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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...