Credit cards Visa or Master Card?

Credit cards Visa or Master Card?

Suffice it difficult to select a credit card, especially when it comes to credit cards Visa and Master Card or even AMEX - American Express. And Visa and Master Card "- is more payment systems, rather than just credit cards. They are linked with banks around the world. And those, in turn, produce and use different cards for payments. When paying with its card holder contributes% of the amount of transfer. In turn, guarantees the correct use of payment cards purchased goods or services. American Express - a self-payment system, which includes credit cards as well as cards for payments.

So, what to choose?

VISA
Visa - a huge network with a payment claimed 20 million distributors, cards are accepted in 150 countries around the world. Visas issued to 20 banks, and now in circulation around the map billion.

Master Card
Master Card quickly developing a payment system that in the near future promises to be 1 in the world. 25000 banks produce master cards, and cards are active in 210 countries worldwide. Approximately 22 million points of sales and service centers Master cards worldwide.

AMEX
American Express - one of the best-known financial services, which operates in 130 countries around the world. In addition, the travel is great.

Total
Choosing between Master Card and Wiese is simple enough. And Visa and Master Card are everywhere, and you can hardly find a place where would actively Visa and Master card would operate. Some banks offer select one of the payment systems Visas or Master card, depending on the conditions and characteristics of payment cards - the interest rate and terms of repayment of money. Regarding American Express, then it is not so simple. Map is not as widespread as Visa and Master Card, although the number of vendors and service centers grows. If you are a service like AMEX, do not be afraid - card is valid in all major shops, restaurants, and you can pay in many places. AMEX extremely popular in the United States.

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Credit Card Money And Kids

Credit Card Money And Kids


Many teenagers learn nothing about personal finance in school, and they learn all the wrong lessons from their free-spending friends. Yet surveys indicate that 11% of teens and 76% of college undergraduates are now wielding credit cards.


The danger: Your kids will grow up to be financially reckless, and you will feel compelled to bail them out. Don't want to spend the rest of your life footing their bills? Here's how I have tried to protect myself -- by instilling good financial habits in my kids.

• Dress for success. Make no mistake: Your children will make some appalling financial blunders. But it is a lot better if they make those mistakes while they are young and the sums involved are modest.


To that end, it is important to give youngsters financial responsibility, starting with a toy-and-candy allowance when they are five or six years old and then, once they are teenagers, stepping it up with a clothing allowance and a bank account.

CHILD'S PLAY

76% of undergraduates carry a credit card, and 43% of these students have four or more cards.
11% of teenagers have credit cards, including 6% of those age 13 and 14.
Only 50% of high-school students say they have been taught economics in school.
35% of teens receive an allowance.

goal: to get your kids to make tough financial decisions. If they are always asking you for money or they are merrily racking up charges on the credit card you gave them, their desires will be limitless and spending will seem painless, because they aren't paying -- you are. What to do? You have to set up a system where, instead of you saying "no," your kids have to say "no" to themselves.

I try to do this with my two kids. Every three months, I deposit $200 in my 16-year-old daughter's bank account, which is meant to cover clothing and entertainment. Our agreement is that I will pay for bigger-ticket items, like winter coats and running shoes. For everything else, Hannah either has to limit herself to the $200 or earn extra by babysitting.

My daughter, of course, buys idiotic items and struggles to make ends meet. And I, of course, want to guide her decisions and bail her out. But I don't. The reason: If I bail her out now, she won't learn responsibility -- and I will end up bailing her out later.

Eventually, I plan to use the same system with my 12-year-old son, Henry. For now, however, I just give him $100 every three months, and I don't expect him to buy clothes. Frankly, if he had a clothing allowance, I am not sure what bizarre outfits he would buy -- or whether he would even bother with new clothes.

• The buck stops somewhere. Over the past decade, I have salted away $25,000 in a low-cost variable annuity for each of my kids, to give them a head start on retirement savings.


But lately, I have also been giving some thought to Henry and Hannah's financial needs over the next 10 or 15 years. With that in mind, I recently took them out to a local diner for lunch and told them precisely what they could expect from me financially.

I promised they would graduate from college debt-free. But I said that, if they went to graduate school, they would have to take out loans. I also promised $5,000 upon graduation, $20,000 toward a house down payment and $5,000 for a wedding or at age 30, whichever came first. Depending on how rapid inflation is over the intervening years, I may boost the numbers somewhat.

Are these sums reasonable? Some folks will think they are high, while others might view them as stingy. Henry thought $5,000 upon graduation sounded pretty good -- until I explained what it cost to rent a New York City apartment.

But, to be honest, whether the numbers are adequate or not is beside the point. Instead, my goals are twofold. First, this is about setting expectations. As with today's allowance, my kids now know what they will get from me -- and everything else will have to come from them.

Second, it's about values. I want my kids to get a great education, which is why I am happy to pay for their undergraduate studies. But I don't want them turning into perennial students, which is why graduate school is on their nickel.

Similarly, I think helping my children buy a house is more important than paying for some outrageously expensive wedding. In fact, if someday either kid wants to pocket my $5,000 and elope instead, I will happily drive them to the airport.

• Don't bank on it. The most important financial skill a child can learn is the ability to delay gratification. What's the second most important? Kids need to become comfortable taking risks.


