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<p>More American households are falling back into the debt hole, this time without the safety net of home values to help bail them out, the New York Post reported Sunday.</p> <p>Last year, total US consumer debt reached its highest point in a decade, according to a credit card industry observer.</p>

The Charleston Police Department is asking for help in identifying two suspects that used a stolen credit card throughout the city. Two black female suspects had used the card back on Nov. 7 and were captured on video surveillance but cannot identify them. Some pictures from police have been attached to this story and if you have any information you can contact them at 304-348-6480.

Five foreign men were arrested during a courthouse break-in early on Wednesday and police said they found photographs of public buildings, water systems and malls from various U.S. cities in their van. The men, at least three of whom were in their 20s, will be questioned by a joint terrorism task force including the FBI and immigration authorities, officials said. Bexar County spokeswoman Laura Jesse said three men were found inside the 120-year-old Bexar County Courthouse, a landmark in downtown San Antonio and two in a large recreational vehicle parked in front of the building. She said all five were...

A beautiful Brazilian soap star has the lead role in her own daytime drama, which casts George Soros, the billionaire financier of lefty causes, as a heavy who not only broke her heart, but also reneged on a promise to give her an Upper East Side apartment worth $1.9 million. The drama will be staged in Manhattan Supreme Court, where 28-year-old Adriana Ferreyr yesterday filed a blockbuster $50 million suit charging, among other things, that the frisky octogenarian slapped her around while they were in bed discussing his real-estate betrayal. The sultry actress and the mogul, who's worth some $14.5...

<p>KNOXVILLE (AP) - A University of Georgia graduate assistant and a Baton Rouge, La., waitress have been indicted by a federal grand jury in Knoxville in a scam to steal debit and credit card information from restaurant customers.</p> <p>Waitress Shena Everett was in court Wednesday in Knoxville on a charge of conspiracy to commit access device fraud.</p>

Amid all the uplifting clichés at their commencement ceremonies, graduating college students won’t hear a line applicable to some of them — you got ripped off. Student debt just surpassed the country’s credit-card debt for the first time. It is projected to top $1 trillion this year, according to the New York Times, when it was less than $200 billion in 2000. For the class of 2011, the mean student-debt burden is nearly $23,000, up 8 percent from a year ago. There’s no doubt that graduating from college brings a significant economic advantage, but that doesn’t excuse the waste and...

MIRA MESA, Calif.- A California man upset with his bank for disallowing his requested refinance said he decided to pay off his $6,500 credit card bill entirely with pennies. Thierry Cahez of San Diego County rolled 650,000 pennies in plastic, loaded them into crates and drove the lot to his Mira Mesa bank, KABC-TV, Los Angeles, reported. Cahez was turned away by the bank several times but eventually was sent to a branch with a vault large enough to handle the coins. Cahez said he opted to pay his credit card bill with pennies because he was turned down for...

Establish smart spending habits. Live like you're poor. How do you do that? Drive your cars into the ground, don't eat out very much, avoid expensive and potentially unhealthy processed foods, buy food in bulk, buy just enough clothes to fit your needs, and use public transportation. ... Use credit cards only as a convenience to avoid carrying cash; limit your credit card spending so that you can easily pay off the balance each month. Make every dollar count with your spending, so you can free up money to invest in the future. Get healthy. One of the best things...

Well, it was nice while it lasted. One of the really good things that came out of the recent economic downturn was that millions of American families decided to get out of debt. In particular, we had seen a sustained trend of reduced credit card usage in the United States. It looked like Americans had finally wised up. But we should have known that Americans would not be willing to tighten their belts forever. Unfortunately, it appears that getting out of debt is no longer so "trendy". In fact, the month of December was the third month in a row...

----------------------------------------------------See more posts and art at The Looking Spoon (www.thelookingspoon.com)

Do credit card reward systems subsidize the rich at the expense of the poor? There has been a lot of press over the last week about a new research report out of the Boston Federal Reserve that claims that credit card payments are a form of regressive wealth transfer, taking money from the poor in the form of higher prices and giving to the rich in the form of credit card rewards. But before we all start crying foul and cutting up our credit cards, let's put down our pitchforks, take a deep breath, and think about this. It's...

