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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...

Credit-Card Fees Targeted by Retailers Who Say Banks Overcharge

<p>For almost two years, intelligence services around the world tried to uncover the identity of an Internet hacker who had become a key conduit for al-Qaeda. The savvy, English-speaking, presumably young webmaster taunted his pursuers, calling himself Irhabi -- Terrorist -- 007. He hacked into American university computers, propagandized for the Iraq insurgents led by Abu Musab al-Zarqawi and taught other online jihadists how to wield their computers for the cause.</p>

More customers resume using old-fashioned cash By ANNE D'INNOCENZIO – 1 day ago NEW YORK (AP) — Cash or credit? For more Americans, who have already maxed out their credit cards or are just trying to manage their spending better in the tough economy, the answer is increasingly the old-fashioned one. Retailers like Wal-Mart Stores Inc., Target Corp. and J.C. Penney Co. are noticing a marked shift away from credit cards in favor of cash and debit cards. A big factor is less credit available as major card issuers cut spending limits and raise fees even for customers who pay...

Credit crunch for consumers As card issuers hike rates, consumers forced to work harder to protect credit By Andrea Coombes, MarketWatch Last update: 1:36 p.m. EST Nov. 23, 2008 SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) -- As credit-card issuers raise rates and fees and lower credit limits, consumers face higher-cost debt -- and more work maintaining their credit score. In some cases, banks' former darlings -- consumers who paid consistently and on time but let their balances ride -- now are being hit hardest, asked to stomach higher interest rates and fees or try their luck with different card issuers. For instance, some...

Retailers and credit card lenders at odds in crunch Fri Nov 21, 2008 11:18am EST By Alexandria Sage - Analysis SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - The need by U.S. retailers' to sell in hard times has put them at odds with the lenders backing their credit cards. While stores aggressively promote use of their cards, lenders are increasingly wary of consumer defaults. That conflict of interest, a direct result of the global credit crunch, could fuel escalated risk in 2009 following a holiday season in which more consumers are offered store credit cards that they may be less likely to repay....

Citigroup is reneging on a promise it made to tens of millions of credit card customers in good times. After pledging that it would no longer reserve the right to raise interest rates at any time for any reason, Citigroup now plans to start raising rates for customers who have not had an increase in at least two years. The move appears to backpedal from a commitment that Citigroup executives made to Congress in early 2007 when they tried to fend off greater regulation by promising not to raise rates until an account expires. Citigroup attributed its decision to the...

Meltdown: The toxic effects of Derivatives By Monty Guild and Tony Danaher A few weeks ago many thought I was out of my mind. I had the temerity to state that I thought that we were going into a depression, not a recession, and that the economic decline would last for two to three years. Now, it looks like a few others are coming around to my view. The chairman of Goldman Sachs recently said we are facing a banking crisis worse than the Great Depression. The former chairman of the New York Stock Exchange said it is comparable to...

American Express Co. which is being hit by slowing consumer spending and rising defaults, is seeking roughly $3.5 billion in taxpayer-funded capital from the federal government, according to people familiar with the situation. The card issuer is the latest company not directly hit by the housing crisis to request cash from the federal government. While retailers, car companies and others hit by the slowdown in consumer spending haven't gotten the government money, financial firms of all kinds are getting federal bailouts. It isn't clear if the application under ...

What’s in your wallet? Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean would like to know. Dean and Republican National Committee Chairman Mike Duncan were speakers at a luncheon at the National Press Club Nov. 5, where both reflected on what went right and wrong with their efforts during the 2008 election cycle. Dean revealed his party used credit card data to predict voting outcomes. However, Democrats and the media have been highly critical of credit card companies that provide that data. ..more (w/video)..

Any person may file a complaint if he or she believes a violation of the Federal Election Campaign Laws or Commission regulations has occurred or is about to occur. For more information on how to file a complaint, call the Office of Complaints Examination & Legal Administration Division (202/694-1650). All media inquiries and questions concerning the status of a complaint should be directed to the Press Office (202/694-1220). Both offices can also be reached, toll free, at 800/424-9530.

Further evidence of the economic contraction: American Express -- the largest U.S. credit card company by purchases -- said today it will cut 7,000 jobs and take up to a $290 million charge related to the cuts in a move designed to save $1.8 billion next year. Earlier this year, Amex announced a "re-engineering" plan designed to cut costs as consumers cut back on their credit-fueled spending. The job cuts represent 10 percent of the company's global workforce. The company also has frozen hiring and will cut back on marketing, it said in a statement. “The re-engineering program we announced...

Fox had an interesting story on this morning. Obama's campaign does not have AVS turned on for it's credit card processing on donations (AVS = Address Verification Service). So, in reality, there is no name validation or address verification tied to his donations, and a ton of money is pouring in from Europe and elsewhere. They can just type in anyname they want to, Fox listed some of the names, Adolf Hilter, William Ayers, Yogi Bear, and so on. Basically, the Obama campaign has put the US Presidency on his own EBay and Europe and others are saying "Okay, we...