Today's children face a world of 401(k) plans, individual retirement accounts and possibly private Social Security accounts. If they aren't comfortable investing their savings in something riskier than a money-market account, they will have a tough time amassing enough for retirement.

Yet kids seem naturally drawn to the sedate world of banks, certificates of deposit and savings accounts. By contrast, stocks and mutual funds seem abstract and uncertain. Somehow, you have to get kids comfortable with this riskier world, while ensuring they don't go to the other extreme, viewing investing as some sort of testosterone-infused trading game involving turbocharged stocks.

To get my kids comfortable with investing, I regularly show them financial statements, talk about the stock market and, for a while, even ran a mutual-fund game, where we all picked funds and I invested $50 or $100 a month for each of us. None of these efforts has been wildly successful. But I am hoping that, cumulatively, they do the trick.




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credit card or storage?

credit card or storage?



The Card Drive U510, from PQI looks like a credit card. It’s almost as thin as a credit card, at 3mm. But, unlike your boring ole plastic, this baby can carry up to 16GB of data. Connects to PCs or Macs, and is USB 2.0 compatible.

Sadly, as pretty much anything else that’s actually cool, it’ll come out in Korea first.




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Cast You Credit Card Information :)

Cast You Credit Card Information :)

I had just bought $10.80 worth of Magic: The Gathering cards at the local gaming store. I asked if I could use a card to pay for it. The clerk said that would be okay, but he would have to 'add me to the computer.'

"Will that put me on the mailing list?', I asked.

"Sure. Name?"

"David Johnson", I replied. He began typing.

"Address?"

I gave him my street, city, state and zip. He typed in each response, followed by a solid hit on the enter key.

"Phone Number?"

I gave him my phone number.

"And what card will you be using?"

I handed him my card. He looked it over.

"I can't swipe the card, but I'll enter the information manually."

This had happened to me before. The magnetic stripe wears out, no biggie. I told him to go for it.

"4432..."

I thought it was unfortunate that he was saying the card number out loud as he typed, because there were other people in the store. They seemed pretty involved in their games.

"Okay, have to put in the expiration date..."

Sure, sure.

"Would you mind reviewing the information that I have entered?"

He turned the monitor towards me. I expected to see a Point-Of-Sale screen. I expected to see a nice piece of software for managing the store.

Instead I saw the familiar window of an AOL Instant Message. My heart sank. Did he really just send my name, address, phone number, credit card and expiration date UNENCRYPTED through an INSTANT MESSAGE SESSION?

"Does it look right?"

"My information looks fine! I just can't..."

At that moment, a reply popped up on the next line...

"It's good."

"Oh, crap", I thought, "Not only did he just give up the credit card, he just announced that it was good."

"We don't have a credit card machine at this location, but we have one at the other so we just use that one," he explained.

"That is really not cool," I said. I know the guy at the other location is the owner and I would be seeing him in a couple days. I made a mental note to explain to him what a terrible practice it was to send credit card information unencrypted over the Internet.

"Do you want a receipt?", the clerk asked.

Thinking that this was not going to end here. I asked him to please give me a receipt.

"We also don't have receipt paper so I will have to write it out."

"Great." In my head, I was thinking of the 800 number to cancel my credit card. I would at least give a call to find out if the bank thought I should cancel it.

"Here you go. I didn't want anyone to be able to see your credit card number so I put XXX's for some of the numbers." the clerk explained.

At this point, my jaw is hanging thinking of what a pain in the butt it will be to cancel the card, and total disbelief that this is even happening.

The 'receipt' put it over the top. All I could do was laugh at this point. I left the store with this in hand:



When I called the bank, the guy on the phone was laughing hilariously.

"Yes, Mr. Johnson, I recommend you cancel this card. We'll send you a new one immediately. Try to be more careful."

It's been almost two years since this occured. I scanned the receipt the next day. I have no remorse for the clerk or the store, which is why I waited to share.




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Trying to improve their credit score? read ten big mistakes

Trying to improve their credit score? read ten big mistakes


Although the exact formulas for calculating credit scores are closely guarded secrets, Fair Isaac has disclosed the following components and the approximate weighted contribution of each:

35%,- punctuality of payment in the past (only includes payments later than 30 days past due)
30% - the amount of debt, expressed as the ratio of current revolving debt (credit card balances, etc.) to total available revolving credit (credit limits)
15% - length of credit history
10% - types of credit used (installment, revolving, consumer finance)
10% - recent search for credit and/or amount of credit obtained recently

Mistake #1: Never checking your credit report. Most people who behave well with their credit just assume that their credit is fine, but sometimes incorrect things can show up on your report. Visit annualcreditreport.com to get the free report that the United States government guarantees you from the three major agencies. Don’t go to freecreditreport.com

Mistake #2: Avoiding loans and debts. In the eyes of your credit report, no debt is effectively bad debt. If you’re a credit card teetotaler, you should still consider getting one and making an occasional purchase with it. I have a friend who has one credit card which is associated with his gas station chain of choice. He uses it just for gas purchases, racks up discounts on it, pays it off in full each month, and it helps him maintain a solid credit score in case he needs a loan.

Mistake #3: Having too many open lines of credit. 10% of your score comes from the types of credit used. If you have a lot of sources of revolving credit (i.e., credit cards), you can be seen as a credit risk because you have the potential of racking up a lot of debt very quickly. Don’t open store credit cards just to get a discount, and if you have any recent store cards, cancel them once they’re paid off.