Student loans overtakes credit debtBy Peter Kerwin of RIHEAA Updated: Tuesday, 17 Aug 2010, 10:11 AM EDT (FOX Providence) - A surprising series of reports from the Federal Reserve Bank and an expert who tracks student loan debt suggest came out last week. These reports suggest that for the first time, student loan debt in the United States is actually greater than credit card debt. Here to talk about this development and what it means for students is Peter Kerwin from the Rhode Island Higher Education Assistance Authority . We’ve heard a lot of talk about the staggering levels of...

NOTE The following text SNIPPET is a quote: International Hacker Arraigned After Extradition Elaborate Scheme Stole over $9.4 Million from Credit Card Processor ATLANTA, GA—SERGEI TŠURIKOV, 26, of Tallinn, Estonia, has been extradited to the United States. TŠURIKOV appeared today and was arraigned before United States Magistrate Judge E. Clayton Scofield III, on federal charges of conspiracy to commit wire fraud, wire fraud, conspiracy to commit computer fraud, computer fraud, and aggravated identity theft. TŠURIKOV was indicted by a federal grand jury on these charges on November 10, 2010, along with VIKTOR PLESHCHUK, 29, of St. Petersburg, Russia; OLEG COVELIN,...

Click to see the larger version The Looking Spoon is a conservative humor/satire/art/commentary blog, visit www.thelookingspoon.com to see more posts and art

This week the US Senate voted to outlaw earning frequent flyer miles from credit card transactions. Of course Sen. Durbin, the amendment’s sponsor, would not put it that way. Durbin rather said that by capping the fees charged to retailers, small businesses would benefit. Sadly, Durbin is wrong on both counts; his proposed law would outlaw frequent flyer miles and harm small business. . . .

Gov. Charlie Crist has been pushing an investigation of the Florida GOP credit-card mess. It may end up working as well as the rest of his campaign tacks — in other words, it may backfire. Since February, Crist has flogged Marco Rubio, his opponent in Florida’s GOP Senate primary, for charging more than $100,000, including thousands in personal expenses, on party-issued plastic. Press conferences, web ads, television debates — Crist talked about it everywhere. Then, earlier this month, he went a step farther, calling on the U.S. Attorney in Tallahassee to conduct a “full, independent investigation . . . including...

A new interest-free credit card, the first of its kind in North America, aims to reconcile Islamic canonical law and Western consumer culture. Until now, observant Muslims have been precluded from owning credit cards on which they pay interest, a violation of shariah law. The iFreedom Plus Master-Card, set to be available in the coming days, promises no bills, no interest and no credit card debt. .... With the iFreedom Plus MasterCard, holders load up their card with cash in advance, up to $6,000. Each purchase draws down on the account without accruing interest. .... Because the new product doesn't...

How many times must we learn the painful lesson? What will it take for us to recognize the near-universal rule governing the outcome of any unwieldy Washington-driven "reform" effort? That rule is: When the government attempts a big fix for something, watch out below! Duck and cover! Run for your liberty-loving life! The fix will, in all likelihood, come crashing down around us; even as seemingly oblivious lawmakers continue to pat themselves on the back for a job well done. Such is the sorry case with the so-called credit card reform act of 2009 — all but buried among the...

have a Master Card issued through Chase Bank. Twice in the past week it was denied. I called today to determine why. After contacting the Customer Service Department, I was told I had a past due balance. No problem, said I, I will pay the balance online. The Customer Service Representative said that he could make the payment for me by phone. I declined his offer. I told him I would prefer to do it myself online. The Customer Service Representative repeated his offer and I repeated my refusal. I then went to make the payment online. Only to be...

For those consumers who want to know what it’s really like to be gouged by a credit card company, check out First Premier Bank. The subprime credit card issuer is experimenting with a new card that hits customers with a 79.9% interest rate. Yes, 79.9%. The card used to come with a 9.9% rate, but now that the government is forbidding excessive fees on credit cards, First Premier is attempting to recoup its money through a different means. Until now, the company levied $256 in fees in the first year for card holders—who received a credit line of just $250....

NEW YORK (AP) -- It's no mistake. This credit card's interest rate is 79.9 percent. The bloated APR is how First Premier Bank, a subprime credit card issuer, is skirting new regulations intended to curb abusive practices in the industry. It's a strategy other subprime card issuers could start adopting to get around the new rules.

