Credit Cards Online Information

PERUSING THE pages of amazon.co.uk for something to read (what else are you to do when eating lunch al desko?), I came across a book called Behind with the Mortgage and Living off Plastic (subtitled 'Charge up your life, not your credit card') by Lynette Allen.

Now, that sounds like the kind of information I need, so although it isn't published until 13 October, I used my powerful position as hack for hire to get an early copy " for your benefit, you understand, as much as mine.

It's a chunky little tome with plenty of pink on the cover (why do publishers think all women flock to fuchsia?) and the author pictured in a ballgown surrounded by glossy carrier-bags. Not a scenario I've ever found myself in, but I get the message, which is not so subliminally screaming: 'You are a spendaholic!' With a sky- high stack of credit-card statements and impending urgent winter- coats-for-children crisis, I think I should investigate.

Using Lynette's advice to close my eyes, picture what I'm worried about, then flick the pages randomly " the 'logic' being that it will fall open just where I need it most " I alight on a section titled Divine Intervention.

Paraphrasing wildly, what follows is the story of Julia, up to her ears in debt and in crisis. Out of the blue, a friend calls and asks her how much money she would need to clear her debts. A great deal, Julia admits. The friend, it turns out, has been left a fortune, and will be only too happy to oblige. Julia, you see, needed an angel to give her a sign and, wings flapping, the angel appeared down a BT line.

If you are gagging on your Earl Grey at this heartwarming anecdote, you're like me. It's the kind of empowerment crap that fills acres of space in bookshops (which is why I was online rather than in Borders, where new age is the new everything).

But everyone deserves a fair chance, so I dived back in. In fact, little in the book is about finances, but there is a handy quiz for women to work out what kind of spender they are. Here's a sample: 'You've had the day from hell. You're leaving the office, hungry and cold, when you realise there's no food in the house. You nip into the nearest supermarket with the intention of buying dinner, but mysteriously find yourself in the clothes section, choosing a new pair of shoes to make yourself feel better " after all, you deserve it! a) Yes, I would do that; b) I have been known to do that occasionally; c) No, I wouldn't do that.'

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Less than 50% of all European fleets provide their drivers with fuel cards, instead opting for the pay-and-reclaim method, according to research by Datamonitor last year. But at a time when fuel prices are rising and there are rumblings about the EC blocking VAT reclaims on business mileage unless companies have a purchasing system in place, there has, arguably, never been a better time to adopt fuel cards. So why is take-up so low?

"Initially it's not the easy option," says Richard Owen-Hughes, group marketing director at independent fuel supplier Bayford. "The easy option is perceived to be handing over a wad of cash or a credit card to a driver and saying 'fill up as you need it'. That feels like the easy option but it's not. In the background you're opening yourself up to all sorts of issues."

One issue is the administrative burden involved. Companies that issue drivers with corporate credit cards have to sift through numerous statements sorting fuel usage from other expenses, as well as working out an appropriate level for mileage reimbursement. Fuel cards eliminate this task.

"Companies can achieve immediate benefits through the streamlining of invoicing and administrative processes," says Steve Riggens, marketing manager, BP European Fleet Services. "Consolidated monthly fuel card bills show exactly what a fleet has spent, simplifying fuel payment while providing transactional breakdown that can be monitored by the fleet manager."

Simply eliminating the paperwork makes a fleet manager's life easier. "We can give you an electronic format bill to upload into your account system, which means you avoid all the expense forms and VAT reclaims," says Luke Hodgson, retail cards manager, Total. Instead you get one invoice once a month, for example, saving stress, time and, ultimately, money.

Another issue tackled by fuel cards is the concern that some employees will take advantage of the fuel perk.

"If you give a bunch of cash or a company credit card to a guy, he can claim for the fuel when he might well have been driving his wife's car." points out John Brooke-Langham, head of product development at fuel management specialist CH Jones. "No one is any the wiser."

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It's a common ritual in a country with more than 500 million credit cards floating around. Customers and clerks swipe these pieces of plastic with magnetic stripes through readers that verify encoded information. With a little luck, the transaction is approved in seconds.