Mistake #4: Maxing out your cards. 30% of your score comes from the ratio of your credit card debt and your credit limits. Thus, if all of your cards are maxed out, your credit score is suffering even if you’re keeping up with the payments. Instead of charging and buying more and more, focus on paying down the cards with extra payments.

Mistake #5: Staying current on “most” of your cards. 35% of your score focuses on punctuality of payment, with only payments that are more than thirty days late affecting your score. If you’re going to be late on any cards, make up that payment before it’s thirty days late. Don’t keep up with all but one or two of your cards and let those go later and later; instead, juggle the cards a bit if you have to, but make sure you are not too late on any one card.


Mistake #6: Requesting a credit limit reduction. Some people believe that they have too much credit and that they’re better off with a credit limit reduction. In fact, the only significant effect a limit reduction has on your credit score is a negative effect on your debt ratio. Only get a limit reduction if it has a huge psychological value for you; otherwise, it will hurt your credit score.

Mistake #7: Declaring bankruptcy. Many people go forward with bankruptcy because they believe it’s the only way out. Instead of taking such a drastic measure, seek counseling first with one of the more legitimate sources mentioned above. Bankruptcy can really decimate your credit score for a very long time. Quite often, there are better solutions, such as negotiating with creditors and so forth.


Mistake #8: Utilizing the first credit counseling service you hear about. Quite often, the ones that advertise the most are the ones that do the shoddiest job. Use the FTC’s advice and find a reputable credit counseling service in your area. Call several of them from the yellow pages and ask the questions from the FTC page to find ones that seem legitimate, then check with the Better Business Bureau before moving forward. Remember, your credit score will affect many of your financial moves for years, so don’t skimp out on your research if you’re thinking of using a counseling service.

Mistake #9: Practicing credit card arbitrage. This game can seriously damage your credit score if you’re not an expert. Shy away unless you’re financially stable and know exactly what you’re doing; if you make a mis-step, your credit score could easily be demolished.

Mistake #10: Cancelling old credit cards. 15% of your credit score comes from the length of your credit history. Thus, cancelling your oldest credit card can often be a mistake. Also, if you have balances on other cards, cancelling an old credit card can also worsen your debt ratio, which makes up 30% of your score. If you don’t have other sources of credit that are older than seven years, you should not cancel your oldest credit card.





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Kill Your Credit Score or Not make Mistake

Kill Your Credit Score or Not make Mistake

As a former credit counselor, I know that most individuals have a misguided perception of credit and I am here to debunk some common credit myths and provide you with some free information about how to improve your score. Since it is an absolute fact that a higher credit score means better interest rates for car loans, mortgages, and other debts, these tips can translate into a few extra dollars in your wallet each month.

1) Approximately 35% of your credit score is based on past debts that are over 30 days late. This means if for some reason you are going to be late on a payment, do not let it slip past 30 days late.

2) Canceling credit cards can actually hurt your credit score, particularly if they are an old and established part of your credit history. Even if you no longer use a card that is ten or twenty years old, in most cases it is better to simply shred it since 15% of your score is based on the length of your history. In addition, keeping accounts open gives you a better debt to credit ratio, which makes up 30% of your credit score.

3) While not taking on any debt and paying for everything with cash seems like a logical choice for individuals who can afford this lifestyle, no credit means bad credit in the eyes of lenders. There is bound to be a time when you cannot buy something with cash, such as purchasing your first house, so make the effort to open at least one account and make purchases with the credit card occasionally.

4) Applying for too many credit cards at once is extremely detrimental to your credit score since every time someone checks your current credit status, it leaves a ding that lasts a year. When you suddenly start applying for a large amount of credit, it sends up a red flag that you are enduring some financial trouble you are prepared for or that you are accumulating too much debt.

5) Although teenagers are not always the most responsible with money, getting your child a credit card early in life can make a significant difference in the long run as it is paid off in time. There are a few excellent options for low-limit cards and prepaid cards, which will both help you child start building a positive foundation for their future credit.

6) And finally, avoid freecreditreport.com like the plague! It isn’t free and is a complete scam. If you want your credit report for free you can check all three major reporting companies every 12 months without any negative effects at the government sponsored site: annualcreditreport.com

7) Never lie or falsify information about your credit score! Your credit score is easily checked by anyone and you may even face legal action for lying about it on loan applications.





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Personal Finance Should a Required Part of School

Personal Finance Should a Required Part of School

Thanks to a recent poll on Saving Without A Budget, it appears that I’m not alone in the belief that personal finance should be incorporated into the core curriculum of America’s schools.

According to the poll, 89% of respondents stated that they believed that personal finance should be a required part of every child’s education.

The logic behind teaching children and teenagers about personal finance is pretty obvious. Just think of all of the finance cliches that you’ve heard: start investing as early as you can, the most important factor in investing is time, don’t get into credit card debt, etc. - all things that are best to learn sooner rather than later.

And because many basic aspects of personal finance currently aren’t taught in school and are left to be learned at home, this current system seems to nurture the fact that wealthy people tend to stay wealthy and poor people tend to stay poor. I don’t think it takes a giant leap of faith to see the possible correlation.

And probably the most ironic part of this is, the results of the Saving Without A Budget poll come on the heels of a recent report that shows nearly half of all people in the workforce have less than $25,000 in savings for retirement.

