Category: Credit Cards

American Express partnered with software developer Federated Media to produce its new Currency program, which is designed to give young consumers advice about their finances, including how to reduce their credit card debt. In addition, the companies launched an iPhone app that allows users to share financial advice.

"With Currency, we have brought together best-in-class partners, a youthful point-of-view and voice, and a rich, innovative social media platform to help empower visitors to the site with the knowledge and savvy it takes to attain financial success," said Pepper Evans Roukas, an American Express vice president.

The service also features columns from 25 of the nation's top personal finance writers, giving advice on planning and savings, spending and "big decisions," the company said. This can help them rein in habits that could lead to credit card debt.

Many young people face financial trouble soon after leaving college, as the average student graduates with several thousand dollars in credit card debt.

According to a new report from the Tulsa World, which cited statistics from an American Express survey, consumers have opted to put more of their money into savings, rather than committing it to reducing credit card debt. In addition, fewer said they planned to spend less in the next 30 days than they did in the same period last year.

Concentration on reducing credit card debt slipped to consumers' second priority, the report said. Meanwhile, a loss of income, concern about depleting savings, and worries about job security were also listed as reasons for the declines in spending.

Many consumers have been forced to spend large portions of their savings as the national unemployment rate remained unusually high in recent months. As a result, they may have also begun to make ends meet by taking on more credit card debt.

The program from MasterCard and CitiBank will allow consumers to set monthly budgets for a number of different categories, from shopping to dining out. According to a report from Denver television station KNCN, the "In Control" accounts will shut down for a specific category once the limit is reached for a given month.

For example, if the cardholder only wants to rack up $50 in credit card debt at restaurants, the card will be declined if they try to use it beyond that, the report said. Consumers can check the status of their spending by category online.

However, one financial planner told the station that this strategy alone will not cure bad habits. Beyond simply setting budgets on credit card debt for specific types of purchases, consumers need to learn better practices.

In recent months, consumers have been conscious of their finances, reining in spending and paying off more credit card debt while also putting money into their savings.

According to a new report from Reuters, Visa will soon begin participating in a pilot program MasterCard has been running in New York City for several months. The system allows consumers to take on credit card debt to pay for their subway, train or bus rides simply by waving their credit card or smartphone in front of a contactless sensor.

The report said MasterCard has been testing the system since June on certain popular commuter routes, and many regular riders have taken on credit card debt in this way, leading Visa to enter into the program as well.

Visa cardholders can now participate in much the same way MasterCard customers have, the Reuters report noted. When they approach a turnstile, they can simply use their credit card, or alternatively affix an electronic sticker containing their credit card information to the back of their smartphone, and wave it over a sensor to take on credit card debt in exchange for the fare.

The world's largest credit network has also been working with Bank of America in recent months to test out similar payment programs in New York City at locations such as stores and other vendors, the report said. All pilot-enabled phones in that system can also be used in this new one, a Bank of America spokeswoman told Reuters.

Visa has also started another test for contactless transit system payments in Los Angeles, Reuters said. However, the process may not immediately involve credit card debt right away as smartphones will not be used in the process. Instead, consumers in the program will be given special prepaid debit cards which they can tap on a sensor to ride a subway or bus. In addition, select companies will also accept these cards for other goods and services in the city.

A number of different credit card companies have announced plans to begin testing more contactless systems all over the country. Many will let consumers to use their credit cards to make purchases without swiping them, but others will also allow for smartphone payments. Typically these work with RFID chips that are implanted into the handset and contain the information.

Discover Financial Services said its profits in the second quarter fell 55 percent from the same period a year prior, thanks in large part to its settling an antitrust lawsuit with Visa and MasterCard, a report from the Associated Press said. However, those profits, which totaled $258.2 million, were still higher than industry experts had forecast because of an unforeseen rise in consumers more willing to take on credit card debt.

Credit card sales volume rose 5 percent in the quarter, the report said. In addition, Discover saw a decrease in credit card debt that had fallen to 30 days or more behind, and charge offs fell as well. But the settlement, which saw the company pay out $287 million, was too much to fully recover from.

Consumers have made a more concerted effort to pay off their credit card debt in recent months, but the increase in card transactions is a new trend observed after months of declines.

According to a new report in the Denver Post, many universities will sell credit card companies access to lists of contact information for students, alumni, faculty and boosters in exchange for millions of dollars. Some schools even get a percentage of every dollar of credit card debt people carrying their branded cards take on, or for every transaction they make.

Among the contracts the Denver Post examined, it found many different types of agreements, all designed to lure students into taking on credit card debt or opening other accounts with the lenders.

"Young people are the future. If a bank can get them at the beginning, it's long-term marketing," Gale Hillebrand, chief counsel at Consumers Union, told the newspaper. "The debt treadmill is designed to generate revenue for years."

The more common provisions of these agreements can also see the institute of higher learning making over half a million dollars a year, plus bonuses, based on the number of credit cards opened by people in the databases the school sold. The paper said these contracts also may allow the lender to place advertisements at school sporting events.

The Post also said lenders will pay hundreds of dollars for an ATM to be strategically placed on campus. In addition, some will allow debit cards to be tied to student ID numbers. In some cases, these contracts can be worth millions to both the school and banks.