But the banking and credit- card industries are beginning to cut the last cord: They'll no longer require any physical contact with those swipers. In what could turn into a worldwide wireless revolution in payment methods, companies are rolling out credit cards with embedded radio frequency chips.

Customers simply hold up the cards - complete with their own minuscule antennae - and they're wirelessly linked to a new reader. There's nothing to sign either.

The idea is that transactions are faster and easier than with conventional credit cards, moving lines more rapidly and potentially changing the way we spend money. Variations on the same technology used by EZ Pass and ExxonMobil are hitting the banking world, allowing credit to compete even more with cash for convenience.

American Express already has rolled out a new Blue card with embedded chips and Chase over the past year has issued more than 1 million in Georgia and Colorado equipped with the technology that it calls blink. Expect the rest of the nation to follow.

In addition to such contact less cash transactions, these new cards also are equipped with a traditional magnetic stripe for a swiper. And that's something that's catching on at many nationwide chains.

At places like 7/11 and CVS and Walgreens, in many locations it's now as easy for card members as holding the card up to the reader and blinking their transaction, said Tom O'Donnell, a senior vice president at Chase. They take their goods and get their receipt, and they're on their way.

Analysts see these microchips in credit cards as a change that could affect millions and even billions of transactions.

It's a new payment form, a wireless payment, said Erik Michielsen, an analyst at ABI Research, in Oyster Bay. It increases merchant operation efficiency, raises average bills. Consumers have an easier, more fluid experience, which increases customer satisfaction. And it drives loyalty.

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Passwords are the most critical safeguard for your online identity, but you end up juggling dozens or compromising your security by using the same string for everything from your favorite news outlet to your online banking site. Or worse, faced with the fear of forgetting a critical password, you end posting the keys to your online well-being all over your monitor on sticky notes—not a secure password management strategy.

Let Password Profiler strip the little stickies off. Our latest PC Magazine premium utility will manage your passwords efficiently, easily, and securely, safely storing your log-ons, passwords, pin numbers, and other sensitive information in an encrypted file, and even letting you access and log on to your favorite Web sites with a single click. The utility can even fill in Web forms with any data you choose, including address and credit card information, if you desire.

Installing the Utility and Setting Your Master Key

Once you've downloaded Password Profiler from the PC Magazine Utility Library to a folder on your Windows 2000 or XP machine, unzip the file PasswordProSetup.zip and double-click on PasswordProfilerSetup.exe.

When you first launch Password Profiler, it will prompt you to create your Master Key—the password that, from this point on, will allow you access to the entire utility and all the information stored within it, including other passwords. Don't lose your Master Key! Without it, you cannot access information in the utility.

Note that we did not build in a method for you to regain your Master Key should you forget it, because such a capability would create a security hole an interloper could exploit. We strongly recommend that, when creating your Master Key, you use the helpful Hint option to enter a word or phrase to jog your memory should you forget your Master Key.

When setting up the utility, security junkies can pick which Crypto Service Provider and Encryption algorithm to use. Password Profiler lets you chose from the native cryptographic service libraries built into Windows (which you can read about in Microsoft's MSDN Library). For most users, though, staying with the utility's default selections is the best course.

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In the past few months, both Wal-Mart and J.C. Penney have begun to enhance their customer relationships by partnering with GE Capital to provide private label credit cards to their customers. In addition to making shopping more convenient for their customers, the private label credit card programs also deliver demographic information the retailers can use to enhance their marketing programs.

"At Wal-Mart, customer service is a priority," said Elise Garner, a company spokeswoman. Wal-Mart credit cards are "a great convenience," she explained. "Customers can shop and not have to worry about having enough cash for a purchase."

There is no annual fee for the Wal-Mart card, no expiration date and no finance charge if full payment is made each month. The interest rate on the card is "competitive with other credit card companies," said Garner.

Garner said Wal-Mart is in the process of expanding the number of outlets where consumers can use the card to include leased businesses that operate inside or adjacent to a Wal-Mart, such as Baskin Robbins, the in-store hair care salons and Murphy Oil-a gas station service that Wal-Mart offers at many of its super-center locations.