Again, it doesn’t take an MBA to see that this number would probably be a lot less if all of us had been exposed to some basic personal finance lessons as we were growing up.





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credit cards for iPhones

credit cards for iPhones

Earlier this week, in a post headlined Apple, hackenomics, and the waning anonymity (and obsoletion) of cash, I warned of how Apple’s practice of requiring credit cards to purchase iPhones wreaks of a future where our cash is no good and our privacy is sacrificed as a result of dealing in the far more trackable (and far less anonymous than cash) currency of plastic (credit cards, debit cards).

As I reported in that first piece, Apple hasn’t been very forthcoming about its reasons for requiring a credit card to purchase an iPhone. So, I came up with a list of my own possibilities, all but one of which were big brother-esque in nature. After all, why else would Apple require a credit card if it wasn’t going to retain that information which includes your identity for some reason? There is no information for a merchant to retain when you buy something with cash. Apple must want that information for something. Perhaps even more worthy of scrutiny, according to some members of the credit card industry that reached out to me, is whether Apple’s practice violates any legal agreements, standards, or laws when it comes to credit card processing.

That post drew a flood of Talkbacks; privacy is clearly a topic that people are passionate about and there’s nothing that outrages consumers more than an attempt to track them. But is it true? Is Apple not accepting cash for iPhones? And if so, are Apple Store personnel offering any explanations to customers? To find out, I paid an visit to a nearby Apple Store and we captured most of the conversation on video tape (show in the attached video). [Editor’s Note: The video is not currently available. We apologize for the inconvenience.]

So, what did I learn. First, it is true that if you walk up to a cash register at an Apple Store with $399 in cash, you will be told that you need a credit or debit card. You can see this happening to me at the cash register in the Apple Store. As I’m taking four $100 bills out of my pocket, the clerk informs me that I must pay with a credit card.

Just as interesting however is the fact that you don’t need a credit/debit card for the entire purchase. When it became clear that my $399 in cash was no good at the Apple Store (for an iPhone), the clerk that I spoke with suggested that I pay $1 of the purchase price with my credit card and the rest in cash. This of course makes it clear that Apple needs the information on your credit card for something important. But what?

As you can see in the video, I asked the clerk as well as a manager for some explanation of the policy and all they would tell me is that it’s just the company’s policy. There was no explanation. Apple stores even have a small sign at the cash register that mentions the credit card requirement when it comes to iPhones. But this is where it got very interesting. When I pushed a little harder, the manager went over to a terminal near the cash register and said that there might be something he could do for me. He had to look something up. The line behind me was growing and it was at this point that I said I’d come back.

When I went back (we don’t have this part on video), I asked for the same manager. But this time, a woman came out and I told her that the first manager I was dealing with had offered to look something up. Before I could finish, she said “Your name.” She went on to explain that I was only allowed to buy a maximum of two iPhones and that, if they could determine with some confidence that I had not already reached that quota, that they could sell me one for cash. She did not however comment on the credit card requirement or explain the point of that policy. But Apple apparently is in a bind right now. It’s in a cat and mouse game with hackers who have made it possible to divorce (”unlock”) Apple’s iPhones from the AT&T wireless service that Apple is contractually bound to keep the phones married to. Why would hackers do this? One reason is that there’s a healthy gray market for unlocked iPhones in Europe where the handsets are fetching some steep prices that are very profitable to anyone who has a supply.

You don’t have to be a rocket scientist to connect the dots. Apple has relationships that its contractually bound to protect and must do whatever it can to eliminate the gray market. As far as unique indentifiers go, credit cards are a pretty good token for authenticating someone’s identity. At the very least, Apple is probably retrieving (from the credit card) and keeping the name of every person who buys an iPhone. This way, when you go to buy another one, they can see if an iPhone has already been purchased by someone with the same name. But then comes the question of whether they are retaining your credit card number as well. How could they not?

After all, there are lots of people with the same name and the odds are pretty good that certain names have already exceeded their quotas. But certain names coupled with certain credit card numbers. No way. The credit card number is quite unique and if Apple’s database shows that two iPhones have already been purchased by someone who’s identity was authenticated with the same credit card, that would be a red flag against selling them a third phone. Are there ways to beat the system? Probably. All you need is another credit card. What isn’t clear though is the extent to which Apple’s system tries to determine a match. For example, if it does a credit card lookup and there’s no match on credit card, will it fall back to your name and geographic area (somewhat reliable, but not totally)? But then, there are more questions about the legality of what Apple is doing.

After publishing that first blog post, I heard from the credit card industry (in that post, I wondered aloud what Visa’s policies were with respect to Apple’s practice). Although nobody has yet to go on record, as it turns out, there’s a security and privacy standard called PCI DSS that practically every participant in the credit card ecosystem is required to adhere to. As far as I can tell, the standard policy potentially yields two important results. First, it protects the privacy of cardholders. Second, it helps merchants and card issuers manage risk. It does this by spelling out in fairly detailed terms what can and can’t be done with the information that’s retrieved off a credit card’s magnetic stripe and the lengths to which IT systems must go to protect data (eg: it talks about firewalls, encyrption, etc.).

