Category: Credit Cards

When shopping for the best deals, many consumers may be enticed by the offers of a retailer who will give them 10 or 15 percent off their purchase just for signing up for and using a new store-branded credit card to make a purchase. But according to a report in the South Florida newspaper the Sun Sentinel, these new accounts could lead to more financial trouble, rather than less.

The report said that while it may seem like a deal to get a fairly sharp discount on that first purchase, many of these cards carry hidden interest rates that are considerably higher than those for traditional credit cards.

As a result, consumers should take on these credit card accounts with great caution. The newspaper advises that it will damage a person's credit score if they open too many of these accounts in a short period of time if they are to do so at all. In addition, it may save more money over time to simply use a credit card they already had that carries a lower interest rate.

It's also important for any consumer who enters into such an agreement to be aware of the credit card's issuer, the report said. While the card itself may carry the logo of a major retailer, it likely also bears the logo of the issuing company, such as American Express, Discover, MasterCard or Visa. These lenders will allow consumers to use branded cards at other businesses, but will typically do so at a higher interest rate than they do at the store from which the card came.

Often, these cards also carry other perks such as no interest for six months on any purchase made at the store that issued it. However, it is important for a consumer to carefully examine these agreements to see if there are any restrictions so that they don't fail to make a payment because of a misunderstanding.

The number of consumers aged 55 and older has risen sharply in recent years, according to a report in USA Today. This new trend is due in large part to the fact that older consumers have about 50 percent more credit card debt than younger people. From 2000 to 2008, the average amount of debt for households headed by someone 55 or older nearly doubled to $66,000 as those who lost a job or faced financial hardship leaned more heavily on credit cards.

"My generation thought that we were on easy street," Irene Froehlich, 61, who lives in the Chicago area, told the newspaper. "All of a sudden, we have been hit hard."

Many senior citizens may have also faced financial trouble as a result of rising medical costs or because they've tried to help support a child who has been experiencing hardships of their own.

Dorsey, now the CEO of mobile payment solutions firm Square, announced the release of his company's credit card reader, which works with iPads, iPhones and Android phones, according to USA Today. The device, which plugs into the devices' headphone jack, is smaller than a quarter and available free of charge, as is the program it works with. About 50,000 were shipped to small businesses and consumers nationwide ahead of the official launch.

However, there is a fee associated with each transaction, according to the newspaper. Square charges businesses that use the service 2.75 percent of the purchase price, plus another 15 percent if the transaction involves credit card debt.

In recent months, many companies have released similar devices that will allow businesses to process transactions involving credit card debt. There has been an increased demand for such services and now portable technology makes these programs possible.

Citibank will begin testing a new type of credit card, one with buttons and lights, that will allow consumers to choose to take on credit card debt when making a purchase, or to use their rewards points, according to a New York Timesreport. To follow suit, other lenders may soon begin issuing cards that can carry information for both credit and debit accounts, or some with additional security features embedded in them.

The report said that European consumers have been taking on credit card debt with advanced pieces of plastic for several years now. The continental standard there is "chip and pin" cards, which store data on an embedded microchip and require users to input a code before using it.

Many consumers have become concerned about the security of their credit card accounts as instances of fraud involving credit card debt have increased across the country over the last several years.

Americans have successfully cut down their credit card debt by 15.2 percent since the October 2008 peak of 708 billion, and currently consumer credit has returned to levels not observed since 2005, according to a Reuters report. As a result, the average credit score has climbed to 704.2, up 0.4 percent from last year, because consumers are being conscientious about decreasing their credit card debt.

This improvement has some lenders eager to extend consumers new offers that will allow them to take on credit card debt once again, the report said. The amount of credit cards issued in July, the period for which the latest statistics were available, was 2.9 million, up 12.8 percent over the same month a year before.

Consumers have been able to trim their credit card debt in recent months because they have paid more into their monthly bills, while at the same time decreasing their total amount of spending.

Obama has warned voters in a number of states that the sweeping reforms related to credit card debt and other financial industries could go away if Republicans take control of the House of Representatives or Senate, according to MSNBC.

"We don't want them rolling back Wall Street reform, so now credit card companies can go back to hitting you with hidden fees and penalties," Obama said at a recent rally in Portland, Oregon, the report stated.

Republicans would need to gain 40 seats in the House to gain a majority, but are not expected to have much of a chance to do the same in the Senate, the report said. However, Democrats believe that by highlighting reforms related to credit card debt, they may swing some voters who are having financial troubles.

Many have utilized the reforms brought by the new laws to pay down their credit card debt in recent months, as many have concentrated less on spending and more on paying bills.

Bank of America said that its rate of charge offs, or credit card debt 90 days or more behind that it now considers uncollectable, fell sharply, from 11.72 percent in August to just 9.98 percent in September, according to a Businessweek report. It was the first time the company's default rate slipped below 10 percent in months, and was the lowest rate observed all year.

However, its delinquency rate, comprised of all credit card debt that is 30 days or more behind, crept up slightly in September, from the 5.68 percent observed in August to 5.71 percent. The Businessweek report said this was the first time the delinquency rate for the lending giant increased so far in 2010, and it considers this statistic to be an possible indicator of future charge offs.

Most major lenders, such as Citibank and Discover, reported declines in both delinquent and defaulted credit card debt in September.

The rate at which all lenders wrote off credit card debt so delinquent that it was deemed uncollectable declined sharply from August to September, according to the latest Consumer Credit Default Indices released by Standard and Poor's and Experian. Altogether, defaults dropped 10.53 percent between the two months, to 7.04 percent. That figure was also 13.29 percent lower than the rate observed in the same period last year.

The report noted that cities such as Los Angeles and Miami have found large decreases in defaults, with those in the California city reducing their defaults by 13.8 percent in September, the second straight month in which it led the nation in drops. Meanwhile consumers in Florida saw charge offs decline 40.3 percent over the last 12 months.

Most lenders have reported that defaulted and delinquent credit card debt has declined in each of the last several months as consumers reduce spending and put more money toward paying their bills.

Many gas stations across the country are now charging more per gallon when a consumer takes on credit card debt to make a purchase, according to the New Bedford Standard-Times. Owners of these stations say they are doing so as a way to cut into the interchange fees they are charged by credit card lenders.

The report noted that this practice isn't illegal, but was rarely observed in the past because lenders had specific rules that barred companies from engaging in it. However, its prohibition was outlawed by the financial reform acts passed earlier this summer.

These interchange fees, charged for every transaction for which consumers took on credit card debt, have long been protested by small business owners who say they were too high. Many complained that these fees would cost them upwards of thousands of dollars a year.

Discover Card saw the rate at which it charged off bad credit card debt that had gone 90 days or more without payment fell to 7.15 percent in September, down from the 7.89 percent observed in August, according to a Businessweek report. The company reported that the decline saved it $121 million in the month.

At the same time, the company's delinquent credit card debt – accounts 30 or more days behind – dropped to slightly, from 4.47 percent in August to 4.41 percent in September, the Businessweek report said. It was the ninth straight month in which the company observed a decline in this type of account.

Most lenders across the industry have reported similar drops in defaulted and delinquent credit card debt over the last several months. These declines have come despite continued high unemployment rates, which typically have kept many borrowers from making regular payments into their accounts.