Whilst payment by smart phone is thought by many people to still be an emerging technology, the software is so developed that most bank account holders will be able to pay by phone within a year. According to the UK payments council, payment by credit and debit card is set to decline over the next [...]
With the Christmas and New Year festivities finally behind us and most of us already facing the reality of commuting to work in the depths of dull and grey January, are you one of the disciplined few that kept within their Christmas budget, or are you dreading the arrival of your credit card bill this [...]
Signature-authorised card purchases were phased out in 2006 in favour of ‘chip and PIN’ technology. Chip and PIN was brought in to deter criminals from gaining access to consumers’ cash and making unauthorised purchases. However, this system is far from foolproof, and with an 11% rise in ‘chip and PIN’ fraud seen in 2011, some [...]
Nobody wants to pay more for anything than they really need to, especially during such dour economic times. And we all love a deal that appears to give us ‘something for nothing’. So the attraction of interest-free credit cards is obvious – transfer an existing debt onto a clean, fresh, ‘zero percent on balance transfers‘ [...]
For anyone less than au-fait with the term ‘contactless purchasing’, it’s a new way of buying by credit or debit card whereby instead of keying in your 4-digit PIN on your card, the user simply passes the card over a scanner when purchasing goods up to the value of £20 (£15 prior to 1st June). [...]
The number of officially unemployed UK citizens currently stands in excess of 2½ million, and when you include the number of families and pensioners living on very low incomes the percentage of people living on or below the poverty line has risen significantly since the recession first bit back in 2008. Parenting on state benefits [...]
Nothing gets the public’s goat more than disingenuous promises by our political leaders – something we have unfortunately almost become inured to over the past few decades. However the public are rightly disgruntled and not a little angry at the latest outrageous credit card spend by Government officials, including stays at luxury hotels both overseas [...]
A decade or so ago it would have been unthinkable for the consumer to place a large purchase, such as a car, on a credit card. Credit cards were accused of leading users into ever-increasing circles of debt with quickly escalating interest rates. Sensible consumers were conditioned to trundle off to the High Street banks [...]
Following repeated rumblings that it would take action in the past few months, the EU Competition Commission has formally warned VISA Europe that it may be in contravention of EU anti-trust regulations over its merchant fees for international credit card payments. (read more in the EU CC’s press release on the Official websites of the [...]
In these difficult economic times, most people are looking for ways to save money and make their weekly and monthly budgets stretch further. And according to recent research by American Express credit cards, one way they are choosing to do this is by using credit cards that offer rewards. The survey of UK consumers revealed [...]
Since the first days of online shopping and banking, identity theft and online credit card fraud have been a problem. Unfortunately, whilst the authorities, card issuers and the ecommerce industry work tirelessly to prevent online fraud, the fraudsters themselves are equally industrious in their illegal search for your online details. According to the 2012 Fraud [...]
Following enforcement action by the Office of Fair Trading (OFT), 12 airlines have agreed to include debit card surcharges in their headline prices, rather than adding them as a ‘hidden fee’ at the end of the booking process. The OFT’s investigation has also encouraged the airlines, which include EasyJet and Ryanair, to make surcharges for [...]
The police and credit card companies are warning cardholders to be vigilant against a sophisticated new credit card scam. Since it was first spotted in 2011, it is estimated to have netted £1.5m for criminals, with more than £750,000 of that being stolen during the first four months of 2012. Though the scam is similar [...]
According to the latest figures from the Bank of England, borrowing on credit cards contracted sharply in April. In fact, it was the largest contraction since August 2006, suggesting that consumer confidence remains in the doldrums amidst fears over job security and the overall health of the economy. The Bank of England’s ‘Statistical Release’ at [...]
If you’re looking for a way to get better value out of your credit cards then cards that offer reward points whenever they’re used may be exactly what you’re looking for. Barclaycard have recently scrapped their Barclaycard Freedom reward scheme (leaving you with just under two months to redeem any ‘reward money’ you may have [...]
Despite the onset of a ‘double-dip’ recession and promises that we haven’t even started to feel the worst of the government’s austerity plans, people are still using their credit cards to pay for everything from the weekly shopping, filling up the car and even booking a last-minute holiday. But credit card users beware – there’s [...]
A report in a national newspaper has suggested that British holidaymakers are wasting more than £500million a year of their hard-earned holiday money on credit card fees. The holiday season is almost upon us and a great Pound/Euro exchange rate is making a last-minute flight to Spain seem very tempting. But The Mirror has suggested [...]
ISA’s have been with us for a while now, but it seems that people still don’t quite understand how to make the most of their investment or their money. Savers could be missing out on a colossal £242million a year of tax-free interest, purely because they leave cash that could be converted over into an [...]
It’s official. We’re apparently in a ‘double-dip’ recession and even though it’s being reported as only a ‘technical’ recession as opposed to a ‘real’ one, is now really the time to be thinking about taking out a loan? And wouldn’t a better idea be to put those essential purchases onto a 0% on purchases credit [...]
Dozens of websites offering the personal details of credit card holders for sale to the highest bidder have been shut down in an international Police operation. The UK’s Serious Organised Crime Agency (SOCA) has reported that raids in countries as far away as Australia and the USA, as well as across the UK and Europe [...]
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