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CARDNEWS FOR CONSUMERS
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(12/29/04)
Final Tally
The 2004 holiday season exceeded expectations as retail sales charged to major credit cards, signature debit cards, and store credit cards ran more than 5% over projected levels. Debit card use soared, rising about 14% above projections.
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(12/23/04)
Credit Card Transactions
While gross dollar volume on bank credit cards have increased 2.5 times since 1994, the average transaction has increased about 16% over the past decade. The average transaction on a general purpose credit card, carrying the VISA, MasterCard, American Express, or Discover brand, is now approaching $102, compared to $87 in 1994.
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(12/22/04)
Score Watch
A new service has been launched to enable consumer to track their credit scores. Equifax and Fair Isaac have partnered to launch "Score Watch," which continuously monitors subscribers' Equifax credit file for changes that can affect their FICO scores.
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(12/21/04)
Fast Food & Cards
Americans will charge more than $30 billion worth of fast food to their credit and debit cards over the next twelve months, compared to $14.9 billion one-year ago. For the the full year of 2004, credit card sales for fast food will hit about $22.5 billion.
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(12/20/04)
ExpressPay
American Express' contactless payment system is set to go nationwide as its first national merchant partner comes aboard. The CVS retail pharmacy chain has inked a deal to make a full roll-out of "ExpressPay" to its entire fleet of more than 5,300 stores by mid-2005.
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(12/17/04)
Holiday Pulse
Retail sales charged to major credit cards, signature debit cards, and store credit cards are running nearly 10% over projected levels for this year. For the three weeks ending December 12th, overall retail payment card volume has topped $70 billion, compared to an estimated $64 billion for the 2004 season.
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(12/16/04)
Citi-AmEx Cards
Citibank, the largest MasterCard issuer, is gearing up to add
American Express cards to its product arsenal late next year. Citibank becomes the second card issuer to partner with American Express in the U.S., on the heels of MBNA.
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(12/14/04)
5.25% PRIME
There was no holiday spirit at the Federal Reserve today as rates resumed their climb upward. Today's decision by the Fed to raise
short-term interest rates by 25 basis points (0.25%) will push the prime rate to 5.25%, and cost American credit cardholders more $800 million over the next year.
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(12/13/04)
Sprint VISA
Sprint and Chase have teamed to launch a co-branded rewards cards that offers a full 1% cash rebate. The new "Sprint Rewards VISA" rewards cardholders with two points for every dollar spent on Sprint purchases and one point for every dollar spent on all other card purchases.
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(12/10/04)
Gender Gap
The average American female carries about $200 less in credit card debt than their counterpart. A new survey has found that American males have an average of $2,742 of credit card debt spread out over 2.5 cards, and that females average $2,522 of credit card debt on 3.3 cards.
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(12/9/04)
Jet Perk
Marquis Jet has become the exclusive private aviation partner of the "MERRILL+" and "Merrill Lynch VISA Signature" card program. Under the partnership, cardholders who purchase a 25-hour "Marquis Jet" card will have their choice of either an additional free flight hour or a one-way aircraft upgrade.
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(12/8/04)
Spa Cards
The gift card industry is quickly massaging its way into the spa market. This week, three new cards were launched for beauty and
health services.
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(12/7/04)
Bankruptcy Oct
Bankruptcy filings dropped like a rock during October, declining
more than 10% over year ago levels. Overall, bankruptcy filings are down more than 3% this year.
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(12/6/04)
U.S. Cards
More than 20 million general purpose credit and debit cards were added to the national cardbase during the third quarter. VISA, which holds a 52% share based on total U.S. cards-in-force, added more than nine million cards to end the quarter with 452.5 million credit and debit cards.
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(12/3/04)
Leadership Q3
VISA and MasterCard continue to jockey for leadership in the credit card market as MasterCard leads in accounts but lags in outstandings. At the end of the third quarter, VISA had $293.5 billion in U.S. credit card outstandings, compared to $282.7 billion for MasterCard.
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(12/2/04)
Red Friday
Americans went into the "red" to make last Friday "black." VISA reported that overall retail volume on credit and debit cards for November 26th was up 12%. MasterCard processed over 35.1 million credit transactions on "Black Friday," a 10% growth over the same day in 2003.
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(12/1/04)
Card Pictures
Getting your name embossed on a gift card is cool, but getting a card with a family portrait on it, or a pix of the intended gift is really cool. This week, Sears added personalization to its popular gift cards.
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