Credit Card Death by Firearms

June 07, 2010 — One viewer's credit cards face the firing squad

New Credit Cards Regulations

Credit card's new rules
Aug 20, 2009 filed under Fortune
Fortune's Andy Serwer says banks offering credit cards have raised rates in response to new government regulations.

New Credit Cards Rules

Plastic Protection ?

New Credit Cards Rules promise more consumer rights and fewer surprises

Korea Braces for a Credit Card-Less Society

Korea is bracing for a ``credit card-less'' society but legal and technical barriers are still lingering.

Mobile phones are already masquerading as televisions and Internet devices, providing stock info, news alerts, games and video cameras. But next, handsets are expected to replace plastic credit cards.

Mobile phone carriers said the intriguing possibility is near at hand. Ideally, wireless users will be able to pay phone bills, taxes, shopping expenses, transport fees and hospital bills with their handsets. This would make plastic cards or paper money almost obsolete.

SK Telecom and KT said users of data-enabled, third-generation (3G) handsets are now capable of doing a limited range of financial services with microchips inserted into the phones.

SK Telecom has more than 10 million users with handsets that are embedded with universal subscriber identity module (USIM) chips, or smart cards that contain user information and process data.

``The very goal of inserting USIM cards was to enable financial services, and credit card capabilities are the last frontier,'' said an industry watcher.

``Currently, mobile operators are merely the middlemen connecting consumers with conventional financial service firms, but they are exploring the possibilities of establishing their own financial service units.''

Telecommunications operators have high hopes for the Lee Myung-bak government's efforts to ease the cross-ownership restrictions between financial and non-financial services.

The National Assembly is currently reviewing the possibility of allowing non-financial companies to own financial units, such as credit card and securities firms.

Should the restrictions be lifted, SK Telecom is moving to acquire Hana Card.

Legal issues aren't the only obstacles to the mobile wallet. An SK Telecom executive said that the conventional ``combi-type'' USIM cards, which can store data up to 144 kilobytes, wouldn't be powerful enough to support the expanding range of transactions services.

And unlike plastic credit cards, which users can take with them all over the world, geography still matters in mobile payment.

A new technology called near field communications (NFC) could provide a solution to both of the problems.

NFC is similar to radio frequency identification (RFID) technology and is considered crucial for the mobile wallet as the chips inside the phones store personal information and act as credit cards.

If NFC is adopted as a global standard, users will eventually be able to take their handsets abroad and pay for hotel rooms and souvenirs.

KT, the country's biggest telephone company and No. 2 wireless carrier, plans to release an NFC-enabled USIM chip with 256 kilobyte storage early next year and also develop a 1-gigabyte USIM. SK Telecom is also developing NFC-based USIM chips.
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New Agency to watch for Credit Cards and other financial products

President Obama is expected to unveil a new government agency Wednesday that will watch over financial products offered to consumers such as Credit Cards , Mortgages ...consumer product safety commission ...the last bust in the economy was partially caused by the fact that many people took on mortgages that they could never pay in a million years and they were taking on loans on credit cards that had 25% or 30% interest rates , people should be more responsible but financial companies should be more responsible too , and that's what's this watch dog agency is all about

Get out of debt , Credit Card Clinic

struggling about Mortgage and credit cards debt , get some help , money management , debt consolidations , Americans have 1 trillion in credit cards debt ...A warning about living under a house of credit cards, with John Ulzheimer Credit.com consumer education president, and CNBC's Carmen Wong Ulrich.

Free Credit Card Tracking tool By Credit Karma

Credit Karma Inc., the Web site that offers free credit scores and financial advice to U.S. consumers, is adding a tool today to help users understand the components behind their credit reports.

The free service requires users to register and give personal information such as their Social Security number and date of birth. Users of the “Credit Report Card” will be able to see how their total debt, payment history and other factors may affect their scores.

“Ninety-five percent of consumers don’t know any of these relationships and how they work in regards to a credit report,” said Ken Lin, the chief executive officer and founder of San Francisco-based Credit Karma, in an interview. “If you’ve ever looked at a credit report you’ve got 8 to 12 pages of data that doesn’t correlate to a credit score.”

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How to pay your bills without killing your credit

Americans ownb 950 billion dollars in credit cards debt last year according to the Federal Reserve , we own even more this year and credit cards default are expected to go up ten percent this year...so how should you cope with the bills in this hard economy without killing your credit rating? it can be hard to decid which bill to pay first , credit adviser have some great advices on how to stay afloat without killing your credit : if you are drowning in debt living check to check , you have a big debt to credit cards companies and you do not know which bills to pay first , your utilities bills cable bill phone bill ? credit counsellors say , you should not pay your credit card first , your number one priority is to pay your mortgage or rent ,even if the credit cards company keep calling , your second priority are Utilities because getting disconnected will cost you more money on the long run , because utilities companies often hit you with penalties pricy deposits and connection fees when they restore your service , Your Third priority is to make your car payment especially if that's how you get to work , but never ignore your credit cards creditors and especially do not make empty promises , try to workout an arrangement but remember do not ever give your creditors your bank account information , they will be more than happy to empty it ...you need decipline in order to rebuild your credit

Credit and Credibility , The Credit Crunch

With the economy in a downward spiral, more and more people are taking advantage of credit card offers to make ends meet, but are the credit card companies actually taking advantage of their customers? In the week in which federal regulators adopted sweeping new rules for the credit card industry, NOW meets families struggling to pay off their credit card debt. Such debt has become significantly larger thanks to questionable industry practices like doubling and tripling interest rates, increasing fees and penalties, and shrinking credit limits. We meet people like Andrew Spurlock and his wife Michelle, who are raising three children while watching the interest rates and fees on their credit cards skyrocket. Michelle was horrified when her interest rate jumped from seven percent to 30 percent from one day to the next, despite claiming she always paid her monthly minimum. Michelle and her husband are fighting off financial ruin as they struggle to pay off their debt. Harvard Professor Elizabeth Warren, an expert on debt and the middle class, says credit card companies are deceiving customers in order to maximize profits. "You would think that if you upheld your end of the contract that the contract would be binding. But in the case of credit cards, you would be wrong," Warren, tells NOW. This week, NOW takes a hard look at the small print in credit card offers, and at Congressional legislation aimed at regulating the industry. Are you getting the credit you deserve?