Credit Cards and the Consumer: Don't Throw Baby Out With the Water

Most of the practices deemed unfair or deceptive by the Federal Reserve have disappeared from new credit card offers since federal passage of the Credit CARD Act last year, according to a new report by the Pew Charitable Trusts, Two Steps Forward: After the Credit CARD Act, Cards Are Safer and More Transparent – But Challenges Remain.

In 2012, nearly 12 million consumers loaded more than $64 million onto prepaid debit cards. With so many people turning to these cards, more companies are getting into the prepaid debit business.

Welcome to our new Payments Insider newsletter, a morning email with the top news and analysis on the digital payments industry, produced by BI Intelligence.  Click here to sign up for Payments Insider today, and receive it every morning in your inbox.

Welcome to our new Payments Insider newsletter, a morning email with the top news and analysis on the digital payments industry, produced by BI Intelligence. 

This Sunday marks the first day that consumers could start paying an extra fee just for using their credit card to make purchases. But don't panic: It's unlikely to kick in right away, especially at the biggest retailers.

Sometimes all credit cards can seem alike — or, at least, not different enough to spend a lot of time trying to figure out their differences. We sympathize with the sentiment, which is why we periodically try to cut through the clutter and, based on insight from impartial experts, highlight some of the best cards out there. Depending on your needs and spending habits, some cards are indeed sometimes better than others.

Credit card payment volume growth was lukewarm in the U.S. during the fourth quarter of 2013. 

There seems to be a debate at the European Central Bank (ECB). The issue is whether or not the ECB should impose a negative interest rate. I listened to the interview of Christian Noyer, Governor of the Banque de France. His personal inclination is to oppose the use of a negative interest rate as a policy mechanism. He cited other cases to support his view.