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  • Study shows number of new credit card accounts declined

    Study shows number of new credit card accounts declined. A new study has found that the national recession has changed the way consumers obtain and pay off their credit card debt considerably over the last three years.

    According to a new report from the credit monitoring bureau Experian, the nationwide number of new credit card accounts that have been opened in the last three years declined 26 percent. In addition, the way consumers have used their lines of credit has also changed dramatically.

    "This implies that many American consumers are relying less on cards and potentially trying to pay down debt," said Michele Raneri, Experian’s senior director of analytics.

    The study also looked at how consumers in the nation’s 20 largest metropolitan areas used their credit, and found that New Yorkers carry the most cards – 3.77 on average – of anyone in the country. Pittsburgh residents, meanwhile, came in second, with 3.6 per person.

    Many consumers may have found it easier to reduce their total debt as a result of the Credit Card Accountability, Responsibility and Disclosure Act, which was designed to help consumers manage their credit more wisely.

  • Consumer Savings

    Below is a complete list of Debtmerica’s Consumer Savings articles listed in order of recency.

  • Consumer Debt

    Below is a complete list of Debtmerica’s Consumer Debt articles listed in order of recency.

  • Bankruptcy

    Below is a complete list of Debtmerica’s Bankruptcy articles listed in order of recency.

  • Debt Settlement

    Below is a complete list of Debtmerica’s Debt Settlement articles listed in order of recency.

  • Credit Cards

    Below is a complete list of Debtmerica’s Credit Card articles listed in order of recency.

  • Debt Management

    Below is a complete list of Debtmerica’s Debt Management articles listed in order of recency.

  • Small businesses can now process credit card sales on mobile phones

    Small businesses can now process credit card sales on mobile phones. In the past, many small business employees and owners may have found it difficult to process credit card payments from remote locations, where they didn’t have access to their accounts or equipment. However, that could all change thanks to a new mobile phone program.

    Sage Payment Boss, a new program from business software company Sage North America, allows small businesses allow customers to take on credit card debt from anywhere they can connect to a 3G network with their cell phones. As long as the small business can connect to their merchant accounts, they can process and verify any payment by credit card, and even send out an electronic receipt when the transaction is completed.

    The program can also be used in conjunction with Sage’s Billing Boss, which also tracks and manages incoming cash flow in real time and monitors sales activity.

    Several major cell phone carriers, such as Verizon and AT&T, are also about to implement a system that would allow consumers to use their cell phones to make credit card payments by simply waving them in front of a wireless sensor.

  • More Pennsylvania residents opting to pay their taxes with a credit card

    More Pennsylvania residents opting to pay their taxes with a credit card. A small but growing number of Pennsylvania residents are opting to use credit cards to pay their taxes, despite the fact that they are charged extra to do so.

    According to a report in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, more towns, cities and counties in the state are now allowing residents to take on credit card debt to pay their taxes online. And though this payment method comes with a fee of about 3 percent, it is quickly growing in popularity. These fees are being charged to offset the cost of having a third party process the transaction, since the state is not able to do so itself.

    One local tax collector told the paper that his office has typically heard three reasons for consumers to pay by credit card despite the additional fee: a cash flow problem, the appeal of earning credit card rewards points or miles, or the convenience of being able to pay the bill online.

    The Internal Revenue Service allows Americans to pay their federal taxes by credit card as well. Like Pennsylvania, the IRS charges a small percentage per transaction because it too has to go through a third party to process the payments.

  • Wells Fargo says it will eliminate penalty interest rates

    Wells Fargo says it will eliminate penalty interest rates. In the past, consumers who were behind on paying off their credit card debt could have expected to be hit with a penalty interest rate that was much higher than their basic APR. However, those days may soon be forgotten.

    According to a report from the Associated Press, Wells Fargo recently announced it would eliminate all penalty interest rates – which it traditionally held at 27 percent – for accounts that were more than 60 days delinquent after July 6. Any accounts that incurred penalty rates prior to that will still be required to pay theirs until that debt is eliminated.

    The report said that Wells Fargo will still maintain late fees of $25 or the minimum payment due, whichever is less. That late fee can escalate to $35 if another late payment is made within six months of the first one.

    A recent report from Mintel Comperemedia found that despite experts’ predictions, many banks, like Wells Fargo, have not adopted practices that could have been harmful to consumers in the wake of the new credit card laws.