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Consumers in the U.S. have taken to using their credit cards more often in recent months, spelling a huge surge in profits for the world's biggest payment processing network.

Visa recently announced that it saw profits surge by 40 percent in the fiscal third quarter of the year to $1 billion, beating analyst estimates, according to a report from Bloomberg News. This change was largely the result of U.S. credit card spending ticking up 9.8 percent during the three-month period, as consumers charged $224 billion worth of transactions.

However, the company also believes that the new swipe fee regulations for debit card transactions will likely cut into its profits going forward, the report said. The U.S. made up about 59 percent of the network's total sales last year, but Visa chairman and CEO Joseph Saunders says the company wants to make it a 50-50 split with international markets by 2015.

Many consumers these days haven't been able to get out of debt because of the rising prices for many necessities like food and gasoline, which has overextended their personal budgets.

While there are now a number of services that allow businesses to process credit card debt without consumers having to swipe their cards, a new company says it has taken the next step in protecting borrowers from fraud when doing so.

The online payment processing service Jumio will soon launch a program that allows consumers to make a swipeless payment simply by holding their credit or debit card up to a camera, according to a report from the tech news agency GigaOm. The video image of the card is streamed, encrypted, to the company's servers and software determines where the payment information is located. However, consumers will still have to enter their security code manually.

But what separates Jumio, which will soon launch a mobile version of the service as well, from its competitors is that it can tell the difference between a copy of a credit card and a real one, the report said. This is because the software can detect the raised letters on an actual card.

Security, or at least the perception that this process is somehow less secure, is seen as one of the major hurdles for widespread acceptance of mobile credit card payment processing.

Many consumers saddled with massive amounts of credit card debt have had trouble dealing with it in the past, but may now be in a better position to continue getting out of debt.

Between the first quarters of 2009 and 2010, consumers paid about $72 billion more into their credit card debt than what they spent on those accounts, according to a new study from the credit monitoring bureau TransUnion. This stands in stark contrast to the previous theory of many financial experts, which indicated charge offs were the primary reason for continual declines in debt levels.

"Charge-off is a more predominant driver of deleveraging among subprime consumers," said Ezra Becker, vice president of research and consulting in TransUnion's financial services business unit. "Among prime consumers, paydown is the major factor. Although it sounds simple, this is critical insight for lenders: it allows them to better understand the preferences of various sub-segments of consumers and respond appropriately to each."

All of the nation's top credit card lenders have seen profits climb significantly in the last several months, as both more conscientious bill payments and previous defaults reduced the number of charge offs.

The rates of delinquent and defaulted credit card accounts for the nation's six largest lenders have improved considerably over the past several months, meaning far bigger profits for the financial institutions, and that trend continued through the month of June.

Five of the nation's top six credit card lenders have filed their monthly reports on their company's credit card business, and all saw improvements in the rates at which they had to write off seriously delinquent accounts as being uncollectable, according to a report from the Associated Press. Similarly, four of the five saw delinquent accounts dip as well. Only Citibank has yet to make its monthly regulatory filing with the federal government.

Only Capital One Financial saw delinquency – accounts 30 days or more past due – increase in June, the report said. This continued a trend that has seen late payments fall to lows not seen since before the start of the national recession for nearly all lenders.

Meanwhile, charge offs – those accounts 90 days or more behind on payments that lenders feel they will never recover – slipped across the board, with Bank of America seeing the largest declines, the report said. JPMorgan Chase and Discover Financial Services also saw large improvements in defaulted accounts.

Significant declines in industry-wide charge off rates are good news for lenders, who previously had to set aside tens of millions of dollars per month to offset the losses from those defaulted accounts, the report said. But because these rates have slipped repeatedly since late last year, almost all of the country's top six lenders are now enjoying appreciably higher profits from their credit card businesses.

Further, consumers are now returning to more frequent use of their credit card accounts now that the economy has begun to improve again, the report said. During the recession, not only were charge off rates at or near all-time highs, but consumers wary of digging themselves into deeper debt largely swore off credit card use.

Some experts warn that continued improvements in defaulted credit card accounts are likely to continue, because most lenders have already forced most riskier borrowers out of the lending system as a result of past defaults. Now, those consumers are likely to find it difficult or even impossible to find new lines of credit.

Former Ohio Attorney General Richard Cordray was recently announced as the first head of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, just days before the agency is set to gain full regulatory power over the lending industry. Obama said Cordray was picked because of his strong commitment to protecting the middle class throughout his career.

Many within the banking industry believe that Cordray could impose more harmful measures against the lending industry than the previous favorite to win the post, Harvard law professor Elizabeth Warren. It was Warren who was originally tasked with building the agency and setting some of its goals.

Republican lawmakers had been critical both of the bureau itself and Warren in particular, and had vowed to stonewall her appointment to the post. But with Cordray taking the helm instead, the way lenders deal with consumer credit card debt may soon be drastically altered because of his cavalier approach to reigning in predatory practices by the banking industry.

The owner of a former debt collection agency in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, has been charged with bank fraud and aggravated identity theft after he defrauded a bank of more than $126,000.

William Ferguson of LaPlace, Louisiana, was recently released after being charged with the crimes, and stands accused of 61 counts of fraud, as well as three counts of aggravated ID theft, according to a report from the Associated Press. His trial is scheduled fro begin on September 6, according to U.S. Magistrate Judge Stephen Reidlinger.

The charges stem from Ferguson allegedly opening an account at Hancock Bank in the name of his debt collection agency, then writing and depositing checks to his company in the names of both customers and companies being portrayed as customers.

Many debt collection agencies are coming under greater scrutiny from government and law enforcement agencies, as they sometimes use abusive or even illegal tactics to attempt to convince consumers to make payments into bad debt. These tactics can include harassing phone calls made to the debtors' homes or offices.

Once again in June, the number of consumers who fell behind on their credit card payments declined for nearly all major lenders.

The number of delinquent and defaulted credit card accounts dropped to lows not seen in at least three years in June as consumers continued to get a better handle on their finances, according to the latest monthly report from Fitch Ratings. Charge offs fell for the third consecutive month and fourth in the last six, dropping to 7.29 percent of all balances, the lowest since early 2008.

In addition, delinquency – balances 60 days or more behind – fell to just 2.57 percent of all accounts, the lowest level seen since August 2007, while 30-day early-stage delinquency dipped to 3.33 percent, the report said. Late-stage delinquency was 36 percent lower than the rate observed in the same month last year.

The slowly improving economy has allowed many consumers to have an easier time when trying to get out of debt, giving them greater flexibility to stay current on their bills and make on-time payments.

Most Americans feel they have their credit card debt under control, but also believe their neighbors and other consumers spend too much on these accounts.

A new poll recently revealed that 71 percent of Americans believe their credit card spending is under control and reasonable, while 86 percent also said they thought other people spent too much, according to Rasmussen Reports. In addition, the majority believed that using these accounts can lead to trouble for other consumers.

In all, 83 percent believed that credit card accounts are likely to tempt borrowers into buying things they couldn't otherwise afford, the report said. Further, 64 percent feel it's too easy for consumers to open new accounts these days. Only 13 percent thought it was too difficult to obtain a new credit card.

A large number of consumers worked to reduce debt during the recession and found ways to get out of debt, but many have returned to using their credit card accounts once again in recent months as the economy has made continued improvements.