While the PCI DSS documentation is vague about what data can be retained by a merchant and for how long, the explanation I got made it clear that if Apple is using credit card numbers for reasons other than completing monetary transactions — in other words, if Apple is using credit card numbers for the purpose of tracking (as seems to be the case here) — that Apple might not only be in violation of PCI DSS, it could also be breaking some laws (some of which are based on PCI DSS) as well as breaching the terms of its agreements with card issuers and credit card companies such as Visa, MasterCard, and American express (who, as you can see by the fines that Visa levied against TJX for the “worst data breach in the payment industry’s history,” guard the privacy of cardholders with relatively bloodthirsty lawyers).

Although my contacts at Visa say they’re working on it, several days have passed since that conversation began: more than enough time to answer the question of whether Apple has violated the company’s policies or credit card industry cardholder privacy standards. My educated guess is that Apple’s practices have kicked off a shitstorm of an inquisition in the credit card industry that has lawyers on both sides poring through the PCI DSS documentation, merchant contracts, and state/federal laws and that this isn’t the last we will hear of this.





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Credit Card - The World's Worst Credit Card

Credit Card - The World's Worst Credit Card




Golb at Money, Matter, and More Musings has located the worst credit card in the world. It is designed to prey on subprime borrowers who, sadly, cannot get a better card...

Meet the Continental Finance MasterCard. After all the fees have been collected, it has a credit limit of $53. From MMMM:

1. Account setup fee: $99
2. Program participation fee: $89
3. Annual fee: $49
4. Account maintenance fee: $120 (charged @ $10/month)
5. Purchase APR: 19.92%
6. Authorized user fee: $30 (great! seems like $53 credit is a bit too much for a single person to handle)
7. Credit limit increase fee: $25 (and you don't even have to ask for it!)
8. Internet payment fee: $4 for each authorized internet payment.

Damn. This card is shockingly awful. And to make matters worse: Golb points out that if you use this card to repair your credit history you're stuck with it because canceling the account will shorten your credit history and drop your score. What a headache

The Worst Credit Card I Have Ever Seen

I often wonder about the irony of subprime lending - whether it’s made available through mortgage or through credit cards or through any other source of credit. I mean, people with bad credit are the very people who should be staying away from subprime borrowing. These people are already in the subprime category because of financial troubles and then there are these stupid (and very likely, unaffordable) subprime products targeted at them - which have the potential to throw them deeper down the financial hole.

Here is one such stupid subprime product - the Continental Finance MasterCard. It’s hard to believe that this piece of plastic comes with an initial credit limit of just $53 after a long list of fees!

Each Credit Limit increase will be $100.00, subject to a maximum Credit Limit of $2,000.00. Each increase will appear on your Account no later than one (1) month after you have qualified for such increase. At the time of each Credit Limit increase, a $25.00 Credit Limit Increase Fee, which is a FINANCE CHARGE, will be charged to your Account.

You need to call these people and ask them to stop; otherwise, they are automatically going to increase the limit by $100 each time and charge you the $25 fee.

Internet payment fee: $4 for each authorized internet payment. I just don’t get this - why are people with bad credit charged for paying their bills online? .. probably to make sure that they don’t start paying their bills automatically or something?

Your initial Credit Limit will be $300.00 and you agree to pay the following fees, which will be billed to your Account and will appear on your first monthly Billing Statement: a one-time Account Processing Fee of $99.00, a one-time Program Participation Fee of $89.00, a monthly Account Maintenance Fee of $10.00 and an Annual Fee of $49.00. Your available credit after these charges will be $53.00 at Card issuance.

Here is an YouTube video that points fingers at this same credit card for some of the reasons mentioned above




I agree that people with bad credit pose the risk of potential losses for the credit issuing company, but this a bit too much for a credit line worth just $300. This is where the irony strikes me - if you make it difficult for people to pay back what they borrow, it’s only going to increase the chances that they will never pay back what they borrowed. Isn’t there a risk assigned to this perspective?

If it’s so much risk then don’t issue credit cards to people with bad credit (I have similar thoughts with regards to subprime mortgage - it’s a self-inflicted disaster on part of both, lenders and borrowers). Just offer secured credit cards and lend against a collateral.

By the way, there is another not-so-obvious trap hidden in such credit cards for people with bad credit. If you apply for a particularly horrible “bad credit” credit card and start building your credit history with this card, then some time down the line, when you think you have built sufficient credit and no longer need this horrible card, you are going to face a problem - your credit history is going to take a hit if you close this account. And, if you don’t close it down, the annual fees are going to create a leak in your pocket for quite some time to come.

So much for the cost of bad credit and so much for people with bad credit wanting a credit card (which creates the demand for such products in the first place).

If we ever have a competition for the worst credit card in the world, do you know some good competitors for the one I mentioned above?


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Credit Card Fact

Credit Card Fact

1. Diners Club issued that first card to only two hundred customers and it could only be used at twenty seven restaurants in New York City.