Newest Credit Card Trick? 79.9 Percent Interest First Premier skirting new regulations intended to curb abusive practices NEW YORK - A credit card with an interest rate of 79.9 percent is how First Premier Bank, a subprime credit card issuer, is skirting new regulations intended to curb abusive practices in the industry. That's right. 79.9 percent APR. It's a strategy other subprime card issuers could start adopting to get around the new rules. Typically, the First Premier card comes with a minimum of $256 in fees in the first year for a credit line of $250. Starting in February, however,...

Doddling With Your Credit:The Senator from Connecticut and the CARD Act of 2009 November 25, 2009 The most pestilential quality of Liberals is their ability to: (1) do something in their self-interest; (2) tell you that it is in your self-interest; (3) make the situation galactically worse with their meddling and (4) have the unmitigated gall to tell you that their meddling made it better. And such is the case of Democrat Senator Dodd; his Credit Card Accountability, Responsibility, and Disclosure (CARD) Act of 2009 and your misery. First, let’s deal with the misery. I, like almost all Americans with a credit card, received a...

KINGSTON – A U.S. serviceman’s ex-wife who is accused of opening a credit card account in his name while he was deployed in Afghanistan recently waived her right to a preliminary hearing. Karen Mary McCann McGill, 31, of Blackman Street, Wilkes-Barre, appeared before District Judge Paul J. Roberts in Kingston on Sept. 23 and waived two counts of access device fraud and a single count of identity theft to Luzerne County Court of Common Pleas. Kingston police Detective Thomas Paratore alleged McCann McGill signed the name of Donald McGill to a Capital One credit card application in May 2008, and...

A woman ticked off by Bank of America notice raising her interest rates to 30%. Great rant! This needs to go viral. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jGC1mCS4OVo&eurl=http%3A%2F%2Fmarket-ticker.denninger.net%2F&feature=player_embedded

With credit card defaults rising, some companies are looking for reasons to cut your plastic. To make these decisions, banks rely on data about what you buy, where, and the company you keep. Stacey Vanek-Smith reports. Not all that long ago credit-card companies were looking for reasons to give us credit. As we all know now, it didn't take much to get a shiny new piece of plastic in your wallet. But with credit-card defaults rising, those companies have started looking for reasons to take some of that credit away. To help them figure out how, banks are compiling thousands...

<p>WASHINGTON (AP) — Bill collectors are exploiting a legal loophole to seize Social Security and veterans' benefits even though federal law is supposed to protect the payments from creditors.</p> <p>Lawmakers from both parties who have been pressing the Treasury Department for years to close the loophole with new regulations are growing impatient. The Obama administration is now promising action but has offered no timetable for developing the new rules.</p>

And it'll probably go a lot higher. Everyone knows that banks are going to take a bath on their credit card portfolios. The question is: How bad will it get. Not surprisingly, we've alredy reached an all-time high charge-off level, but nobody expects it to peak anytime soon. Bankruptcy filings, meanwhile, are creeping back up, but are still well below the levels seen before the law changed.

Sweeping new restrictions on credit-card companies would ban extra fees and fluctuating rates and arm tens of millions of consumers with more information on their debts. Starting in February 2010, a Senate bill passed Tuesday would ban practices such as charging consumers to pay by phone and sudden surges in interest rates. Payments above the minimum due would be applied to balances with the highest interest rates. Information once relegated to tiny print must be made clearer, and consumers will soon be told how long it would take to pay off a balance if they pay only the minimum due.

The Credit Card Death Spiral By Ian Cooper | Thursday, May 14th, 2009 The stress tests are done. The results were so-so. Financials are up. Unfortunately, foreclosures are still climbing, credit card defaults are growing and could out-pace unemployment, and no one knows how to value toxic assets. But the bank crisis has been solved! Yep, and I'm the king of England. Just as we called back in July 5, 2008, credit cards have and will continue to take it on the chin. But not many people listened: "AXP will be fine," one reader said. "You're blowing the consumer issue...

Advanta to cease new credit card lending Advanta plans to cease new credit card lending as it battles losses; shares fall On Tuesday May 12, 2009, 10:20 am EDT SPRING HOUSE, Pa. (AP) -- Advanta Corp. said late Monday it will shut down its credit card lending operations next month as it battles surging loan losses. Shares tumbled more than 6 percent, losing 7 cents to $1.06 in early trading Tuesday. Shares have dropped 88 percent over the past 12 months.

