solely because you refuse to provide additional identification along with your MasterCard. The only time it's ok is if it's required for shipping, or when you're at a gas pump or making orders via internet, phone, or mail, in which case they can use the MasterCard Address Verification System (AVS). But if you're in a store, right in front of them, in the flesh, it violates their MasterCard merchant agreement. Consumers experiencing this can fill out a Merchant Violation form found in the FAQ/Contact US part of Mastercard.com. Full statement, inside... More »
—>A few weeks ago, Zach emailed us to say that his Rewards Zone Mastercard hasn't worked properly in the five months he's had it, and no one at Best Buy had been able to help. We pointed him to our Guide To Fighting Back, and he responded tonight with an update. More »
I went to IHOP(INTERNATIONAL HOUSE OF PANCAKES) on March 30th with my wife to eat. After our meal I went to the counter to pay and presented my Visa as payment. I was asked for photo ID, and kindly declined. I was then told that they were not going to be able to accept my card without photo ID.More »
—>Erica writes:
Recently, my husband and I got two new Chase credit cards in the mail. I didn't look closely, assuming that this was a new card for our never-used Chase Mastercard account. This account has been around for seven years, but we prefer another card with a rewards system; the Mastercard account is open only to benefit our credit rating. Therefore, no urgency in activating it — I dropped it in the bill pile to deal with later.More »
—>When you get a new or replacement credit card in the mail, you have to call the number on the back to activate it, or else you can't use it, right? Wrong. Despite the sticker on the back that says, "For security purposes, this card is not active," credit card companies are mailing out cards that can be used without phone activation. This is a problem if the letter containing your credit card is intercepted by an identity thief, like what happened to reader PC Guy. The kicker? He didn't even request the card, it was a forcible reissue when his store-branded card switched from Visa to Mastercard. His story, inside. More »
—>Reader W writes in in response to the so-called "retail manager" who said that credit card companies require video proof of cashiers checking ID. More »
—>We received the following strangely awesome, if a bit strange, letter from a consumer who was not allowed to purchase something at the Apple store because he would not show ID. It was sent to Steve Jobs and William Rhodes (of Citibank.) Let's listen in: More »
—>Here's a great credit card that will allow you to express how awesome you are at a variable APR between 7.75% and 26.95%. Yes, kids, it's the Hooters MasterCard, and according to their website, it's been "rated #1 by some fake award." More »
—>The battery on Bryan's Garmin Streetpilot lost the will to hold a steady charge. Figuring that the unit's warranty had expired, Brian asked for a replacement through MasterCard's extended warranty protection. MasterCard required documentation from Garmin, which Bryan requested. Instead of providing the documents, Garmin responded with something else. More »
—>Reader Brendan's TV decided to die right after the manufacturer's warranty expired. He tried asking Polaroid to extend the warranty. (They wouldn't.) He tried getting the TV repaired. (Too expensive.) Not knowing what else to do, he sent us a 1,000-ish-word-long complaint detailing the frustrations one could expect when dealing with Polaroid. (It was very well written.) More »
—>Stores are violating their contract with the credit card companies if they set minimum or maximum charges, or force you to show ID in addition to your credit card (with the obvious exception being for age-limited purchases). Depending on your state and your card issuer, surcharges or "convenience fees" may be banned as well. The best way to straighten these guys out is to report them to the credit card company. People who have done so on the Credit Boards message board say that when they report a merchant, they get a letter from the credit card company and when they go back to the store, the shenanigans have stopped. Here's all the contact infos for the credit card companies to file a merchant complaint, as well as links to merchant agreements, in case you feel like standing up for your consumer rights. Someone better warn Amy's Ice Cream! More »
Corey writes:
I have a lovely Citi Mastercard with lots of rewards. I hate having to deal with paper statements, so I signed up for paperless statements (like I've done with all my accounts), available for viewing online at their website. More »
—>According to new court papers, Visa and Mastercard are saying that the TJ Maxx security breach actually affected 94 million accounts—more than double the amount that TJ Maxx reported. More »
