As the elements of the recession continue to wane, more Americans still feel uneasy about chronic credit card use – and it shows in the ever-decreased amount of total credit card debt that they hold.
In June of 2008, the total amount of credit card debt stood at approximately one trillion dollars. As of this month, the total amount of debt is reported to be approximately 860 billion dollars. This reduction in debt has been caused by several factors: a reluctance of Americans to borrow...
The world of 3D printing appears ready to deliver unto us yet another worrisome development.
Recently discovered on several ATMs in Sydney, Australia were credit card skimmers produced using 3D printers. The concept of 3D printing in recent years has gained steam as costs have plummeted and flexibility when it comes to what can be created has expanded. Make no mistake, however: these credit card skimmers were anything but simple pieces of plastic.
Perhaps the first skimmers of its kind to...
The traditional credit card may soon be on its way out, if one Pennsylvania manufacturing firm has its way.
Introduced recently, the Dynamics ePlate credit card is an intuitive solution to an age-old problem: that magnetic strip on the back of your credit card. Comprised of paint, traditional credit card magnetic strips are static in that they cannot be altered, changed or even colored differently.
Dynamics Incorporated has found a way around this.
Inside this new credit card, the...
It looks like taxi passengers will have to wait at least another month in order to be assured that credit cards will be accepted in all taxi cabs throughout the District of Columbia.
A long-term project has been under development – one that was greeted with overwhelming public support – to implement credit card readers in every single D.C. taxi cab.
The deadline for implementation was originally scheduled for August 31, but those who have demonstrated effort and have begun the process...
It seems that on a monthly basis now, a new (and often the largest) multi-national credit card ring is brought to its knees. This week, however, the latest one to be discovered blows the others out of the water.
For more than a decade, a credit card ring that used progressively technological tactics to acquire data, found its way into some of the biggest businesses and payment processors in the world.
The end result was a credit card ring that managed to steal more than 160 million...
In a fairly unprovoked and rather unexpected statement, a senior executive for PayPal announced last week that their forecast shows that the use of traditional, plastic credit cards will likely be dead throughout most of the world within the next five years.
As outlined by Global Vice President Hill Ferguson, the adoption of smartphones by hundreds of millions of people in recent years has provided additional outlets for consumers to access their lines of credit without the need for a...
This Monday, two different credit card reports were released that both show strong signs that a recovering US economy continues to gain momentum.
Despite how some individuals may feel about the economic situation, credit card debt saw its biggest increase in June in more than one year, which suggests that more and more people have now begun borrowing once again. While this trend would not be a good sign on its own, other available data from a second report outlines the positive news in this...
One of the biggest industry investment research firms, Morningstar, has come forward to announce that thousands of its customers' personal records – including credit cards – were hijacked during an intrusion that occurred three months ago.
The incident is documented as occurring on April 3, with the would-be hackers accessing the Morningstar Document Research System. It was in here that more than 2,000 different profiles – which included credit card information, email addresses,...
Many college students are quite familiar with the concept of debt: by the time many have obtained their degrees, tens of thousands of dollars of student loan debt has accrued. These “mini-mortgages” can restrict the financial freedom of young people and limit their ability to enjoy those formative years of adulthood.
Millions of students feel overwhelmed as a result of this and make the decision to acquire additional lines of credit to stay afloat. If you are a recent college graduate...
Much buzz has been generated by a new report that outlines just how easy and affordable it is to acquire someone else's credit card information and personal details. The report – released by McAfee – details various ways that this information can be obtained and the average costs for each piece of information.
Would-be criminals in the market for a stolen credit card can find one for approximately $25, while a credit card with the PIN number included will run you around $100. If you are...
Reaching your golden years should be a time for enjoying the smart financial decisions you've made over the past few decades. Spending more time with family and friends while living within your means is crucial for ensuring a long a happy retirement. Usually, most people begin paying down their credit card debts as they reach retirement so that the burden of former expenses does not eat away at their savings. Still, having a credit card is almost necessary in these times, so we have considered...
Continue readingNearly a dozen people have been brought into custody over a huge credit card hacking ring that was discovered in three different countries. The individuals in question were found to be operating out of the United States, the United Kingdom and Vietnam, according to federal authorities. It has been reported that the credit card hacking ring was responsible for defrauding more than $200 million from tens of thousands of credit card holders, which has brought a new round of focus on the amount of...
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