Back in February, American Express and Costco announced that they’re breaking up in 2016. That means AmEx, including the Costco co-branded cards, will be useless at the warehouse store. Now, seven months later, the credit card company reveals its entering into a relationship with Costco rival Sam’s Club, allowing shoppers at that warehouse store to use AmEx cards at the register for the first time. [More]
payments
10 Things We Learned About The Structured Settlement Purchase Industry
By 8.28.15
Report after report finds that payday lenders, auto title loan firms and pension advance operations unfairly target vulnerable consumers with high fees and questionable terms, but a new investigative piece from The Washington Post shows that are some lesser-known, but very lucrative players offering quick cash to vulnerable consumers: structured settlement purchasing companies. [More]
Square Trying To Help Small Businesses Meet October Deadline For New Chip & PIN Credit Cards
By 8.13.15
A survey released last week by Wells Fargo found that a majority of small business owners aren’t prepared for the October deadline to switch from traditional swipe-and-sign credit card transactions to the supposedly more secure chip-and-PIN card system. Now, one mobile payment company says it wants to take some of the burden off the shoulders of these companies by offering to pay for any charges incurred from a breach — as long as the business owner has ordered its new card reader. [More]
Subway Launches New Mobile Payment, Ordering Options
By 7.29.15
Now that nearly every American has a smartphone permanently fixed to their hand, a long list of restaurants including Starbucks, Dunkin’ Donuts, Taco Bell and Dominos have upped their mobile presence by way of ordering and payment apps, and now one of the largest chains in the country is joining the ever-growing list: Subway. [More]
Western Union-Owned Mortgage Company Must Return $33.4M To Customers
By 7.28.15
A mortgage payment company owned by Western Union has agreed to return $33.4 million to consumers following allegations that it misled customers into thinking they could save thousands of dollars on their home loans. [More]
Does Postdating A Check Prevent Anyone From Depositing It Early?
By 6.3.15 — Updated: 5.24.17
Thanks to automated payments and online banking, many of us rarely (if ever) write checks, but millions of Americans still pull out their checkbooks every day to pay their bills. Because they might not always have enough money in their accounts on the day they write those checks, some folks will postdate their checks so that they aren’t deposited or cashed until after that date. Unfortunately, the fact is that there’s generally no actual obligation to honor the date on a check. [More]
JetBlue Becomes First Airline To Accept Apple Pay For In-Flight Purchases
By 2.10.15
Paying for in-flight purchases can be a pain. First you have to remember whether or not the airline accepts only cash or credit card, then you have to squirm around trying to find your wallet. JetBlue airlines is aiming to take the nuisance out of making purchases by being the first airline to accept Apple Pay as payment.
Kickstarter Ditches Amazon As Payment Processor, Switches To Stripe
By 1.6.15
If you’ve been avoiding backing interesting projects on Kickstarter because you didn’t want to deal with Amazon Payments or log in to two accounts to pledge a couple of bucks for some potato salad, your wait is over: Kickstarter is breaking up with Amazon and switching to a different payments processor, Stripe. [More]
Starbucks Ditches Square, Will Cease Accepting Wallet Mobile Payments In Coming Months
By 12.19.14
The two-year long partnership between Starbucks and mobile payment system Square is coming to an end, as the coffee company had decided to ditch the mobile payment company’s upcoming new system in favor of its own mobile ordering solution. [More]
How One Appliance Store Unleashed The Streisand Effect On Itself
By 7.28.14
The New York Times’ “Haggler” column is a standard consumer problem-solving column like many newspapers have, but backed with the brand recognition and vast readership of the NYT. A recent column about a financing dispute between a Texas woman and an appliance store could have just been a mundane account of a dispute over interest payments on a refrigerator, but the company refused to talk to the Times. At all. [More]
Amazon Payments Locks Me Out Of Form For Not Filling Out Form
By 1.3.13
Rey had a really great idea for a Kickstarter project. We don’t know what it is: he didn’t tell us. The world may never have the chance to know what his amazing idea was, because he didn’t even get to the point of setting up his page and posting a slick video. Instead, Amazon stood in his way. Amazon? Why Amazon? Well, you have to accept Amazon Payments to use Kickstarter. Amazon needed information that Rey had already provided long ago and was still valid. In fact, they had just sent him some money. They asked him for it again anyway, and then things got ridiculous and confusing. [More]
I Just Want To Give Redbox $1.50
By 3.23.12
Lindsay rented a DVD from Redbox, and kept it longer than planned. Except her card on file was closed, and they couldn’t charge the extra rental fees to it. Can they take her payment over the phone? No. They aren’t set up to handle this situation, and don’t particularly want her money. [More]
Macy's Can't Keep Track Of Who Made Which Payments On Whose Credit Account
By 1.3.12
Call center representatives who handle Macy’s credit card inquiries are starting to wonder what’s wrong with reader Melannie. She keeps making $150 payments on her account, but she doesn’t owe anything. She hasn’t even used the card since 2009. They can refund her the overpayment, but that’s not the problem. Because she never made the payment in the first place. [More]
Still Making Payments I Can't Afford On My Ex-Wife's Wedding Ring
By 3.23.11
Reader Douglas’s wife left him, which we’re very sad to hear. He wrote to Consumerist about it because he’s still paying for her ring, which they purchased at Jared when they got married two years ago. He’s struggling financially, and made arrangements with the company to make payments of $50 per month at a lower interest rate. A few months later, they suddenly raised the payments back up to $100, claiming that there is nothing they can do to change the situation. Douglas is stuck. [More]
Amazon Takes My $1200, Sends Back Flurry Of Form Letters
By 3.9.11
One of the problems with selling online is that you can’t make your customers leave you feedback or ratings. You can remind them, offer discounts on their next purchase, and some shady vendors even try to bribe customers for food feedback. What you can’t do is force customers to leave you feedback, good or bad. Mike is a very small-time Amazon Marketplace seller, having sold seven items in the last four years, and none of the buyers have left him any feedback. He recently sold an expensive camera lens, and now Amazon has frozen his account because [More]
Citibank Transfers Student Loan To Another Company, But Sits On $1000 Payment For 30 More Days
By 9.29.10
The last time I uncovered an obvious error with my Citibank checking account, I realized it was time to move on. Our tipster Roarke may have just reached that same conclusion, only in his case Citibank has already passed along the account for him–just not the thousand dollar electronic payment he made on it a few days prior, which Citibank says it plans to hang on to for another 30 days. [More]
Keep PayPal From Using The Default ATM Debit Setting
By 5.25.10
PayPal exists to make money, not to help you. That’s why the unregulated money broker likes to ensure that when you pay with a linked account, you pay via the ATM debit card setting, because it’s cheaper for PayPal. Of course, that “savings” is sometimes deducted from you in the form of a transaction fee by your bank, but PayPal doesn’t care. If you want to change that payment method the next time you use PayPal, be prepared to jump through a lot of hoops. [More]
PayPal + Sears.com = Headaches
By 5.14.10
Reader Cheryl tried to use PayPal to buy some polo shirts from Sears — and, well, we’ll let her explain it. [More]