2. In the beginning, credit cards were just charge accounts, offered by individual stores and only usable at those stores. The first credit card that could be used at multiple locations was offered by The Diner’s Club in 1950.
American Express History

3. In 1984, American Express billed their Platinum Card as extremely exclusive and it had an annual fee of $250 ($484.84 in 2006 dollars). Today, the extremely exclusive card for American Express is their black Centurion card with a $2,500 annual fee! (and requirement to spend $250,000 a year)

4. American Express started off as a shipping company in 1850, shipping products across the United States and capitalizing on the limited reach and slow speed of the United States Postal Service. Their main customers were banks and they shipped various financial instruments like stock certificates and other notes. They began selling money orders and traveler’s checks in 1882 and issued its first credit card in 1958. (full history)
MasterCard & Visa History

5. Visa was originally called BankAmericard, a card offered by Bank of America in 1958 in California. By 1970, they had created an association, called the National BankAmericard, Inc., of all the US Banks that issued the BankAmericard. It wasn’t renamed to Visa until 1976. (full history)

6. MasterCard and Visa are networks of banks and financial institutions. American Express is its own company and Discover Card is a subsidiary Morgan Stanley (who is spinning off the business).

7. The Visa logo colors were chosen because the blue represented the sky and the gold represented color of the hills in California where Bank of America was founded. (from Wikipedia).

8. Visa actually stands Visa International Service Association.

9. Originally formed under the name Interbank Card Association and they acquired the In 1984, MasterCard was the first to use a hologram on its cards to deter fraud.

10. MasterCharge brand and logo in 1969. MasterCharge was originally formed by four California banks in 1967, who joined together to form the Western States Bankcard Association to battle the BankAmericard of Bank of America. MasterCharge was renamed MasterCard in 1979.
Discover Card History

11. At the time, Sears also owned the brokerage Dean Witter Reynolds Organization and the Discover brand was integrated into that organization. When Dean Witter merged with Morgan Stanley in 1997, Discover went along for the ride.

12. Discover Card was introduced by Sears in 1985 and gained notoriety because it charged no annual fee.
Useful Things That Make You Go Hmmmm…

13. It is against the merchant agreements of MC, Visa, and AMEX, for a vendor to require you to provide your phone number, home address, or other personal information for credit card transactions. In fact, some states make it illegal for them to require it. (It’s not illegal to ask, but it is if they refuse to process the transaction without that information)

14. Wonder why minimum payments are so low? It allows consumer to carry more debt while keeping to the same low minimum payment. You can give someone with the ability to pay $100 per month a credit limit as high as $5,000 if they only had to pay 2% a month. If the minimum payment were 5%, they could only have a credit limit of $2,000. The lower the minimum payment, the deeper in debt someone could be in.

15. Under the merchant agreements of MC, Visa, and Discover Card, vendors may not require a minimum purchase amount. Under AMEX, it’s more of a hint that the vendor shouldn’t put up any barriers to use but AMEX also has a discrimination rule, so if there is no minimum amount for MC/Visa, there cannot be a minimum amount for AMEX. (Consumerist has all the relevant merchant agreements consolidated)

16. Under the merchant agreements of MC, Visa, Discover Card and AMEX, you do not need to present a driver’s license in order to complete a credit card transaction.

17. On the flip side, offering a discount for cash payment (over credit card payment) is permitted by all of the card companies (looooophole!).

18. Under the merchant agreements of MC, Visa, and Discover Card, vendors may not charge a surcharge for using the card (the anti-discrimination rules still apply for AMEX). In some states, it is actually illegal to charge a surcharge for credit card purchases. This rule does not apply to government agencies.

19. You can lower your interest rate with a phone call. Credit card companies are like cell phone and cable companies, they’re afraid you’ll leave and join with one of their competitors. Use this to your advantage by comparing offers from other credit cards and bringing this information to your credit company.

20. A merchant may, on taking a personal check, require that you offer a credit card number. It is against merchant agreements to charge a credit card in the event of a bounced check (and it’s also very dangerous to have all that juicy information on one little slip of paper, plus this may also be illegal in your state).

21. A fixed interest rate on a credit card can change with only 15 days of notice. Fixed is not fixed in the sense that a mortgage loan is fixed, it’s fixed in the sense that the credit card company can change it with only 15 days notice!

22. When you use your card, you agree to the cardholder agreement, you don’t have to sign anything. If you get an update to the agreement, you also agree to the updates once you use your card.

23. If you have multiple balances with different interest rates on one card, payments are generally applied to the balance with the lower interest rate. You will have no choice in the matter and you cannot request it be made to the higher balance. So if you have a $100 balance at 19.99% and a $5,000 balance at 4.99%, your payments apply to the $5,000 at 4.99% first. A note about this will be in your agreement.

24. Hotels and rental car agencies usually send an authorization request for the estimated cost of your stay or rental and they keep this “block” on your card for 10 to 15 days (independent of how long you actually stay there) even if you pay with something else.

25. Restaurants typically will authorize a credit card purchase for the amount of the bill plus 25% (for gratuity), so again, if your limit can’t handle the extra 25%, the purchase transaction will be rejected.

26. The credit card sale process works as follows: The vendor sends an authorization request for the value of the sale. The credit card company checks the card limit and reduces the credit limit by that amount (it puts a “hold” or a “block”) and sends the vendor electronic confirmation that the card is good. The vendor sends a deposit transaction or a sale transaction. The credit card company sends the money. This process is usually quick and painless… with the following exceptions:

27. When you use a credit card at a gas pump, the pump authorizes the purchase for something in the neighborhood of $50 first. So if you have less than $50 left on your limit, the pump will reject your purchase attempt.
Technobabbliciousness

28. The expiration date on the card is “fake.” You can still use the card after its expiration date because the card number on your replacement will be the same. The reason why cards do expire varies from company to company but mostly it’s because the credit cards take a lot of abuse and just need replacing (they estimate the magnetic strip is good for only about three or four years of swiping).