Woman Steals Town's Credit Card, Spends Thousands DOVER (WBZ) ― The search is on for a woman wanted for using a credit card belonging to the town of Dover to purchase American Express gift cards from Staples stores in several Massachusetts towns. Police say about $7,000 in charges had piled up before the town realized what had happened and canceled the credit card. Dover police say this woman used a town credit card to purchase American Express gift cards from Staples stores throughout the state. Massachusetts Most Wanted

Here They Come To Save The Day With much fanfare this week, Congress and the Administration began a series of actions designed to protect over-leveraged consumers from the high fees imposed by credit card lenders. As with most other initiatives devised by government, this policy will create a host of unintended consequences that will undermine the benefit the program hopes to create. Anyone who carries a credit card knows that billing practices have become much more aggressive, punitive, and seemingly arbitrary over recent years. Sadly, these fees have become one of the only means the companies can use to compensate...

WASHINGTON – President Barack Obama, appealing to mainstream consumers, is pushing for more legal protection for the millions of Americans who use credit cards.

Note: The following text is a quote: ICE nabs man at LMMIA with 172 fraudulent credit cards SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico — A 28–year–old man was arrested Monday at the Luis Munoz Marin International Airport (LMMIA) for credit card fraud following a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and U.S. Secret Service investigation. Alexis De Jesus, a United States citizen residing in New York, arrived at the LMMIA from Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic and was referred to a secondary inspection by U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) inspectors. The search of De Jesus and his luggage revealed 172 fraudulent credit...

White House economic adviser Larry Summers told NBC’s “Meet the Press” that President Obama plans to join a push planned by congressional Democrats on “credit card abuses” as part of looking out for the little guy while rebuilding the nation’s financial system. "We need to do things to stop the marketing of credit in ways that addicts people to it," Summers said. Summers told moderator David Gregory that Obama is concerned about “the way people have been deceived into paying extraordinarily high rates that they wouldn't have paid if they knew what they were getting themselves into.”

WASHINGTON -- President Barack Obama will soon turn his attention to the issue of high credit card rates and other abuses, giving a potential boost to congressional efforts to rein in credit card companies. The president is "going to be very focused, in a very near term, on a whole set of issues having to do with credit card abuses," White House economic adviser Larry Summers said on NBC's "Meet the Press" airing Sunday. He said the abuses include charging consumers "extraordinarily high rates that they wouldn't have paid if they knew what they were getting themselves into." Mr. Summers...

Below are summaries of class action lawsuits filed against major credit card banks. This is not a complete list, just a few samples. First USA (which became BankOne which became Chase)-- A class action lawsuit was filed against First USA when it changed the due date so that some customers, accustomed to paying by a certain date each month, would be caught off guard. Many of them would send in their payments late, not realizing that their due date was a few days earlier than they thought. First USA charged customers $29 every time a payment was late. When two...

Be Prepared for "Extraordinary Circumstances" The last words you want to see in an appropriations bill from Congress are the words "in case of an emergency" or their twin sister "in the event of extraordinary circumstances". When you see those words it is a near certainty that an "emergency" or that "extraordinary circumstances" are right around the corner. Please consider U.S. panel backs FDIC borrowing. A key U.S. Senate panel on Tuesday backed proposals to reform credit card practices and increase the authority of regulators to borrow from the Treasury Department to deal with a slew of expected bank failures....

NEW YORK (Reuters) - American Express Co (NYSE:AXP), battered by mounting credit card losses, is offering $300 to a limited number of U.S. card holders who pay off their balances and close their accounts, the company said on Monday. "We sent the offer out to a select number of card members," said Molly Faust, a company spokeswoman. "We are looking at different ways that we can manage credit risk based on the costumers overall credit profile." The company did not say how many card holders would receive the offer and did not disclose the total of their card balances. Card...

The credit card numbers stolen from customers at an Asian restaurant last year were taken by three people who offered to work for tips only... It's believed the threesome stole more than 100 credit card numbers. Lewis said the three people used English names, but spoke in a Chinese dialect. Lewis is working with other jurisdictions around the country investigating similar robberies. "We are sharing information between states,"

Credit card delinquencies at record high By Saskia Scholtes in New York Published: February 4 2009 23:33 | Last updated: February 4 2009 23:33 US credit card delinquencies hit a record high in January, and further deterioration is likely as the economy slows down and unemployment rises, Fitch Ratings says. Payments at least 60 days late rose almost half a percentage point last month to a record 3.75 per cent, said Fitch. Credit card lenders also wrote off loans to delinquent borrowers at close to record levels, and such “charge-offs” were expected to breach records in the coming months. Michael...

