Hacked Republican Website Skimmed Donor Credit Cards for 6 Months
A website used to fund the campaigns of Republican senators was infected with malware that for more than six months collected donors' personal information, including full names, addresses, and credit card data. The storefront for the National Republican Senatorial Committee was one of about 5,900 e-commerce platforms recently found to be compromised by malicious skimming software. The NSRC site may have been infected from March 16 to October 5 by malware that sent donors' credit card data to attacker-controlled domains. [Ars Technica]
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AmEx Takes Aim at Visa and Mastercard in Battle for Mom-and-Pops
With rivals such as Chase and its Sapphire Reserve card angling for a piece of its luxurious patch, American Express has found itself on the defensive. Now, the granddaddy of charge cards is fighting back. The first order of business has been persuading more of America's 27.9 million small businesses to accept it as payment, eventually achieving parity with Visa and Mastercard, a goal the company says it will reach by 2019. [Bloomberg]
Banks are Giving Away Credit Cards Like it's 2008
Bank of America Merrill Lynch just reported strong third-quarter earnings, and buried in the earnings release was this factoid: New US consumer credit card issuance hit the highest level since 2008. The bank issued 1.3 million credit cards during the three-month period, with total credit card loans for the period averaging $88.2 billion in the US and a further $9.7 billion outside the US. There was a similar story at Citigroup, where credit card loans hit $147.8 billion, up 13% from a year ago. And at JPMorgan, a whopping 2.7 million new accounts were opened during the third quarter, sending JPMorgan's credit card balance to $133.4 billion, up 5% from a year ago. [Business Insider]
Keep Swiping: Credit Cards Still Growing in Popularity
The plain old credit card may be winning the payments war, at least for now, a new survey finds. Credit cards were the only form of consumer payments used to pay in person that are becoming more commonly used, versus cash, debit cards, and-surprisingly-mobile phones. The percentage of people using cards weekly jumped from 50% in a survey last year to 53% this year. That contrasts to a flat 19% usage rate for mobile devices, and slight drop from 59% to 58% for debit cards. Cash was the big loser, dropping from 67% to 60%. [The Wall Street Journal]
Store-Branded Credit Cards Charge All-Time High Interest Rates
At some point, many consumers have likely been tempted to sign up for a store credit card at their favorite retailer. But before you open that Best Buy or Zales credit card, first read the fine print: Many store-branded credit cards are charging record-high interest rates. A report finds that store cards charge an average of 23.84% interest, exceeding the national average credit card interest rate of 15.22%. Big Lots led the list of major retailers named in the report, with interest rates at a whopping 29.99%, followed by Zales (29.24%) and Staples (28.24%). [Money]
Credit Card Rewards War Crimps Bank Profits
A rewards war that's helped U.S. credit card customers amass points for perks or cash proved costly in the latest quarter for some of the nation's biggest banks. That may signal fresh pain at American Express. Issuers have sweetened rewards, cut fees and sought to improve services to lure customers, making it tougher to grow profits. In the past week, three of the biggest lenders--Citigroup, JPMorgan Chase and Bank of America—said combined income from card operations dropped 15% to $3.1 billion in the third quarter from a year earlier. At the same time, expenses in their consumer-bank units rose 1% to $15.3 billion. [Bloomberg]
Number of Unbanked Households Still Falling
The number of unbanked households fell to 7% in 2015, down from 7.7% in 2013 and 8.2% in 2011. According to a survey from the FDIC, improving economic conditions are not solely responsible for the drop, as the rate of unbanked households fell further than expected based on economic factors alone. The decrease affected a broad range of demographic groups. Unbanked rates for African American households dropped from 20.6% to 18.2%, and the rate for Hispanic households fell from 17.9% to 16.2%. [LowCards.com]
How Credit Cards Can Guard You Against 'Samsung Galaxy'-Like Fiascoes
Samsung recently halted the production and sales of their Galaxy Note 7 phones due to safety concerns. Over the course of the last two months, news has spread of defective phones exploding - sometimes while in the pocket of a customer or on a plane. Samsung has issued recalls and provided replacement phones to anyone experiencing problems. However, historically not all merchants or vendors have been as forthcoming with refunds for defective devices. Consumers can guard themselves through a seldom talked-about perk on credit cards: purchase protection. [Huffington Post]
Marriott, Starwood Extend Rewards Flexibility to Loyalty Credit Cards
In the latest move since their merger, Marriott International and Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide are further connecting their loyalty programs. From Oct. 18, those who pay with a Starwood Preferred Guest by American Express card will be able to accrue points at Marriott Rewards hotels, while Chase Marriott Rewards and Ritz-Carlton Rewards Chase cardholders will be able to do likewise at SPG participating properties. [Luxury Daily]
Why Apple Pay Is Way More Secure Than a Credit Card
The simple advice you learned when you first began online shopping--don't enter your credit card information on a site that doesn't begin with "https"--isn't enough anymore. Turns out, "https" only sends your payment info securely across the Internet. It doesn't mean the party you're sending it to is trustworthy, or secure. Luckily, it's getting a lot safer to buy something over the web, thanks to new online payment systems that are more secure than using a credit card. Unlike regular online transactions, payments made through Apple Pay, Samsung Pay, or Android Pay don't use your real credit card number, so vendors never get access to it. These services make use of a technology called payment tokenization, which converts your credit card number into a cryptogram that's worthless to hackers. [Barron's]
LowCards.com Weekly Credit Card Rate Report
Based on the 1,000+ cards in the LowCards.com Complete Credit Card Index, the average advertised APR for credit cards is 14.60%, slightly lower than last week's average of 14.61%. Six months ago, the average was 14.76%. One year ago, the average was 14.56%. [LowCards.com]
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