—>After reading our posts about getting your credit card APR lowered by threatening to do a balance transfer to a lower rate credit card, Brandon got his Citibank Mastercard APR lowered from 15.74% to 1.99%. It's an introductory rate that goes up to prime plus 4.99% after a year, but it's definitely worth it for the time being. A factor that probably helped him was the $10,000 balance he was carrying, making his business more valuable to Citibank. More »
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I have had a Capital One Mastercard for about 10 years. My interest rate has been 4.99% for as long as I can remember. I received my statement for October to find that my interest rate had jumped from 4.99% to 13.5%. More »
—>Blueprint for Financial Prosperity reminds us that savvy consumers can take advantage of credit card companies hellbent on turning a profit. Most credit card companies will go to great lengths to keep their customers happily spending away. Use these tips to make them cater to your every financial desire: More »
—>Several major credit card companies were successfully and recently class-actioned for charging unnecessary fees for overseas transactions. More »
Blueprint for Financial Prosperity reminds us that credit cards carry more discounts than we realize. Visa, MasterCard, and American Express all offer discounts for cardholders. Discover's discounts are limited to business accounts. More »
—>Reader S. got a call this morning from Citibank. They said her card had been compromised and she needed a new card. When she asked for details, Citibank could only say that an unspecified business had their system compromised, affecting "millions" of Visa and MasterCards More »
The 2006 Deloitte report on gift cards is out, and it's official. Gift cards are the single most popular gift this holiday season. But are they a good buy? Sort of. It seems that due to consumer pressure, and FTC pressure, stores are improving their customer service/disclosure of fees when it comes to gift cards. But that doesn't meant there aren't still a lot of problems. The Montgomery County, Maryland, Office of Consumer Protection which assesses dozens of cards annually, has released their 2006 report. The report evaluates 40 different gift cards, looking for things like whether or not the card can be replaced if lost or stolen, whether the cards have an expiration date, and whether fees are assessed to the card's balance. Basically, you want to avoid the following cards: More »
—>Good news for those of you who don't fear ID theft. Nokia, Cingular, Mastercard and Citi are testing some crap that lets you pay for things with a cell phone. The phones will use the "Mastercard Pay Pass" system that's already installed in some stores. If you live in NYC and are accepted into the trial, you get a free phone. You need to be a Citi account holder and a Cingular user. Let us know how you like it and if your ID gets stolen. Good luck. —MEGHANN MARCO More »
—>Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid canceled his Mastercard after someone stole it and ran up over $2000 in charges. More »
Apparently, Mastercard really is for everything else, as communicated by its new logo. More »
—>You would think that after Chase goes through the trouble of reissuing new Visa debit cards to replace its MasterCards, they might also take the precaution of deactivating the old card when the new one is activated. Not so, Disappointed in NYC writes. When our reader tried to cancel Vonage, they wanted to charge a cancellation fee. He refused but they still charged his old Chase Mastercard. Chase CSR said the Vonage charge went through but nothing else would. More »
—>We received our happy super fun awesome new Washington Mutual GOLD debit card today. More »
—>We've just been the lucky recipient of exciting news; the PIN range our debit card belongs to has been hacked. To celebrate, Washington Mutual is "upgrading" our debit card "to gold status for free." More »
—>Don't you hate it when that Federal Breast Inspector identification card in your wallet mysteriously morphs into a Mastercard? Or, for that matter, a supermarket coupon card, wicker furniture loyalty card, or hell, a card for bankrupt-and-defunct clothes retailer Casual Corner? More »
—>A day without ice cream is like a day without sunshine. More »
—>Amy's Ice Cream has a new sign (right) that seems to say that the $10 minimum charge is suggested, not required. The sign we originally posted (left) was one a store manager had replaced the 'official' sign with, according to Steve. More »
—>Our article on the minimum credit card fees charged at Amy's Ice Cream generated quite a little uproar. Amy is pictured, left, helping award Lonnie Williams with the "Best Transition" small business award in Austin. It's made from left-over toffee ice cream. More »
—>My my, how the rocky road of customer service melts and leaves a sticky trail. More »
—>Erik went ahead and consolidated the merchant policies of Discover, Mastercard and Visa, which leads to a startling conclusion. More »