Garner noted that Wal-Mart has begun to direct market to its credit card customers by including special promotional offers and announcements in their monthly bill statements. The service alerts Wal-Mart's card-holding members to upcoming sales and offers that are not available to non-card holders.

Last December, J.C. Penney announced that GE Capital would re-launch the J.C. Penney credit card, with enhanced customer benefits and more favorable repayment terms. GE Capital also is providing new marketing programs and support for J.C. Penney customers shopping online.

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Credit cards account for 90 percent of online payments. CheckSpace Inc. and Achex Inc. are taking aim at the other 10 percent with new tools that make it easier for consumers to pay online without using a credit card.

Some 100 million consumers don't have access to a credit card, according to a recent Nilson Report. And a good number of those who do have credit cards are leery of using them online.

CheckSpace, which allows vendors and consumers to post electronic checks for online payment, will announce next month wireless pay-by-check services and a paper check service for vendors. Also in January, the company will announce a payment reminder service.

The Bellevue, Wash., company transfers cash from a consumer's bank account through the National Automated Clearing House network, or ACH, into a merchant or other account. ACH is run by the federal government and is used by financial institutions and others to transfer funds.

Separately, Seattle-based Achex, which uses the ACH network in the same way, announced last week that BlueLight.com, the online retailer backed by Kmart Corp., had made the Achex service available on its site. Achex's payment method stores consumer financial information on its servers and does not send it over the Web to merchants.

Part of Kmart's overall strategy with its middle- to lower-income customers is to make the Internet more accessible, said Janet Ball, director of advertising for BlueLight.com.

"A lot of our customers don't have credit cards, and for some, they just don't want to put their credit cards on the Web," Ball said. "There is a lot of concern about security."

In the same vein, Kmart, of Troy, Mich., last week took over the operations of Spinway.com, which had provided free Internet access to BlueLight.com customers but shut down because of revenue shortfalls. Kmart will operate Spinway as an independent unit at least through the holiday season.

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New credit card and payment solutions are helping Latin American corporations gain a competitive edge in the marketplace, while offering significant advantages to consumers. These rapidly evolving credit, debit, travel, payment and purchasing card programs are helping Latin American companies to speed their payment flows, manage their expenses, reduce fraud, and operate more efficiently. Perhaps most importantly, these innovative card programs allow organizations to deliver valuable personal services and reward programs that build and sustain long-term customer loyalty.

From the consumer's point of view, new applications of current card programs technology, as well as the advent of' smart cards (bank cards with embedded chips), can address key issues from account management to secure authentication of personal financial transactions. The advancement of card technology, combined with well-implemented service programs,' promises to transform the nature of financial services provided to businesses and individuals throughout the region.

By llse Pizzolante, Vice President of Consumer Credit Products, Visa International, Latin America and Caribbean Region (LAC).

In the world of credit cards, there is a world of choices--from starter cards with minimum credit lines to gold cards for loyal costumers. But for the affluent consumer, a superior choice of card exists.

Visa Infinite and Visa Platinum are two cards designed for the elite business executive and traveler. Their aim: To satisfy any need, anytime, anywhere.

Accepted at more than 22 million locations, Visa Infinite and Visa Platinum offer unique services for business and personal travel, Internet purchases, customer service, shopping and value. Visa is the preferred card among elite customers for day-to-day use, Internet purchases, customer service, shopping and value.

Need a dinner reservation for the hottest Parisian restaurant at the drop of a hat? A 24-hour concierge service will oblige, and your seat is guaranteed. Have a medical emergency? The Visa insurance program will take care of you, anywhere. Tired after that 10-hour flight from Buenos Aires? Your card allows room upgrades in the world's leading hotels. Still have an eight-hour flight to go? Use the cards to access VIP waiting areas at airports and terminals.

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As you gear up for the bustling holiday season, you'll be shopping for the latest toys for the kids, unique gifts for family members and friends, the perfect dress for the office Christmas party, and, no doubt, buying tickets to travel out of town. In nearly all of these instances, you will be using a Visa, MasterCard, American Express, or Discover Card to make purchases.