Identity thieves install spyware to monitor transactions from the inside In a press release timed to coincide with the inauguration of President Barack Obama, credit card processor Heartland Payment Systems announced Tuesday that it suffered a grievous security breach sometime in 2008, allowing hackers the opportunity to steal credit card information on what is possibly more than 100 million accounts. Heartland is the sixth largest payment processor in the country, and specializes in transaction processing for small-to-medium-sized restaurants and retailers. According to Wired’s Thread Level, it processes more than 100 million transactions a month. Federal investigators determined the source of...

There's a simple solution to all the flapdoodle about rapacious credit card issuers: Pay your bill in full each month. This avoids interest charges and builds a solid credit rating while using the bank's money interest free for about a month. But this is America, land of the perpetual victim, where no one bothers to review a credit card's disclosure statement. New credit card regulations take effect in July 2010. Representative Carolyn Maloney of New York has reintroduced the Credit Cardholders' Bill of Rights, which offers the same reforms and would become effective 90 days after President Obama signs the...

JPMorgan chief says worst of the crisis still to come: FT Wed Jan 14, 10:13 pm ET LONDON (AFP) – The chief executive of US bank JPMorgan Chase, Jamie Dimon, told the Financial Times on Thursday that the worst of the economic crisis still lay ahead as hard-hit consumers default on their loans. "The worst of the economic situation is not yet behind us. It looks as if it will continue to deteriorate for most of 2009," he told the business daily. "In terms of our sector, we expect consumer loans and credit cards to continue to get worse."

Happy New Year? Not for credit card companies Wed Dec 31, 2008 4:19pm EST By Juan Lagorio NEW YORK (Reuters) - U.S. credit card companies have little to celebrate as many analysts brace for 2009 to be one of the worst years on record for consumer credit. Losses for the industry could top $70 billion, but it is hard to predict how bad the pain will be. U.S. consumers have never before been so deeply in debt. There was nearly $1 trillion of credit and charge card debt outstanding as of October, up more than 25 percent since 2003, according...

January 3, 2009 Credit Card Companies Willing to Deal Over Debt By ERIC DASH Hard times are usually good times for debt collectors, who make their money morning and night with the incessant ring of a phone. But in this recession, perhaps the deepest in decades, the unthinkable is happening: collectors, who usually do the squeezing, are getting squeezed a bit themselves. After helping to foster the explosive growth of consumer debt in recent years, credit card companies are realizing that some hard-pressed Americans will not be able to pay their bills as the economy deteriorates. So lenders and their...

The Debt Trap Unspoken Link Between Credit Cards and Colleges By JONATHAN D. GLATER EAST LANSING, Mich. — When Ryan T. Muneio was tailgating with his parents at a Michigan State football game this fall, he noticed a big tent emblazoned with a Bank of America logo. Inside, bank representatives were offering free T-shirts and other merchandise to those who applied for credit cards and other banking products. “They did a good job,” Mr. Muneio, 21 and a junior at Michigan State, said of the tactic. “It was good advertising.” Bank of America’s relationship with the university extends well beyond...

Target credit -card holders are falling behind on their payments at an alarming rate, sending delinquencies within the retailer's $8.8 billion credit-card portfolio surging by more than 60 percent in the past year. The worsening trend could force Target to limit its exposure to future losses by further tightening the credit terms to qualify for its Visa card. And that could mean a further deceleration of sales at Target, which is struggling to attract shoppers amid soft consumer spending, analysts warned. Target already has tightened its credit underwriting this year as the economy has deteriorated. The Minneapolis-based discount retailer reported...

Credit card rule changes approved by regulator By John Poirier and Karey Wutkowski 1 hr 45 mins ago WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Rules aimed at preventing credit card holders from being hit by unfair and deceptive practices such as surprise fees and interest rate hikes were approved on Thursday by a U.S. banking regulator. The new regulations are expected to bring some relief to millions of card holders by restricting credit card issuers' ability to raise interest rates and by giving holders a reasonable time to pay their balances. The rules are expected to result in lower revenue for credit card...