29. Ever notice all your credit cards are of uniform shape and size? Their dimensions are governed by the ISO 7810 standard, an international standard for identification cards. Banking cards, as well as driver’s licenses and retail cards, follow ID-1 (passports follow ID-3). If your card has a smart chip, it follows ISO 7816, and if it has RFID, it follows ISO 14443.

30. There are generally two types of magnetic strips, high-coercivity and low-coercivity, with the high-coercivity being stronger and more durable (also requiring more expensive equipment to handle). (from Wikipedia)

31. Interested to know what’s on the magnetic stripe? Check out this breakdown of the three tracks on Wikipedia (the rest of the page explains other magnetic stripes).

32. Hotel keys and other low-coercivity stripped cards are susceptible to being scrambled by a weak magnetic force, including cell phones.

33. Higher-coercivity are usually black and low-coercivity strips are a dark brown, but there are special cases such as American Express’ patented silver colored magnetic strip.

34. The first digit of the number is the Major Industry Identifier. 1/2 are for airlines, 3 is for travel/entertainment, 4/5 for banking and financial, 6 for merchandizing and financial, 7 for petroleum, 8 for telecommunications. 0 and 9 are for other assignments but you’ll likely never see them. If you look at an American Express card, you’ll see it starts with a 3, a throwback to their travel/entertainment roots.

35. Credit card numbers conform to the Luhn algorithm, which is just a simple checksum test on the number. What you do is start from the right and double each second digit (1111 becomes 2121), then add them all together, and you should end with a number evenly divisible by ten. If it doesn’t, it’s not a valid credit card number.

36. The first six digits will correspond to the issuer, including the major industry identifier. 34xxxx/37xxxx are for American Express, 4xxxxx is for Visa, 51-55xxxx is for MasterCard, and 6011xx is for Discover.

37. The rest of the digits (except the last one, which is a checksum digit) is your account number.
Legal Ways You’ve Been Hosed & Un-Hosed

38. If there are unauthorized charges on your card, you’re on the hook for $50 each, maximum (unless your agreement says you are responsible for less, you cannot be responsible for more). If you report your card missing and an unauthorized charge appears after you’ve reported it, you are liable for $0.

39. Minors, those under the age of 18, are not obligated to pay back any charges to their credit cards (unless a parent co-signs, but then its the parent who is on the hook) because they are not allowed to enter into a binding contract.

40. Credit card companies are prohibited by law from sending you a card that you didn’t ask for, unless it’s a renewal or a substitute card. If you get a credit card you didn’t apply for, contact the Federal Trade Commission and file a complaint.

41. By law, you are only allowed to dispute charges for “unsatisfactory goods or services” if you made the purchase in your home state or within 100 miles of your billing address and the purchase was for more than $50. (and if you’ve made a good faith attempt to resolve it with the vendor) While a credit card company may not hold you to this, they are protected by the law for purchases outside your home state/100 mile radius.

42. A common clause in most user/member agreements is that the cardholder waives their right to sue the credit card company. The cardholder must instead go through a binding arbitration hearing with the credit card company and cannot take the company to court or participate in a class action suit.

43. There is no federal law regulating the rate of interest a credit card company can charge! The federal government use to regulate but repealed those laws during the Great Depression and never put them back in place, they now rely on the states to handle usury.

44. Before 1996 and the Supreme Court case Smiley vs. Citibank (517 U.S. 735, Thanks j), there were restrictions on how much a credit card company could charge for a late payment. The ruling in Smiley vs. Citibank lifted that restriction and fees that were once around $5-$10 jumped to $30 or more today.

45. Credit card companies are all headquartered in states with high or no cap on interest rates. American Express is located in Utah (no cap), Bank of America is in Arizona (36%), Citibank is in South Dakota (no cap), Capital One is in Virginia (no cap), Providian is in New Hampshire (no cap), and JP Morgan Chase, MBNA (now Bank of America), Morgan Stanley/Discover, and HSBC are all located in Delaware (no cap).

46. In the Supreme Court case Marquette National Bank v. First of Omaha Service Corp (439 U.S. 299, Thanks j) in 1978, the Court decided that national banks only need to follow the usury laws of the state they are headquartered in, not the state in which their customer resides.
Department of Holy Crap They Make A Ton of $$$$$

47. Credit card companies earned $55.2B in fees in 2006, up from $54.8B the year before (according to R.K. Hammer).

48. Each direct mailing acquisition costs approximately $80, according to R.K. Hammer, bank card advisory firm.

49. Each American household receives approximately 6 offers a month. The typical response rate is .33% (one third of one percent).

