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CARDNEWS FOR CONSUMERS
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(2/27/04)
Sony Card
Sony's VISA card is alive and well . . . it just changed hands. This week Sony and Bank One re-launched the "Sony Card," after a five year run at Citibank.
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(2/26/04)
Bankruptcy 2003
Consumer bankruptcy filings exceeded 1.6 million last year, a record for a calendar year. However, the figure did not break the historic high for a 12-month period, which was set in the period ending September 30, 2003.
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(2/25/04)
Miles Gift Card
Delta Air Lines has become the first carrier to launch mileage gift cards. The new "SkyMiles Program Gift Card" is available in increments of 250 miles or 1,000 miles. The airline is currently offering the cards at
all Atlanta-area city ticket offices and says they will be sold in additional retail outlets later this year.
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(2/24/04)
DSR
Homeowners' debt service burdens have increased nearly two and half percentage points over the past decade, from 10.84% in 1993 to 13.30% in 2003. Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan said this week the increase is associated with rising levels of credit card debt.
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(2/23/04)
Card Upgrades
More than half of Americans say they have a received a credit card in the mail that they neither applied for or were expecting. While federal law prohibits card issuers from mailing real credit cards to "prospective" customers, it is perfectly legal to upgrade or convert "existing" customers to new cards.
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(2/20/04)
Phishing Bait
The virtual bad guys are relentless in their pursuit to fool Internet users into visiting fake bank sites, downloading keyloggers, or infecting computers with a wide variety of Trojan programs. Email fraud and phishing attacks grew by more than 50% in January, with an average of 5.7 new, unique attacks sent out to millions of consumers each day.
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(2/19/04)
DNC Registry
The "National Do Not Call Registry" is here to stay after a federal court ruled this week that the new government service does not violate the Constitution. Since going online nearly five months ago, the "Registry" now stands guard over 55 million telephone numbers.
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(2/18/04)
Tax Miles
Using your credit card to pay personal income taxes was a toss-up for many consumers due to processing fees, but not any longer. Between March 1st and April 30th, Bank One will be awarding double miles to cardholders using their "United Mileage Plus VISA" to pay federal and state income taxes.
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(2/17/04)
Real Rewards
A new credit card was launched this week that rewards cardholders for making purchases, maintaining a balance, and making payments on time. Under the new "Providian Real Rewards VISA," cardholders earn one point per $1 spent, 10 points for each $100 in revolving balances every billing cycle, and 500 points for on-time payments in six consecutive billing cycles.
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(2/13/04)
$Trillion Club
A fledgling million dollar business fifty years ago, the credit card business has now zoomed, big time, into the trillion dollar club. For the first time, Americans charged $2 trillion on their major credit cards in one year, and amassed more than $2 trillion in revolving and installment consumer credit, excluding home mortgages.
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(2/12/04)
Movie Stuff
Starting this week, cardholders of the "Chase Universal Entertainment MasterCard" can use their points to bid on movie props and memorabilia. The new "Universal Entertainment Online Auction" offers all sort of stuff used in major pictures such as prayer beads from Bruce Almighty, and Hannibal Lechter's jumpsuit from Red Dragon.
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(2/11/04)
Debt 03
For the first time, overall U.S. consumer credit, excluding home mortgages, has topped $2 trillion. During 2003, Americans added $30 billion in revolving credit, ending the year at $742.5 billion. Bank credit card debt (excluding store and gas credit cards) at the end of the third quarter was $645.7 billion, or roughly 88% of total revolving credit.
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(2/10/04)
Fast Cards
Americans charged nearly $13 billion worth of fast food to their credit and debit cards last year compared to $6.1 billion in 2002, and $3.7 billion in 2001. However, it is a small bite out of a big pie, as consumers spend about $138 billion per year in quick service restaurants.
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(2/09/04)
Scoring a Loan
Instead of taking a shot in the dark when applying for a new loan, you might want to consider a new service which matches your personal credit score with loan rates offered in your area. Fair Isaac, the inventor of the "FICO" credit score, is now offering a "Loan Center" that enables consumers to compare national and local lenders' rates currently being offered to people in their area who have credit scores similar to their own.
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(2/06/04)
Feb Mailbox
Zero percent credit card offers are still alive and well so far this year, but they may become scarce once the Feds start jacking up short-term interest rates later this year. The nation's largest issuer is currently offering the longest term 0% interest rate.
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(2/05/04)
Platinum Insurance
While VISA and MasterCard only require $100,000 in travel accident insurance for their "Platinum" cards, most of the top issuers offer $1 million of complimentary travel accident insurance. However, that may be changing as Chase is set to cut its complimentary travel accident insurance on its "Platinum" cards from $1 million to $500,000, effective March 1st.
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(2/04/04)
Priceless Cruises
Travelocity and MasterCard have renewed their winter promotion offering up to $400 cash-back in the form of a "Prepaid MasterCard Gift Card" for cruises booked through February 26th. During Travelocity's "Cruise Super Sale" customers will get up to $300 cash back per stateroom.
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(2/03/04)
NYC Card
The Uniformed Firefighters Association of Greater New York and Cleveland-based National City have launched an affinity "Gold MasterCard" this month. The special edition credit card will benefit New York City firefighters' families by contributing to the "Uniformed Firefighters Association's Widows' and Children's Fund" based on purchases made using the card.
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(2/02/04)
Preferred Cards
A new survey of 6,500 American consumers has found that nearly six out of ten prefer to use rewards-based credit cards, and that nearly 90% of these consumers said they would not reduce usage or cancel their preferred reward card. The wallet research also found that 38% of consumers stated they prefer using their debit card for purchases.
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