After all, using your credit or charge card is actually the best option for holiday shopping in terms of security and tracing. You'll have the security of shopping safely and knowing that if your card is stolen, it can be canceled immediately. Your bank can issue you a new credit card and have it delivered the next business day. You should limit your credit card use to major purchases such as televisions, stereos, and jewelry, so that if you need to make a return without a receipt, the credit card data can be used as a tracking mechanism. Also, if the product is flawed, it can be disputed through your credit card company. With online shopping, an increasingly popular medium, your credit card is required as well. You cannot use a check, and C.O.D. is rarely offered.

When using a credit card, it's important to do so wisely and sensibly. Credit card companies are in the business of making money. It's important that you look out for your own personal interests. "We get so many calls from consumers who complain about the interest rates that credit card companies charge and from people who want to know their rights as credit card holders," says Jennifer Davis Carey, director of consumer affairs and business regulation for the state of Massachusetts.

To address these matters, Massachusetts published a consumer guide entitled 12 Credit Card Secrets Banks Don't Want You to Know to educate the public on how to select the best credit card and to help them understand the billing process of most companies.

Many companies engage in interest backdating, if you don't pay off your monthly balance in full. This practice involves charging interest from the date of purchase, although days elapse before they actually pay the merchant on your behalf. Also, credit card issuers have two-cycle billing--a means of calculating interest--which results in customers paying two months' worth of interest if they did not pay off the first month's balance in full. Two-cycle billing only occurs when consumers have changed from paying in full to carrying a balance each month.

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IXL, New York, has launched a site to support Sony's new Sony Card credit card (Visa/MasterCard), which allows customers to collect points redeemable for Sony merchandise with every purchase.

Jeffrey Dorn, senior vice president of the Sony Card business division in Park Ridge, N.J., said the card is geared toward men and women 25 to 49 who earn incomes of at least $50,000 and "have a high enthusiasm for both electronics and entertainment."

The site, located at www.sony.com/sonycard, provides information about the card, which is co-branded with Citibank, as well as an online card application and commerce area for Sony products. The site's most interesting feature may be its "story log" which uses online storytelling to tell visitors about the bonuses of the card. The story log includes a narrative appealing to a young, professional demographic, or the Ally McBeal and Friends set, said Ian Kerner, director of iXL's strategic solutions group. Despite using TV shows to describe the card's demographic, Kerner noted that the Internet is central to its marketing plan. "I think it's clear that the Sony Card is really embracing the medium."

In the current story, a man leaves his cellular phone in a taxi, and a female tourist snaps some photos of the cab's license plate. As the duo frolick through New York tracking down the phone, users can click on Sony products placed throughout the couple's travels for purchase information using the card. Items also can be redeemed with Sony points.

Jack Templin, lead strategist of iXL's strategic solutions group, said the site eventually will include a suite of tools that can guide users with Sony Cards through search and recommendation sections. "This is a card that's both a traditional credit card and also very intelligent about navigating cyberspace and c-commerce," he said.

Sony is also running a direct response campaign in traditional media created by Young & Rubicam Direct, New York. The online campaign, Dorn added, is integral to the marketing. "We hope the Internet is going to be a very, very rich and active channel for us," he said.

Links to the card site and its application will be on Sony's other sites, including those for its music, Playstation gaming system and other merchandise. "It's bringing together all of the Sony entities," Dorn said.

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Swedish-based eCredit (formerly Allfactoring AB) has unveiled a new online payment service for web-based business-to-business transactions.

Targeted mainly at companies operating in the manufacturing and distribution sectors, the new eCredit service is designed to provide real-time credit decisions around the clock. Through an interactive button on the client's web site, eCredit makes risk assessments of key customer data. It then provides a guaranteed payment of up to 100% of invoiced sales - funding sales throughout the supply chain.

In addition eCredit offers an integrated sales ledger administration service, which administers the client's entire sales invoicing and sales ledger management function.

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FRAUD: The bad guys want your customers' credit card information. But there are things you can do to tighten security on your site.

It was an e-retailer's nightmare. When Bibliofind, an Amazon.com-owned online shop that hooks up buyers with used-book sellers, was hacked this past February, the proprietors thought only their homepage had been defaced. Then the company looked at its server logs. It found that a rogue had been accessing customer data files since the previous October, exposing the credit card numbers of 98,000 Bibliofind buyers.

