Your Credit Cards Guide

PayPals move into physical retail territory has received plenty of media attention, and for good reason. It is not every day that Visa and MasterCard are challenged in such a direct fashion in their own back yard. And the credit card networks should better take PayPals challenge more seriously this time around than they did a decade ago, when their arrogant oversight allowed eBays payment processor to grow to a huge size in the person-to-person and online payment processing segments of the market right underneath their noses.

The story is nuanced, as even if PayPal does manage to grab any meaningful chunk of the physical point-of-sale (POS) market, about half of its transactions will still be processed on bank cards (the majority of them bearing Visas or MasterCards logo).

Read more…

Verdict: The SAFE Platinum card has many benefits to members of the credit union. The card offers a generous credit limit up to $20,000 and is free to carry. The rewards version also offers points for every $1 spent, so frequent shoppers can earn rewards that never expire. This card does offer a 1.90% intro APR for six months, which may be put to good use for financing a large purchase. Unfortunately, both versions of this credit card have a rather high APR that is up to 17.90%. There is also a penalty APR of 23.90%, which is much higher than average. Despite not having an annual fee, this card should be avoided by anyone who carries a balance.

Overview: The SAFE Credit Union extends membership to anyone living or working in many California counties such as Sacramento and El Dorado. Along with other financial services, the credit union offers two personal Platinum Visa cards to members.

Read more…

Have you ever been unfairly sued by Chase Financial Services for your unpaid balance? You might have a stronger case for dismissing the lawsuit than you think. This past Tuesday, American Banker reported that JPMorgan Chase and Co. just happened to quietly, unobtrusively and completely stop issuing new credit card lawsuits. While that doesn’t seem like much help to anyone who is currently fighting Chase in court, the implications of the decision are interesting.

Why would Chase suddenly dismiss all of their in-house lawyers, who, just months ago, were earning the banking giant hundreds of millions of dollars in delinquency judgments and then pawning them off to third-party collectors? Well, there could be a couple of reasons.

It could have something to do with the fact that state courts around the country are dismissing many of Chase’s claims due to sloppy or fraudulent paperwork.

It could also be related to the robo-signing scandal currently plaguing JPMorgan’s mortgage division. You k

Read more…

167th TFR Credit Union in Martinsburg, WV delivers on their mission to help members save money. Currently, they have a 1-year CD rate at 1.00% APY to help move your funds toward steady growth.

1-Year CD Rate Terms and Conditions

To open a CD account at this 1-year CD rate, members are required to supply a minimum opening deposit of $500. Withdrawing before the end of the term may result in penalties against earnings. The NCUA insures all CD accounts, regardless of term duration, for up to $250,000.

About 167th TFR Credit Union

167th TFR Credit Union supports the their members’ financial freedom. T

Read more…

Bob McDonnell the Virginia governor has stated his desire to find out who amongst the students in his state have the best skills when it comes to personal finance.

In a recent statement released to reporters, McDonnell announced the launch of the Governors Challenge in Economics and Personal Finance that will run for an entire semester to help encourage financial understanding in high schools across the state. Groups of four students can qualify for the quiz bowl type competition in Richmond, if they manage to score the highest in the online test that runs from March 7th to April 4th.

The challenge set by the governor will see the teams tested on their aptitude to fully comprehend and make clear the crucial elements of personal finance, for example how to evaluate credit card deals, how to find the right product to help them invest for their retirement and how to handle daily cash flow.

Read more…

About the only thing nice we can say about the latest Israeli-Palestine conflict is, well, at least they’re not actually shooting at each other.  Instead they’re trying to ruin each other’s credit ratings and deface each other’s Facebook walls.  Yes, it’s war, but war as teenaged geeks fight it.

Recently, we told you about oxOmar, a hacker from the United Arab Emirates working and studying in Mexico who managed to breach two Israeli coupon sites and released about 14,000 account numbers.  The Israeli government responded by saying that they were treating the attack as terrorism, and that they’d hunt down oxOmar.  Meanwhile, in retaliation, a group of Israeli hackers stole and released 400 credit card numbers from Saudi Arabian citizens.

This being the Middle East, everybody sat down like a mature responsible adult and talked it out, while law enforcement on both sides calmly agreed to go after the criminals involved.  Just kidding!  Instead, it’s gotten conflated with the wider political conflict, as hacking attacks have spread and grown men who should know better start getting involved and yelling at each other at length.

Fortunately, those with credit card numbers released are largely safe; the credit card companies involved acted quickly and with foresight, looking at the numbers and informing the account holders, and then taking action.  The problem is really less with the numbers being released and more with the fact that this cyber slapfight is escalating, with more and more hackers from both sides jumping in to find and release the “other side’s” personal data, and politicians refusing to do their jobs.

For example, an Israeli hacker calling himself “Hannibal”, yes, after Hannibal Lecter (remember that we’re dealing with teenagers here), found and uploaded the emails and password for 20,000 Arab Facebook accounts.  In response to that, a group of Palestinian hackers temporarily took down the websites of El Al and the Israeli stock exchange with the encouragement of Hamas, which governs the Gaza Strip.  This is basically the equivalent of your mayor urging on the local hoods as they smash windows and tear down posters over at the rival high school.

So far, the breaches have been unpleasant, but with few far-reaching real world consequences: mostly it’s been a huge inconvenience to those just trying to live their lives.  But as more people get involved, and more fly off the handle, the risk increases that something dangerous could happen.  For example, some hackers have claimed they’ve breached manufacturing computers tied to parts of the Israeli government.  So these at

Read more…