It’s pretty easy to amass a mountain of credit card debt, especially if you’re a married couple with nine credit cards on which you only pay the minimum. But there’s no simple way to bulldoze that mountain once it’s reached Everest-like heights. As one couple in Atlanta learned, erasing $83,000 in debt requires time, determination and humility. [More]
credit cards
Sony Not Sure If Credit Card Info Was Compromised During PSN Outage
By 4.25.11
Sony continues to deal with the fallout of its huge PlayStation Network outage, which has not only left 75 million users without access, but which also may have compromised users’ credit card information. [More]
Travel: Choosing The Best Credit Card
By 4.25.11
Like deciding whether to tap your Fountain of Youth or send in your Force of Nature in Magic: The Gathering, deciding which credit to play in the travel game depends on your situation and strategy. [More]
Take Preventive Measures To Avoid Zombie Billing
By 4.22.11
How can you prevent a zombie billing invasion after your satellite TV contract is up? Simple, explains reader catastrophegirl: give the company a credit card to put on file that expires before your contract is up. If they try to put the zombie charges on the card–well, they can’t. [More]
Woman Sues Target Over Credit Card Debt Collection Practices
By 4.21.11
A woman in Pennsylvania has filed a lawsuit against the retail chain, alleging that it used false affidavits to collect debts on Target-issued credit card accounts. [More]
FBI Busts "B-Girls" For Luring Miami Tourists To Rack Up Huge Bar Bills
By 4.18.11
The con was pretty straightforward. Sexy eastern European women working the South Beach strip in Miami would pick up guys at hotels who looked like they had money and entice them back to private clubs with champagne bottle service. The man would think that he was paying a couple of hundred dollars, but actually his credit card was getting swiped for thousands. In one instance, the bill came to $43,000. Now the FBI has swooped in and arrested 17 people connected to the “b-girl” scheme, reports the Miami Herald. [More]
Wells Fargo To Test Chip Embedded Cards With Travelers
By 4.14.11
Wells Fargo is going to send 15,000 EMV chip-embedded credit cards to frequent travelers this summer, the largest US bank to make a move towards these international-style credit cards. Consumers had complained about troubles using their credit card abroad with kiosks that only accept chip cards or with merchants who refused to take cards that only have the magnetic strip. [More]
Chase Rep Thinks Deaf People Can't Have Credit Cards
By 4.13.11
Dheeraj’s father is a silent partner in the business that they own together. They made him the personal guarantor when applying for a new business credit card from Chase recently, not realizing how many problems it would cause while trying to get the father’s card activated. See, Dheeraj’s father is deaf, and Chase was completely lost when it came to ways for him to prove his identity and activate the card. Now the account is frozen because all of Chase’s ways for business credit card customers to prove their identities depend on speaking directly with the cardholder on the phone. [More]
$700 In Citi Rewards Gift Cards Stranded In New Jersey
By 4.12.11
Yuriy traded in 70,000 Citi credit card reward points for $700 in gift cards. He intended to use the cards to buy a new laptop for his mother–how sweet! But something has gone horribly wrong, and the package of gift cards is stranded in Secaucus, N.J. It will take seven weeks for Citi to believe that the cards are really missing and issue replacements. [More]
A-Hole Identity Thieves Send Thank You Flowers To Victim
By 4.4.11
It’s bad enough when someone finds a way to swipe your personal info to use for their own illegal purposes. But it’s a special kind of jackass that has the temerity to send you a “Thank You” note after stealing your funds. [More]
We'd Rather Pay Our Credit Card Bills Than Our Mortgages
By 3.30.11
The Great Recession and the subsequent housing crisis has turned Americans all weird when it comes to which bills we pay: A new study says we’re more likely to pay our credit card bills than our mortgages. It’s a trend that should’ve reversed itself by now, say experts. But that hasn’t happened yet. [More]
Some Girl Scouts Join 20th Century, Begin Taking Credit Cards For Cookies
By 3.28.11
For decades, if you wanted to chow down on Thin Mints or any other Girl Scout cookies, you needed to have cash on hand or find someone willing to take a check. But now, a handful of troops in Ohio and California are shaking things up at the 100-year-old organization by accepting credit cards. [More]
GAO: Consumers Only Getting $.21 On The Dollar Out Of Credit Card Debt Protection Fees
By 3.25.11
In 2009, U.S. consumers spent at least $2.4 billion in fees for credit card debt protection products that provide them with the ability to suspend or cancel a part of their debt obligations as a result of things like disability and involuntary unemployment. However, a new Government Accountability Office report finds that the credit card companies are making a substantial profit from these fees. [More]
Please Stop Sending My 16-Year-Old Daughter Credit Card Solicitations
By 3.22.11
Theoretically, a 16-year-old shouldn’t be on the mailing list for unsolicited credit card offers. Neither should a 13-year-old. Yet companies just can’t stop sending solicitations to J’s teenage daughter–even after J. specifically opted her out of the offers. Permanently. Or so the family thought. Now they’ve started up again, and J. isn’t sure how to make them stop. [More]
Visa Letting People Send Money By Credit Card Could Be Boon For Scammers
By 3.18.11
Visa is launching a new service that will let people send each other money from their Visa or bank account to each other’s Visa debit, credit or prepaid card, as we noted yesterday. But while this will open up new vistas of convenience, and offer a way for people who are sick of scammers exploiting Paypal’s refund system to conduct transactions, I would at the same time expect to see new kinds of advance fee fraud using the service. [More]
Worst Company In America Round One: American Express Vs. Capital One
By 3.18.11
Have your photo IDs ready because you’ll need them to vote in this battle of credit card combatants! [More]
Europeans Guillotine Credit Card Magnetic Strips
By 3.14.11
The credit card magnetic strip might be on the path to becoming the 8-track of our times, and this time, it’s all the Europeans fault. The European Payments Council recently passed a resolution that declares that magnetic strips should only be allowed in “exceptional cases” and lets banks refuse magnetic strips if they feel like it. [More]
Forgiven Credit Card Debt Over $600 Is Taxable Income
By 3.14.11
Did you negotiate a debt settlement in 2010 on your credit card? If the amount you knocked off is more than $600, LowCards notes, the IRS considers it income and you’ll have to pay tax on it. Sorry Charlie, you’re not out of the woods yet. [More]
