News and Advice
If you're taking a foreign trip, a credit card can be the best and safest way to pay for travel costs. Even so, it pays to take precautions when traveling with plastic, especially when leaving the country. These 10 tips will help smooth the way.
The first tip is so obvious we won't even count it among the 10: For overseas travel, vacationers will want to choose a credit card that is widely accepted. Guidebooks for the region you plan to visit often say which credit card to bring along. In general, a credit card from American Express, Visa and MasterCard is a safe bet.
The next time you're at a restaurant, instead of handing over your credit card to pay the tab, a waiter could bring a handheld pay-at-the-table device. Swipe your own credit card, add a tip and total out the bill right at the table, so your card never leaves your sight.
As far back as the late 1800s, consumers and merchants exchanged goods through the concept of credit, using credit coins and charge plates as currency. It wasn't until about half a century ago that plastic payments as we know them today became a way of life.
In the early 1900s, oil companies and department stories issued their own proprietary cards, according to Stan Sienkiewicz, in a paper for the Philadelphia Federal Reserve entitled "Credit Cards and Payment Efficiency." Such cards were accepted only at the business that issued the card and in limited locations. While modern credit cards are mainly used for convenience, these predecessor cards were developed as a means of creating customer loyalty and improving customer service, Sienkiewicz says.
For perhaps as many as 27 million American adults, keeping warm this winter will mean borrowing money, and 20 million will use credit cards to be able to pay rising utility bills, according to a CreditCards.com poll.
Conserving and cutting back
Winter outlook
Help paying the bills
Avoid expensive borrowing options
Americans' longstanding addiction to gasoline will continue well into 2008, despite rising fuel costs, and may contribute to a slowdown in the overall economy, a new CreditCards.com poll suggests.
Two out of three Americans say they'll cut back on spending for other things as a result of higher energy costs in 2008, with nearly a quarter saying they'll cut back significantly on other spending. If they follow through, it will not bode well for the economy in 2008, say oil industry analysts and economists. Rising gas prices, the housing slump, the sagging dollar, the employment outlook and the stock market all may converge during the year, boosting the odds of a recession, they say.
Energy prices and recession
Driven to pay
2008 projections
More than $100 a barrel for oil?
Driving habits
Relative price still low
Not painful enough?
Finding alternatives
Powerful tool to fight ID theft available nationally, but litttle understood
The survey question, data
Most admit lack of awareness
Haven't warmed up to credit freezes
Lack of education cited for results
Education, easy access may be the answer
Lawmakers step in
Awareness trumps all
One credit card tells its story near the end of its 3-year life
I earned my (magnetic) stripe
I'm one in a billion
Affection turns to ice
Despite many recent security breaches that have exposed millions of credit cardholders to potential fraud and identity theft, online shopping continues to prosper, especially during the holidays. Financial fraud experts are now warning consumers about where some of the greatest dangers lurk: small, commercial Web sites.
In certain instances, fraudsters are able to gain real-time access to these small Web sites' transaction information, enabling them to steal valid credit card information in an instant and hastily ring up numerous fraudulent charges.
Identity thieves may have fewer potential victims at smaller sites, but they are often able to operate with greater ease due to defects in the software the sites use for online order processing, or due to a dependence on outsourced or outdated Web site security. Fraud prevention professionals note that many smaller Web sites rely on generic shopping card software that they neglect to update with the latest software security patches.
Software can help
Card theft triggers bigger woes
The long string of numbers, the magnetic stripe, the signature strip and the hologram all play roles in making credit transactions work.
When you arrive at a retail store register with an armful of items, the clerk will probably ask if you'd like to save 10 percent and receive perks by simply signing up for their store credit card. This may sound too good to be true ... and often it is.
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