Sallie Mae‘s 2009 study of credit card use shows that students just love binging on plastic. Kids these days have more than four cards on average, and most of them carry a balance pushing $3,000. Many don’t tell their parents, and almost a fifth graduate with more than $7,000 of debt. This is how meltdowns start…
credit card
American Express Cancels Your Card Right Before You Were Supposed To Get Your $500 Rebate
By 2.27.09
Andrea, an American Express member for over 20 years, is upset because AmEx canceled her cash-back card two weeks before her $500 rebate check was supposed to arrive, and declared the rebate forfeit.
Rogue Charges Resurrect Expired Amex Card
By 5.4.08
Patricia closed her company’s American Express Delta Sky Miles card six months ago, but the expired card unexpectedly sprang to life thanks to a supplier’s accidental charge. American Express laughed off the matter, saying “this happens all of the time,” adding that it’s Patricia’s responsibility to ensure that all vendors destroy her outdated billing information.
Amazon Screws Up Refund, Charges $2,288.44 for $750 Of Gym Equipment
By 4.18.08
Reader Craig ordered some gym equipment from Amazon, but he accidentally used his debit card instead of his credit card. Realizing his mistake, he immediately tried to correct the problem. He went through the change payment process right away and figured all was well. Of course it wasn’t, and he ended up getting charged $2,288.44 for $750 worth of equipment when Amazon got the refund process backwards. Twice. See how it happened after the jump.
How To Go 30 Years Without A Credit Card
By 3.7.08
I recently reached what I bet is a rare milestone: I have now gone 30 years, basically my entire working life so far, without a credit card.
Barnes & Noble Error Leaves Gift Card Unused, Doubles Charges On Credit Card
By 2.21.08
It’s bad enough when a glitch on a retailer’s side screws up your method of payment, but Barnes & Noble took so long to investigate and respond to one customer’s emails that by the time they acknowledged they’d made a mistake, they said it was too late to do anything about it.
Follow Up: Woman Tasered Last November At Best Buy Will Not Have Charges Filed Against Her
By 2.12.08
On November 26th, a 35-year-old woman was shopping at Best Buy in Daytona Beach, Florida when there was some sort of communication breakdown, and a police officer who was at the store tasered her. We wrote about it here, and it turns out there’s a video of the event here. At the time there were few details, but the full story has since been pieced together and resolved, and last week the Florida state attorney said “charges won’t be pursued because there is no evidence that Beeland committed a crime.”
Shopper Tasered After Using Someone Else's Credit Card At Best Buy
By 12.4.07
The Daytona Beach Police Department say that a woman was tasered last Monday inside of a Best Buy store after attempting to use someone else’s credit card to make a purchase.
UPDATE: Getting Out of Credit Card Debt
By 4.26.06
T’is a pity for the flower of youth to be wrinkled by the radioactive belch of credit card debt. Yesterday, we asked the readers about how college boy L.S. should get out of his $2150 in credit card debt set at exorbitant rates and here’s what we think he should do.
Credit Hacks: Pretty Way to Picture Your Debt
By 2.17.06
s a nifty way to take master your credit card debt. Punch into John Madea’s free analyzer the APR, minimum monthly payment percentage, the principal and monthly payment.
What’s Your Favorite Rewards Program?
By 2.2.06
Reader Rik P. wants to know about your favorite rewards programs:
I think it would be useful to poll folks on how they feel about the various credit card reward programs out there. My girlfriend has been using one of those frequent flyer mile credit cards and has yet to earn anything close to a free trip, despite three years of charging.
Shophacks: How to Force ‘Buy Now, Pay Later’ at Many Stores
By 1.24.06
This scheme is a bit duplicitous, of course, but we feel no compunction passing on ways to game the same system that so often screws us over. Use these tricks at your own risk.
Using a Credit Card to Fight Sprint
By 1.9.06
We have an unfortunate/fortunate lack of credit cards, so we are not able to take advantage of the protection services afford customers from credit card providers. Ramit “I Will Teach You to Be Rich” Sethi had been struggling with Sprint for quite some time, and despite reaching a supposed resolution, he was still charged a fee for his early cancellation—despite the fact he did not have a contract.
The Credit Card Plastic Bag Trick
By 12.27.05
Alejandro writes:
I was at the Key Foods by my house and as I was standing in line the lady in front of me swiped her credit card on the little machine by the register about three times with no luck. Then the cashier handed her a plastic bag and told her to wrap the credit card in the plastic bag and swipe it. I kind of laughed to myself, but the lady did as instructed, swiped the bag covered card and it worked. I must have made a face because the cashier smiled at me, and I asked her “how did you figure that out?” and she just smiled.
Credit cards store their information on magnetic strips. That means that if this trick is more than just retail voodoo, it must be aligning the card in such a way to make it easier for the reader to scan it. Which, you know, doesn’t make a lot of sense to us.