While e-commerce sites publicly pooh-pooh the threat of credit card theft, it's a real and far-reaching problem. A recent report by the San Francisco-based Computer Security Institute found that 85 percent of e-commerce and government sites polled experienced a security breach in the past year. Thirteen percent reported that customers' credit card numbers were rendered accessible.

The reality is that "no system is 100 percent secure," says Chris Wysopal, director of research and development.

Hackers usually break into sites through holes in Web server software. Hundreds of these holes are discovered every year. To keep track of them, many sites use e-mail lists like Bugtraq. That's where, for example, you would have learned about the 32nd hole discovered in Microsoft's Windows 2000 Internet Information Server. Technically known as a "critical buffer overflow problem," the Windows design flaw could let a malicious hacker take control of an entire Web server.

Once hackers break into your Web server, they can satisfy themselves simply by fiddling with your homepage. To do real damage -- to steal credit card numbers, for instance -- they have to get beyond the Web server and into the box that houses your customer database. Assuming your IT department is on the ball, that means breaking through a firewall. There are a raft of hardware and software tools -- Check Point Firewall-1, Cisco Pi, PGP Gauntlet and Symantec Raptor are a few examples -- that protect your network by admitting only approved users and applications.

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The Bank of the Philippine Islands (BPI), the nation's second largest bank, recently unveiled the country's first virtual credit card system called the BPI E-Credit targeted to security-conscious customers making frequent purchases on the Internet.

Josephine Ocampo, BPI's president for card banking division said that E-Credit is an extended virtual account for holders of BPI MasterCard. It would allow its customers to make Internet purchases without using physical cards.

The E-Credit system, which is exclusive to BPI MasterCard users, creates an account for card owners and would automatically grant a 50 percent credit limit for purchases made on the Web, based on customers' existing credit line. A separate account number and card verification code (CVC) for the E-Credit card would be issued to the holder of the physical MasterCard.

The account number and CVC of the E-Credit card then would be entered into the order field of a merchant Web site, instead of the information on the customer's physical MasterCard.

An applicant for the E-Credit can choose to place any desired amount into the E-Credit account, which could range between 5,000 pesos ($94) to a maximum of 50,000 pesos ($936) at present. Ocampo said this particular option would help manage the buying behavior of cardholders. He said though the maximum amount would eventually be raised depending on the future needs of clients.

"The customer is given all the freedom and convenience needed for buying items online, but it could also discourage compulsive buying," she quipped.

The same self-restraining method also secures accounts of cardholders against credit card hackers since the use of the E-Credit card numbers are only exclusive to Internet purchases. "There is no way the numbers could be used for traditional purchases that are coursed through regular stores," Ocampo said.

Whenever a purchase has been made using E-Credit, the amount will be deducted from its physical MasterCard's online counterpart. The deduction would then be reflected on the MasterCard holder's monthly statement of account.

Nevertheless, customers could also check their accounts for both MasterCard and E-Credit through BPI Express Online (www.bpiexpressonline.com), BPI's Web site launched early this year to help customers check their savings accounts and keep track of their credit line in real time.

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Shopping sites for kids can't take the place of an allowance.

It says in the news release that 37% of kids ages 5 to 12 and 67% of those 13 to 18 have researched or bought products online. By 2002, kids will account for $1.3 billion in e-commerce. The only thing that stands between them and an even bigger spending spree is the small matter of a credit card--kids don't have cards of their own, so they have to borrow their parents' when they buy over the Internet.

It was only a matter of time before someone came up with a way around that minor inconvenience. Over the past few months, a number of new sites--including DoughNet , ICanBuy and RocketCash --have popped up on the Web to let kids shop without using a credit card. Details vary from site to site, but in general parents use their cards to set up an account or a line of credit for their children. Then the kids use the stash to make purchases from retailers with tie-ins to the site.

To make the whole package more palatable to parents, a couple of sites--ICanBuy and DoughNet--also let kids open a bank savings account and contribute to causes such as the Rainforest Alliance and Special Olympics. Parents set the amount in a child's account, and can monitor and control purchases. Credit card information is confidential, and parents don't have to whip out the card every time their kids want to buy something online. "Our mission is to enable teens, kids and parents to manage money wisely," says Paul Herman of ICanBuy.