October 23, 2008 Posted by John at 9:22 PM We noted here and elsewhere the astonishing degree of fraud that has fueled Barack Obama's record fundraising. The ultimate instance of Obama-fraud was achieved by a reader of The Corner: So I went to the Obama website this afternoon and clicked on the "Donate" button. I used my real MasterCard number (but was not asked for the 3 digit security code). Used the following information and it was accepted... First name: Fake Last Name: Donor Address: 1 Dollar To Prove A Point City: Fraudulent State: AL Zip / Post: 33333 Email...

Consumers are increasingly unable to pay off their credit cards, forcing banks to hoard cash to protect against future losses and lend to fewer people, according to reports yesterday from several of the nation's largest banks. These financial disclosures showed a spike in credit card loans going bad, putting further pressure on already-stressed balance sheets. J.P. Morgan Chase said the number of credit card loans in default rose 45 percent in the third quarter from the comparable period a year ago and predicted that default rates would sharply accelerate through 2009, with 7 percent of credit card loans going bad....

Northland Couple Warns of Political Credit Card Fraud NORTH KANSAS CITY, MO. -- A North Kansas City couple has been left scratching their heads after they became the victims of a political scam. Steve and Rachel Larman say a strange credit card charge appeared on their statement this month -- a $2300 donation to Barack Obama's presidential campaign. The Larman's say they don't want this to be about their political affiliation, but they say they're not about to give the Obama campaign any help from their pocketbook. They said they notified Chase, their credit card bank, to report the fraud....

Another shoe to drop Bad credit-card debt could be next shot to economy, researcher says By Jennifer Waters, MarketWatch Last update: 7:42 p.m. EDT Sept. 30, 2008 CHICAGO (MarketWatch) -- Credit-card debt is on the brink of imploding and will be the next storm to hit the fragile finance industry, an investment research firm predicted this week. According to Innovest StrategicValue Advisors, banks will charge off $18.6 billion in delinquent credit-card accounts in the first quarter of 2009 and $96 billion in all of 2009, more than double the research firm's forecast for all of this year. Innovest projects that...

Credit card companies successfully nixed a Mythbusters segment exposing RFID's security flaws, according to Arbiter of Truth and Mythbusters co-host, Adam Savage. Texas Instruments comes on along with chief legal counsel for American Express, Visa, Discover, and everybody else... They were way, way outgunned and they absolutely made it really clear to Discovery that they were not going to air this episode talking about how hackable this stuff was, and Discovery backed way down being a large corporation that depends upon the revenue of the advertisers. Now it's on Discovery's radar and they won't let us go near it.

<p>U.S. Secret Service Director Mark Sullivan, left, and U.S. Attorney General Michael Mukase...</p> <p>Wed Aug 6, 9:35 AM EDT Authorities have cracked what is believed to be the largest federal hacking and identity theft case ever, involving the theft and sale of more than 41 million credit and debit card numbers.</p>

The best things in life are free; for everything else, there's whitey. The Obama campaign is teaming up with credit card giant Mastercard to issue the official race card of the 2008 presidential elections. The credit card automatically charges whites for everything: from genocide to rigging elections to verbal slights. Kyle Darson, Obama campaign finance manager, said the candidate, whose image is emblazoned on the card, likes the convenience and easy payments of the race card. "Barack likes whipping out the race card whenever and wherever he wants to," Darson said. "And when he's running low on hedge fund contributions,...

Hidden deep in Senator Christopher Dodd's 630-page Senate housing legislation is a sweeping provision that affects the privacy and operation of nearly all of America's small businesses. The provision, which was added by the bill's managers without debate this week, would require the nation's payment systems to track, aggregate, and report information on nearly every electronic transaction to the federal government.

LAST year Citigroup made a promise to millions of people who flex its credit cards: “A deal is a deal.” The slogan was used to trumpet an announcement that the financial giant would no longer reserve the right to raise interest rates on cards at any time, for any reason. But Citigroup’s deal is only a deal until it isn’t. The company is quietly reconsidering its pledge as it confronts a host of financial troubles, according to Citigroup executives. A decision could come this week. Samuel Wang, a spokesman for Citigroup, declined to comment. Several Citigroup executives emphasized the “deal...

Behind the millions of daily credit card transactions is a smoothly functioning payment network -- and a rough battle over how to pay for it. Retailers say the two major credit card companies, Visa Inc. and MasterCard Inc. refuse to negotiate over fees merchants pay on each credit card transaction, and use their market dominance to charge excessive rates. The two account for approximately 80 percent of credit cards. Last week, the two decided not to increase their rates, but the move did little to placate retail trade groups. 'Simply holding them at current levels is not a sign of...