Credit Card News Articles

The government has announced it will ban excessive fees for card payments by the end of the year. The precise details will be decided after a consultation, but only a small fee will be allowed and this must accurately reflect the actual costs the retailer incurs.

While fees are widespread, they have been particularly controversial in the budget airline industry where some companies charge as much as £8 to pay by card, seen as a way to disguise costs that aren't included in advertised bargain prices. Consumer group Which calculates the daily cost of card fees to airline passengers as £265,000.

The move actually goes a step beyond recommendations from the Office of Fair Trading, which had simply called for retailers to give clearer notice of the fees, for Read Full Story

Credit card debt is back in the headlines after David Cameron rewrote his Conservative party speech to avoid confusion.

An original draft of the speech, released in advance to the media, appeared to imply that the only way out of the national debt crisis would be for the public to pay off its credit card and store cards. Before giving the speech, Cameron tweaked the comments to say that households are paying off bills.

Economic critics said that if consumers were to all divert their cash to paying off bills rather than spending, the resulting drop in demand would cause a recession. Others took issue with the revised speech, arguing that if anything, consumers are getting further into debt.

However, other financial commentators have noted that, spending aside, Read Full Story

Consumer group Which? is increasing its call for a legal ban on surcharges when customers pay with a debit card. It says the change could been made through a minor amendment to existing laws.

The group has previously raised the issue with the Office of Fair Trading, which has demanded travel companies be open and clear about such charges before the customer pays the final bill.

Now Which is calling on the government to amend the existing Payment Services Regulations to outlaw the charges all together. That mirrors advice given by the government and the OFT after its review of the issue this year. However, the OFT does not have the power to control the prices set by business, merely the way those prices are explained to customers.

Even if the government Read Full Story

Halifax and Bank of Scotland have introduced a major overhaul of the way its credit card works. Each customer will now have a variable interest rate, based both on their own banking activity and Bank of England base rates.

The individual rate, which will apply to all forms of spending (whether cash advance or purchases) will take effect in April. The starting point will be the average rate the customer actually paid in the first three months of this year, plus the base rate, which is currently 0.5%.

Whether individuals win or lose at first will depend on their activity so far this year. Generally those who've only made purchases will be better off or notice no change, while Read Full Story

An estimated eight million Brits missed a regular bill payment last year, according to a new survey. That's prompted warnings that such activity could affect credit ratings.

According to a moneysupermarket survey, one in six people were late with a bill payment during 2010. The most common missed payment was of a credit card bill, with an estimated four million people doing this, a proportion that tops one in ten Londoners.

Missed credit card bill in this context does not mean failing to clear the balance, but rather missing the mandatory payment. This has a direct effect on credit ratings, but also entails late payment fees. In some cases it can also mean an immediate end to fixed-term offers such Read Full Story

A major credit card group has been criticised by regulators for the way it deals with customers in debt problems.

The Office of Fair Trading said MBNA not only failed to meet the standards the industry expected, but also failed to follow its own policies.

The criticism covered two main points. Firstly, the group did not provide clear enough information to cardholders who had fallen behind with payments but were able to offer smaller amounts. As a result, MBNA has now agreed to make it clearer when it will accept repayment offers that a customer has made, based on what they can afford.

Secondly, the group had not always stuck to its own policy of dealing with debt management firms and other Read Full Story

More than 25 million people regularly use their credit cards for online purchasing, with an average monthly spend of £192.

According to Sainsbury's Finance, which carried out the research, most spending is for relatively low-cost items such as music, DVDs and books. These are all products that are identical wherever you buy them, meaning online savings become all the more powerful.

The company noted that an estimated 5.9 million people only began shopping online with cards in the past three years. It believes just 7% of credit card holders never use the cards online.

Perhaps surprisingly, young adults -- who are commonly seen as the most net-savvy -- spend the lowest amount online Read Full Story

Google has revealed that its next generation on mobile phones will join the growing number of schemes aiming to let users make payments without needing their credit cards.

The next edition of the company's Android mobile operating system, codenamed Gingerbread, will include support for Near Field Communication chips, which can transfer information wirelessly over a small difference. The company talked of users tapping their phones at a paypoint, but it's not clear yet if the tap action trigger the payment, or if (as with some existing systems in the US) it is simply a way of making sure the phone is placed close enough to a reading device.

Google stressed that it won't be involved in the payment systems themselves or have any access to data. Instead Read Full Story

MBNA and Virgin are to introduce contactless credit cards in the UK. The technology, which is already used by Barclays, means customers can pay without having to wait for a shop assistant.

The system involves a small radio chip being built in to the card. It can then be used at participating shops by simply being waved in the air close to a scanner.

There are security measures to reduce the likelihood and effects of fraud. For example, with the MBNA/Virgin system customers will need to make a traditional chip-and-pin transaction when they get a new card: this will then activate the contactless technology. The occasional transaction will Read Full Story