Well, I certainly like the idea of kids being able to open a bank account online. And I'm not opposed to spending money per se. Kids do it every day at shopping malls, movie theaters and fast-food restaurants, so why not on the Internet? What bothers me about these sites is that no real money is involved. As a teaching tool for kids, I prefer something more hands-on than clicking a mouse, especially when so many transactions nowadays are paid for with paper, plastic or electronic blips.

HARD CASH. If you want kids to learn how to manage money, it helps if they can see it and feel it. A transaction is more real if they hand over hard currency to a sales clerk--or even to a parent in repayment for something the parent has ordered for them online--instead of drawing down a virtual account that Mom and Dad funded.

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Combined losses for the credit card industry and individual cardholders are running in excess of $2 billion annually.

COVERAGE CONCERNS

The Technological Revolution is greatly improving the working and living activities of people all over the world-as did the earlier Industrial Revolution. We who are involved in publishing and printing know this well because advances in electronic equipment, procedures and services have changed how we do business.

As with all good things, there are some drawbacks. The unauthorized use of credit cards, often initiated by sophisticated credit card fraud groups, has skyrocketed. The Federal Trade Commission reports that combined losses for the credit card industry and individual cardholders are running in excess of $2 billion annually. The problem is currently exacerbated by the innovative and rapid increase in credit card purchases online.

Knowledge of the misfortunes of others can help us avoid pitfalls, for example, from following and reporting court decisions involving insurance coverage. On a personal note, my daughter has authorized me to tell what happened to her several weeks ago, to acquaint you with security measures that can minimize the risk of loss associated with credit card use.

Checking the items in her American Express card statement, she found an $830 airline ticket charge of which she had no knowledge. The merchant, specializing in airline and other travel arrangements, had handled the transaction at its Web site. My daughter called American Express immediately.

The upshot was that she received a replacement card with a new number within 36 hours via air express. This was followed by calls and letters confirming that the charge was removed from the account and that the matter was being vigorously pursued by the card company's fraud operations division.

The merchant supplied the details of the transaction.

The name of a stranger identified was the passenger, method of ticket delivery was "electronic," and instructions were given to bring a photo ID to the airport check-in.

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Fed considers payroll cards accounts for Reg E purposes.

IN JANUARY, THE Federal Reserve Board issued an interim final rule amending Regulation E, which implements the Electronic Fund Transfer (EFT) Act. In a nutshell, the interim rule provides that payroll card accounts established directly or indirectly by an employer to which EFTs of a consumer's compensation are made on a "recurring basis" are "accounts" covered by Reg E.

The Fed issued an "interim final" rather than a "final" rule to obtain additional feedback on modifications to the proposal based on comments received during the initial comment period. These additional comments were due in mid-March. The interim rule goes into effect July 1, 2007.

What's a payroll card?

Payroll cards-plastic cards similar to debit cards-have become increasingly popular as a means of paying employee wages or other recurring compensation payments. For unbanked consumers, payroll cards can substitute for traditional financial institution accounts.

Here's how they work An employer, in conjunction with a financial institution, provides a plastic card with a magnetic strip that accesses an account or subaccount assigned to the employee. Each payday, the employer credits the account for the amount of the employee's compensation instead of providing a paper check or making a direct deposit to the employee's share draft/checking account. The employee can use the card to withdraw funds at an automated teller machine and to make purchases at the point-of-sale.

Reg E coverage

The interim final rule applies Reg E to accounts an employer establishes directly or indirectly to which EFTs of a consumer's wages or other compensation are "made on a recurring basis." Certain onetime payments wouldn't be covered.

Payroll cards are considered "accounts" for purposes of Reg E coverage. This is true regardless of whether funds are held in individual employee accounts or in a pooled account with some form of subaccounting maintained by a depository institution or third party. A credit union must comply with this rule if it directly or indirectly holds a payroll card account, or issues an access device (i.e., plastic card) to a consumer to initiate an EFT from a payroll card account.

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