The newspaper reported that many students will accept offers marketed on their campus because it's easier than shopping for the best deal or interest rate for credit card debt.

The average college student graduates with several thousand dollars worth of credit card debt spread across a number of accounts. However, thanks to provisions in the Credit Card Accountability, Responsibility and Disclosure Act, lenders are prohibited from trying to entice people under 21 into signing up for an account with promotional items like T-shirts or coffee mugs. In addition, young people will also need someone else to co-sign on their credit card, or otherwise prove they are financially able to make payments, before they will be allowed to open an account.

After four straight months of drops, one of the major U.S. lenders reported that it wrote off more toxic credit card debt in August.

In its monthly regulatory filing, Capital One said its rate of charge offs – credit card debts so far behind that the company deems them uncollectable – increased in August for the first time in months, a new report from Reuters said. In all, defaults jumped slightly from 8.13 percent of all accounts in July to 8.19 percent in August.

On the other hand, Capital One, whose filings are typically the first to come out every month, also said its delinquencies continued to decline in August, the report noted. Delinquent credit card debt – accounts 30 or more days behind – fell from 4.66 percent in July to 4.56 percent.

An increase in charge offs may indicate that consumers who were already experiencing financial problems continued to struggle when attempting to pay off their credit card debt in August. Almost all the other major lenders had previously seen declines in seriously delinquent accounts in recent months.

Many consumers across the country take on credit card debt to pay for monthly expenses and other purchases, but there are some who are locked out of the financial system for one reason or another.

For this reason, national chain 7-Eleven has introduced a new payment system that allows consumers to pay for everything from online purchases to loans without taking on credit card debt, according to a report from industry site Convenience Store News. The new program, called PayNearMe, will allow customers to pay for purchases on big-name web sites like Amazon.com and Facebook, among others, with cash.

“7-Eleven views this as an opportunity to provide even more convenience for shoppers because consumers can now easily purchase online products without the need of a debit or credit card,” Jesus Delgado-Jenkins, the company’s senior vice president for merchandising and logistics, told the site. “We want 7-Eleven to be the neighborhood destination for people who prefer or need to pay in cash and to provide all consumers with the same shopping choices no matter how they wish to pay for goods and services.”

Convenience Store News noted that close to 25 percent of all households in the country are considered un- or underbanked by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp., and about the same percentage don’t have access to a credit or debit card. However, the PayNearMe system is designed to help those who can’t take on credit card debt pay bills without the use of costly prepaid cards or money orders.

Consumers can also use the PayNearMe system to reload prepaid online accounts with cash, the report said. All transactions are set up by the merchant, then completed in real time when the customer pays with cash.

Many 7-Eleven stores across the country will be outfitted with PayNearMe point of sale terminals in the near future, and more additions to the program are on the way, the site added. Among the coming features are the ability to buy passes for public transportation, complete money transfers or even buy insurance products.

Another reason some consumers may prefer to use PayNearMe’s system to complete transactions is because they are wary of taking on credit card debt thanks to their employment status or fears about the economy.

Many economists expected credit card lenders and other banks to raise their rates significantly ahead of both the Credit Card Accountability, Responsibility and Disclosure Act and the financial reform bill. It didn’t happen then, but it will have to do so over the next several years.

New global banking regulations passed this week by the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision require financial institutions to carry more equity, according to a report from Marketwatch. That will cause them to boost rates, fees and down payments on all types of loans, including those for credit card debt. While they will need enough capital to cover at least 7 percent of their total assets, the increases are designed to better insulate institutions from another financial crisis.

However, these new regulations won’t take full effect until 2019, so lenders will likely phase them in slowly – and less drastically – over the next nine years, the report said.

“The way regulators have decided not to have any more bailouts is to over-capitalize the system,” Cornelius Hurley, director of the Morin Center for Banking and Financial Law at Boston University, told the site. “The cost to the consumer will be embedded in that.”

To meet these new minimums, financial institutions are expected to both raise rates on everything from auto financing, mortgages and credit card debt, Marketwatch reported. They will also make loans more difficult to obtain in an attempt to lower the total amount of assets they carry. Hurley noted that as capital requirements increase, banks and others are less motivated to lend in general.

However, the impact of these new regulations is expected to be minimal compared to those in the U.S. that altered the way lenders could deal with consumer credit card debt. One Marketwatch financial analyst said the changes will be “much less evident” to the average consumer over the next several years.

Among the changes mandated by the Credit CARD Act, apart from those related to boosting interest rates on credit card debt without warning, are rules that govern how long introductory offers must last, and the amount of late fees lenders can charge for a consumer’s first offense.

Consumers who like to receive rewards points for every dollar of credit card debt they compile now have another option for spending them.

American Express and Amazon.com, one of the biggest online marketplaces, have announced a partnership, according to a report from Consumer Commentary. The new deal will allow consumers who are enrolled in programs that turn their credit card debt into rewards points to spend them at Amazon.com either in addition to or in lieu of cash or other payment methods.

All a consumer in American Express’ Membership Rewards program has to do to link their accounts is visit Amazon.com’s Shop With Points page and click through a three-step process, the report said. Currently, every rewards point, which compiles at different rates for every dollar of credit card debt depending on the account, is worth about .007 cents on Amazon.

Experts say that people who want to begin compiling rewards points should search around for the program that gives them the most per dollar of credit card debt.