Credit Card Now

If you don’t already accept credit cards for business you do online, you’re in a small minority, and it’s time to change! While it’s true that not all online business involves credit cards, the vast majority of consumers are no longer willing to incur the trouble and expense of sending checks and money orders. By all means, keep these payment options — but if you want to succeed, you really must start accepting credit cards.

Why accept credit cards for business?

We live in a world of instant gratifications, and people don’t like to wait around. Think of the increased turnaround time involved in using non-instant methods of payment. For example, if your customer pays with a check, you have to wait for the check to reach you, then wait for it to clear. You’ve added at least a week and more likely three or four to the time before you can ship your customer’s goods.

With a credit card, everything is instantaneous.

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Tags: Accept Credit, Accept Credit Cards, Credit Cards, Online

The Federal Reserve announced a few more changes to the Credit CARD Act that will be effective August 22, 2010. Many of the changes included in this final rule represent a reaction to some of the practices that credit card issuers have recently adopted.

The new rule:

• Prohibits credit card issuers from charging a penalty fee of more than $25 for paying late or otherwise violating the account’s terms unless the consumer has engaged in repeated violations or the issuer can show that a higher fee represents a reasonable proportion of the costs its incurs as a result of violations.
• Prohibits credit card issuers from charging penalty fees that exceed the dollar amount associated with the consumer’s violation. For example, card issuers will no longer be permitted to charge a $39 fee when a consumer is late making a $20 minimum payment. Ins

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Tags: Credit, Credit Cards

It amazes me that a lot of people haven’t heard of the CARD Act yet. Perhaps I’m just biased because I spend a lot of time reading financial sites, but it seems like the CARD Act is one of those laws that’s received an extensive amount of media hype since it was passed last year. How could anyone completely miss it?

I do happen to come across a friend or relative who knows what the CARD Act is from time to time, and when I do I like to ask them what change they think will matter the most to their wallets. Surprisingly, the general response is the same in almost every case—”no more interest rate increases on existing balances.”

Well, that would be a very nice change indeed, but it’s certainly not part of the CARD Act. The truth is credit issuers can still raise interest rates on existing balances in a variety of different situations without giving any advance notice. Four, to be e

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Tags: Card, Card Issuers

On Monday, Apple CEO Steve Jobs made a much-anticipated presentation at the Worldwide Developers Conference in San Francisco: He announced the birth of the iPhone 4, which will become available to consumers June 24, according to CNET.

The original iPhone was released in 2007, but the new fourth generation puts that model to shame. It’ll be be 24 percent thinner, have a longer battery life and have a camera lens on the front to enable video conferencing. The 5 megapixel camera will also be able to shoot HD video, which can be edited directly on the phone. You’ll also be able to run more than one application at a time. According to Jobs at the conference, this version is the “biggest leap since the original iPhone.”

Why am I telling you this? I want one. Bad. I’m not a total tech geek, but I love my Kindle, iPhone, iPod and MacBook.

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Tags: Iphone, Iphone Edition

It used to be a snap, finding the best credit card rewards. For a while, credit cards were fighting amongst themselves to attract business, and virtually every card had some sort of gimmick. In those golden days, finding the best credit card rewards usually meant picking the type of reward you wanted among many good cards.

But with the economy in turmoil and new credit laws emerging, it’s not as easy to find those rewards any longer.

What’s changed?

In a word, money is to blame. Credit card companies are working under three major financial blows right now:

1. A struggling economy, which impacts them as much as anyone else

2. A struggling economy, which means people aren’t spending as much on credit cards (and subsequently, aren’t paying as much in interest) while more frequently defaulting on loans

3.

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Tags: Card Rewards, Credit Card, Credit Card Rewards, Rewards