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At an increasing pace, countries across the globe are implementing "chip-and-PIN" credit card technology, which could create more hassles for travelers from the United States, which has no to plans to convert -- at least for now. The so-called smart cards -- usually referred to as chip-and-PIN cards because credit cards have computer chips on them and cardholders, instead of signing for purchases, must punch four-digit PIN numbers into terminals -- have become standard in the U.K. because of their superior fraud-prevevntion abilities. Other European countries followed, and now countries in Asia, North America and South America are doing the...

Not only is the federal government borrowing 40 cents of every dollar it spends, it has also accumulated a national debt that is nearly 70 percent of the U.S. annual economic output. That is expected to be 100% be the end of 2011 if a new direction is not taken.

Sexy Eastern European women dubbed "B-Girls" seduced touristy businessmen at a half-dozen South Beach nightclubs, generating hundreds of thousands of dollars in fraudulent charges on their credit cards for expensive bottles of champagne and other booze without their knowledge, federal authorities said Wednesday.

NEW YORK (AP) -- American Express said Wednesday it plans to close a service center in Greensboro, N.C., and cut 550 jobs as more of the credit card company's transactions are handled online and on mobile devices. The moves will lead to charges that will reduce fourth-quarter earnings. New York-based American Express said work now handled in Greensboro will be transferred to other locations in the U.S. A broader consolidation plan also will transfer work from a center in Madrid, Spain, to sites in the United Kingdom and Argentina, and shift service support for Japanese card operations from Sydney, Australia...

Cyberwar: If there was ever any doubt WikiLeaks is a criminal enterprise, it has vanished now that hackers have attacked MasterCard, Visa and Amazon.com. This is the work of organized crime, not spontaneous dissent. For years, WikiLeaks has claimed that its release of stolen U.S. classified documents over the Internet fosters democracy, transparency and informed public discourse. For such public-spiritedness, it's been lionized by the Economist magazine and Amnesty International and showered with left-wing foundation money. Now the mask is off, and the reality is far uglier. Embittered by MasterCard, Visa and Amazon.com's refusal to do any business with WikiLeaks...

Credit card thieves deliver costly lesson December 3, 2010 By Fran Eaton I wish this column was just a public service announcement on being careful about your credit cards during the Christmas shopping season, but it isn't. This week I was victimized by a thief while my credit card remained safe in my wallet in my purse. Or, rather, I thought it was safe. It wasn't until I got a call from a slightly irritated husband asking why our card was declined when he tried to use it for a purchase that I had reason to double-check our account. I...

PatPending writes "A 10-page Powerpoint presentation (PDF) that security and privacy analyst Christopher Soghoian recently obtained through a Freedom of Information Act Request to the Department of Justice reveals that law enforcement agencies routinely seek and obtain real-time surveillance of credit card transactions. The government's guidelines reveal that this surveillance often occurs with a simple subpoena, thus sidestepping any Fourth Amendment protections."

NEW YORK (AP) -- More than 8 million consumers stopped using credit cards over the past year. The decline stems from a combination of consumer choices and bank actions. An analysis by credit reporting agency TransUnion found that use of general purpose credit cards bearing MasterCard or Visa logos, or issued by Discover or American Express, fell more than 11 percent in the third quarter, compared with the July to September period last year.

St. Petersburg, Florida - If you had any doubt that someone could steal your credit card numbers by simply walking past you, a few minutes with Walt Augustinowicz will probably chance your mind. "Wow that is crazy. It kind of makes me nervous," said Reina Monsour after watching one of Augustinowicz's demonstrations. "Technology is getting scarier and scarier," added Ivan Marik after watching another demonstration. By simply using a credit card scanner attached to a battery pack, Augustinowicz shows how easy it is to grab sensitive information from an unsuspecting person.

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,...

Credit cards appear to be the reverse Robin Hoods of the financial world. A new paper from the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston says merchant fees and reward programs offered by many credit-card issuers essentially take money from those who have the least and give it to those who have the most. The imbalance may have to be remedied via government intervention, the authors, Scott Schuh, Oz Shy and Joana Stavins, argued. The paper was published as part of the bank’s Public Policy Discussion Papers on Monday. It comes amid big changes for the financial industry, as the nation’s bank...

Note: The following text is a quote: http://www.justice.gov/usao/mow/news2010/harrison.ind.htm JULY 9, 2010 FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE BLACK MARKET TRAVEL AGENTS 38 DEFENDANTS INDICTED IN MULTI-MILLION DOLLAR FRAUD LOCAL INVESTIGATION EXPOSES NATIONWIDE NETWORK THAT USED STOLEN IDENTITIES, CREDIT CARDS TO PURCHASE AIRLINE TICKETS KANSAS CITY, Mo. – Beth Phillips, United States Attorney for the Western District of Missouri, announced today that 38 defendants from across the United States have been charged in a series of indictments that allege an extensive network of black market travel agents who used the stolen identities of thousands of victims as part of a multi-million dollar fraud scheme...

Subscribers to Classmates.com might be surprised to learn that they’ve agreed to an automatic renewal clause. It happened to me. I learned about it after finding a $39 renewal charge on my credit card. My credit card company subsequently gave me a $39 conditional credit based on my complaint; but that credit was revoked after Classmates disputed it. In their paperwork, Classmates writes that members may …“terminate Subscription Services at any time by contacting our Member Care Department via email or via our live chat representative.“ I'm now at an age where “who needs it?”; but I was late in...

Please Watch: http://www.thefoxnation.com/president-obama/2010/04/22/massive-govt-takeover-feds-monitor-checking-accounts-credit-cards

Karl Rove discusses the current Obama-Dodd financial reform Bill. - video "It creates a new office and monitors every finanical transaction in the United States"

Capital One Financial Corp's U.S. credit-card defaults rose in March in a sign that consumers may still be under stress. In a regulatory filing, Capital One said the annualized net charge-off rate -- debts the company believes it will never collect -- for U.S. credit cards rose to 10.87 percent in March from 10.19 percent in February. However, accounts at least 30 days delinquent -- an indicator of future loan losses - declined to 5.30 percent from 5.51 percent. For U.S. auto loans, Capital One's charge-off rate was 2.10 percent in March, down from 2.50 percent in February, and the...

As banks shy away from making risky consumer loans, a mediocre credit history just won't cut it anymore. To get the best rates on mortgages, credit cards and auto loans, you need a killer score. Your FICO score is a numerical measure of your creditworthiness that ranges from 300 to 850. While there are a few different credit scoring systems available, it's the FICO score, created by the Fair Isaac Corporation, that most lenders look at when they check your credit. Lenders have already raised their standards by about 20 to 40 points this year, according to Barry Paperno, consumer...

Debit cards have different protections and uses. Sometimes they're not the best choice. Sometimes reaching for your wallet is like a multiple choice test: How do you really want to pay? While credit cards and debit cards may look almost identical, not all plastic is the same. "It's important that consumers understand the difference between a debit card and a credit card," says John Breyault, director of the Fraud Center for the National Consumers League, a Washington, D.C.-based advocacy group. "There's a difference in how the transactions are processed and the protections offered to consumers when they use them." While...

Just sent my last electronic payment for my last credit card.

CHICAGO (MarketWatch) -- Credit-card debt has been falling for 16 straight months but consumers aren't paying off their financial obligations as much you might think. Instead, they're walking away from the debt, forcing credit-card issuers to write off as much as 90% of that reported drop, according to a new report by CardHub.com. U.S. banks charged off a record $83.3 billion in credit-card losses last year. That makes up the bulk of the $93.2 billion drop in outstanding credit-card debt that was reported by the Federal Reserve for 2009.