Credit Card News June/July 2005

Welcome to the archive of credit card and related news for Pre-August 2005.

• Put the Olympics on the Credit Card - Across the country celebrations have begun surrounding London winning the Olympic 2012 bid, ironically research from personal finance website uSwitch has found that the nations credit card limit is high enough to pay for the 2012 games 81 times over!
• Nationwide CCB - The new Consumer Credit Bill going through Parliament at the moment has been a hot topic in financial news lately. The Bill has just had it’s second reading in Parliament and, while the changes to the law in it are welcomed by lenders and consumer groups, there have been questions along the way about whether it could go further to protect consumers rights.
• UK not a nation of ‘rate tarts’ according to research - New research has revealed that the UK is not a nation of ‘rate tarts’, with most credit card holders choosing to stay with their provider for over six years before switching issuer
• Financial Planning - With all the media advertising and attention on financial products you would think Britain would be a nation clued up on their financial future. Not so according to a report by Barclays Bank, they’ve found that a large number of people spend no time planning for their financial future
• Holidaymakers pay for use of credit cards abroad - Many UK holiday makers are paying millions of pounds in extra credit card fees as the vast majority of UK credit card companies charge card holders for using their plastic abroad, according to research out today.
• Consumer Credit Bill - Consumers will be pleased to hear that in the Queen’s speech for the coming Parliamentary session it was announced that the Consumer Credit Bill is to be reintroduced. Consumer groups Which? and the Citizen’s Advice Bureau are hoping that this will see some reforms that will make consumer credit fairer and tackle problems of over-indebtedness.
• Rise in bankrupt women due to credit cards - A sharp rise in the number of women declaring themselves bankrupt was attributed yesterday to a mix of large mortgages, carefree spending with credit cards and low pay compared to male colleagues.
• Egg get tough on rate tarts - Internet bank Egg has become the latest financial company to fight back against ‘rate tarts’. Recently the credit card industry has seen profits plummet due to those who switch credit cards regularly seeking to take advantage of introductory offers, such as 0% balance transfers
• Flat rate credit cards on the up - In the battle against ‘rate tarts’, credit card issuers are introducing balance transfer charges in order to recoup some of their losses.
• Ostrich syndrome leaves consumer vulnerable to identity fraud - According to new data, most of those in debt are not aware of how much they owe, leaving them open to identity fraud.
• Easy Credit Card Debt - Credit card debt is so easy to fall into and no matter of all the good intensions we make when we take a credit card out. We will tell ourselves that we will only use it in an emergency or to make purchases over the phone for the likes of concert or cinema tickets.
• Low Interest Credit Cards - If you are looking for a credit card that offers a low interest payment, then there are a couple of questions that you should ask yourself first before you go ahead with your search, the first one is, are you just simply looking to save yourself some cash?
• Smartcard - The Next Step After Chip and PIN - With Chip and Pin now under way, the major credit card companies are on the look out for the next stage of making our credit cards even safer to use and with Chip and Pin hoping to cut credit card fraud by up to 60%, the gap for even more of an improvement is still there.
• Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard
  Coming hot on the heels of the Royal Bank of Scotland’s new product Privacy Guard and high profile cases of ID theft in the states are new standards instigated and set up by Visa and MasterCard to prevent ID theft and online credit card fraud.
• Privacy Guard - Protection Against Identity Theft - With credit card fraud and in particular identity theft an increasing problem in the UK and throughout the world news that a major bank is implementing a new product aimed at tackling this problem is a very good sign
• Credit Cards Gone Wrong - One of the worst scenario’s that we can come across when using our plastic, is if something should happen to go wrong, are we going to have a fight when trying to get our cash refunded back to our cards and accounts.
• Balance Transfer Fees - Many consumers have taken advantage of zero percent balance transfers to manage their credit card debt without paying interest on it.... and some have started to introduce fees for balance transfers and other penalties to try and reap back some profit.
• Vanquis credit card - The Poor Man's Alternative - The Vanquis credit card, aimed at Britain’s millions of low income families, is to charge up to 70% interest - the highest ever charged by a UK credit card company.
• Credit Card Debt : Lenders Not solely To Blame - The credit card market is an easy target for negative comments by both politicians and the media, and this tends to obscure the progress made by lenders in improving the clarity of information provided to customers
• Barclaycard Combinations - The way the new “Barclaycard Combinations” will work is by using you credit card in the normal way to make purchases and then have three periods in the year were we can switch some of our debt into a loan
• Fee Paying Cash Machines - As I travel about from place to place I tend to find that the more rural that I go the greater the chance that I will have to pay the ATM owner a fee of around £2 for me to access my own cash
• Identity Theft Helpline launched - In order to help their customers in the UK Citi Cards have introduced a round the clock and all year round telephone helpline to help and assist customers whom have had their identities stolen.
• Radio Frequency ID Credit Cards - As all of the UK credit card manufacturers introduce CHIP & PIN to their customers in an attempt to cut UK credit card fraud by 60%, some manufacturers and retailers are looking to the next level of secure contact less payment
• Credit Cards and Holidays - Well you go to all the trouble to get the best deal, so can you tell me why most people don’t put in the same sort of effort on picking a credit card that is cheaper to use abroad? No, well it’s a mystery to me too.
• Are you a rate tart - Becoming a rate tart is easy but beware with interest rate rises expected some who have overstretched themselves might be caught out if this competition trend dissipates after these rises.
• Causes of Credit Card Debt - With the level of credit card debt now rising to over the £5 million mark, and this despite the well-publicized efforts of many banks and credit card issuers to try to eat into the total cost of fraud, an increase of 20% was probably not the results they were looking for.
• Big 5 Banks Count on your Apathy - With the UKs leading banks announcing profit exceeding £25 billion pounds consumers of their services should be asking am I getting the best deal from my bank.
• Card not present fraud is increasing - In this report we find out that the major increasing credit card fraud in the Uk is when the credit card holder is not present. These may include telephone, internet, mail order or the new craze of TV bidding stations.
• Store Credit Card Customers are Confused by Card Offers - During the festive period of 2004, many of the UK's High St stores offer their own version of UK credit cards. These offers come in the form of Store Cards, which come at an alarming rate of interest.