50. Credit card companies earned $90.1B in interest in 2006, up from $89.4B the year before (according to R.K. Hammer).


Bonus Fun Fact:
Mastercard’s market capitalization is a whopping $14.24B, American Express’s stands at $71.62B, and Morgan Stanley stands at $86.40B. Visa is not publicly traded (yet). While you can’t compare their market caps because such a large part of Amex and Morgan Stanley’s businesses are not in credit cards, it’s still interesting to look at the numbers. Incidentally, Bank of America has a market cap of $239.17B. (These figures as of 1/11/07)


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TD Visa Travel Rewards

TD Visa Travel Rewards - tdvisatravelrewards

TD Visa Travel Rewards Centre is a dedicated web application provided by TD Bank for cardholders of their popular "Gold Travel Visa" card. Use the card, accumulate points, then use the points to book travel through TD's travel agency

TD Visa today unveiled the new TD Visa Travel Rewards Centre - a website that offers TD Gold Travel Visa and TD Business Visa with Travel Rewards Cardholders 24/7 access to redeem TD Points for travel, research and book travel online. Alto Sports Executive A and dancing Queen. how to spot a knockoff handbag td Visa Travel Rewards Centre and merchant ratings or tan Brown Medium Coach Purse designer Purses and, see more, of Marc Jacobs replica handbags

Travel Any way you want with TD Points
You can travel right away with bonus points from TD Gold Travel Visa. We'll get you started with 15,000 Bonus TD points.
Offer ends January 31, 2008. You can use your TD Points for virtually any type of travel

• Flights
• Cruises
• Trains
• Hotels
• Holiday packages
• Car rentals

No seat restrictions or blackouts

With TD Points you can travel any time of year, including peak periods, even during seat sales.2 Unlike other travel reward cards, you are not limited to "reward" seats.

You can combine TD Points and a charge to your Card

If you don't have enough TD Points to cover the cost of your travel, it's not a problem. You can make up the difference with a charge to your Card and start packing your bags sooner.


What is a TD Point worth?

5,000 TD Points equals $75 off the cost of travel purchases at the TD Visa Travel Rewards Centre. All you need is a minimum of 5,000 TD Points to begin redeeming.

$5,000 = 5,000 points = $75 off the cost of travel

How do you earn TD Points?

1. Earn 1 TD Point for every dollar charged to the Card3 for all eligible purchases.
2. Earn Bonus TD Points for every dollar charged to the Card for all eligible travel purchases made at the TD Visa Travel Rewards Centre.

How do you redeem your TD Points and book travel?

TD Point redemption is easy with the TD Visa Travel Rewards Centre. This one-stop travel agency has everything – experienced vacation consultants, tour information and vacation brochures.

There are three types of travel you can book through this service
1. Free Travel -- by redeeming the required number of TD Points 2. Discount Travel -- by using a combination of TD Points plus a charge applied to your Card
3. Or, you can charge the full cost of your travel to your Card and earn bonus TD Points for every dollar charged to the Card

TD Gold Travel Visa Card Included Benefits

• Minimum $5,000 credit limit
• Auto Rental Collision/Loss Damage Insurance -- save money when you rent a car
• Emergency Travel Assistance Services -- help in a personal emergency when you are travelling
• Delayed and Lost Baggage Insurance -- up to $1,000 coverage
• Common Carrier Travel Accident Insurance -- up to $500,000 coverage for you, your spouse and dependent children
• No-Fee Travellers Cheques -- at TD Canada Trust branches
• Purchase Security and Extended Warranty Protection -- enjoy worry-free shopping
• CardAssist Card Registry -- protection against fraudulent charges plus many other helpful services at no extra charge
• Budget Rent A Car Preferred Rates -- in Canada, the U.S. and other international locations


New and Exciting Redemption Option: Convert your TD Points for American Airlines AAdvantage® Miles

• TD Gold Travel Visa cardholders and TD Business Visa with Travel Rewards cardholders can redeem and convert TD Points for American Airlines AAdvantage® Miles
• A minimum of 50,000 TD Points is required to redeem and convert your TD Points into AAdvantage® Miles. Thereafter, conversion takes place in increments of 10,000 TD Points.
• Subject to the cardholders' TD Points balance • 1 TD Point = .75 AAdvantage® Mile.
• Redemption must be done through the TD Visa Travel Rewards Centre7 chart, etc.
• Redemption of TD Points for Advantage® Miles must occur in increments of 10,0008. TD Points AAdvantage®

Supplementary Cards

• Up to three Supplementary Cards -- share many of the same benefits and earn more TD Points for just $50 per card per year

Optional Services

• Travel Medical Insurance -- 24-hour-a-day, comprehensive emergency medical coverage anywhere in the world
• Balance Protection Insurance -- get the security of knowing that your Card payments can be made for you if you can't make them
• Standard or Deluxe TD Auto Club -- be prepared for road emergencies anywhere in Canada and the continental U.S.

Personal Banking Services

• 24-hour Instant Cash Access -- cash advances at over 1 million automated banking machines worldwide and TD Canada Trust branches
• 24-hour Account Access -- to your Account and Account information
• Every Branch Banking and Cheque Cashing Privileges -- at TD Canada Trust branches
• TD Visa Cheques -- to use wherever credit cards aren't accepted or to transfer non-TD Visa credit card balances to your Account
• Pre-Authorized Payment Service -- convenient, automatic payments from any bank account at any Canadian financial institution

The Power of Visa

• Worldwide Acceptance -- your Card is welcomed at over 24 million merchants and more than 1 million automated banking machines
• Emergency Assistance from the Visa Service Centre from the Visa Service Centre -- toll-free emergency Card replacement, cash advances and more
• Guaranteed Hotel Reservations -- peace of mind even if you arrive late

Verified by VisaCreate
your own personal, private password and shop online with confidence. For more information.

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TD Visa Travel Rewards - tdvisatravelrewards

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