Credit Cards Online Information

The growing number of utility customers who pay their bills by credit or debit cards will be forking over a little extra come Tuesday.

That's the day Colorado Springs Utilities will begin imposing a $2.95 fee for residential customers and a $5.95 fee for business customers who pay their bills by credit or debit cards or by electronic check.

Officials with the city-owned utility said a relatively small number of the utility's 200,000 customers use credit or debit cards, about 20,000.

But the utility has seen an increase of 45 percent in the use of credit card payments this year, and that has driven up the credit card fees the utility has been charged.

The utility attributes the increase to the growing popularity of debit cards, which automatically deduct money from a user's checking account but also impose a fee on merchants who accept them.

The result: The utility has paid more than $1 million in card fees this year and expects those fees to increase to $3 million in coming years.

A recent utility survey found that 72 percent of customers thought it was only fair that card users pay those fees rather than cover the cost by folding them into utility rates that every customer pays. The utility also surveyed 32 other utilities and found 76 percent of them impose similar fees.

Utility officials said retailers and other businesses that accept credit cards price their goods and services to cover the cost of card fees.

Utility executives decided doing that would be unfair to customers who pay by cash or check, especially in an era when utility rates have been rising to pay for upgrades and additions to facilities.

In addition to the new fees, the utility on Tuesday no longer will accept credit card payments through the mail or at the drivethrough and lobby of the Customer Service Center on Cascade Avenue.

Credit card rules don't allow those methods of payments unless customers who pay cash or check also are charged a fee, something the utility is not willing to do.

That means people have three options to pay with plastic: call the Customer Service Center with their card information, pay online or call Western Union Speedpay, the firm that will process all card payments for the utility.

The utility will continue to accept checks, cash or money orders without fees, either by mail or at the Customer Service Center or through electronic fund transfers from bank accounts.

CONTACT THE WRITER: 636-0197 or bill.mckeown@gazette.com

UTILITY PAYMENT OPTIONS

Beginning Tuesday, Colorado Springs Utilities will impose a fee on customers paying utility bills with credit or debit cards and electronic check payments.

THE FEES WILL BE:

$2.95 for residential customers on amounts up to $500, with an additional $2.95 fee for every $500 after that.

$5.95 for commercial payments up to $2,500, with an additional $5.95 for every $2,500 after that.

Such payments can be made by calling 448-4800, by visiting www.csu.org or by calling Western Union Speedway, the card processor, directly at 1-866-611-2261. That number will not be effective until Tuesday.

The utility will continue to accept cash, money orders or checks through the mail, at the drop box, lobby or drive-up at the Customer Service Center, 111 S. Cascade Ave.

For better or worse, the "cashless" society is slowly becoming a reality. Today, more often than not, Americans use plastic rather than cash or checks to buy everything from clothing to groceries, according to the American Bankers Association.

Cash and checks now account for just 47 percent of all purchases in stores, falling from 57 percent in 1999 and 51 percent in 2001. Today, we can use cards to pump fuel, feed parking meters, buy a Big Mac, grab a Coke from a vending machine or gamble at a casino. Younger people are more likely to use plastic and many are ditching cash and checks altogether.

People are using cards even for very small purchases, which in the past almost exclusively were made with cash. MasterCard customers reported using debit cards for about one-third of all of their purchases of items costing $20 or less last year. That is a 61 percent increase since 2001, according to the company.

Richard Feinberg, a professor of retail management at Purdue University, has seen the evolution toward a cashless culture in his own family.

"I don't believe my grandparents ever used a credit card," he said. "My parents used credit cards, but never debit cards. And I won't pay cash for anything."

But the transition is happening less quickly than many thought, Feinberg noted.

"Twenty years ago, people were predicting that no one would be using cash or checks within five years. So this transition has been long and slow. But we're definitely moving in that direction."

Research conducted during the past few years does show, however, that cash no longer is king for consumers, and handwritten checks are falling out of fashion as well. Driving that trend is the emergence of debit cards, which with a quick swipe of the hand electronically deduct funds from checking accounts.

More than 30 percent of purchases in stores now are made with a debit card, compared to 21 percent four years ago, according to the Bankers Association. Credit cards account for about 21 percent of purchases in stores, a figure that has been holding steady, the group reported.

But Rob Bennett, who publishes and writes a daily blog for the Web site PassionSaving.com, warned the convenience of the debit card in particular may cause people to lose sight of their spending.

"I have shied away from the debit card for just that reason," he said. "It's an abstraction. When you are planning to spend $100 in cash for dinner, you feel guilty. You think, 'Maybe I'd better get the cheaper wine.' With a card, you just forget about it."

And AARP warns its members that customers who use the cards may have less protection if something goes awry with a purchase. Banks may be reluctant to reimburse people for items that never were delivered, are damaged or don't work properly, the organization points out on its Web site. Banks may also charge monthly fees, as well as penalties for dropping below a required minimum balance.

For some teens, debit cards are as essential as car keys, part status symbol and part convenience. If you're old enough to open a checking account -- or get your parents to co-sign on one -- you're eligible for a debit card.

Parents and financial experts agree that debit cards can act as financial training wheels for teens before they get a credit card. But parents should track how teens use the cards, the experts advise.

"It's not like real money because I never see the cash," said 16- year-old Kara Moore of West Des Moines, Iowa, who said she buys clothes with her card.

Her friend, Natalie Loots, 16, of Clive, Iowa, sees it differently. "I am afraid if I had a card, I would spend more money," she said.

Debit cards should be viewed as an opportunity to do some financial training, said Tom Coates, executive director of Consumer Credit of Des Moines, a nonprofit credit counseling organization.

"Debit cards are part of our day-to-day lives right now," he said.

The Foundation for Credit Education says the benefits of debit cards for teens include:

uThey give teens experience for managing their money. When they know that they only have a certain amount of money in their debit account to spend, teens are more inclined to keep track of their spending.

uDebit cards cannot be used for credit purchases, so teens can't rack up loads of debt.

uSome teen debit cards have special features that allow parents to receive automatic e-mail messages that tell them where purchases are being made. Some cards can be "recharged" with additional money instantly over the telephone or from a Web site.

Jim Knoblauch of Urbandale, Iowa, thought it was a good idea when his son Sam, 17, proposed getting a debit card last year. He guided his son through the process of recording purchases and balancing the account each month. "[Sam] has never been overdrawn," he said.

When his three older daughters went off to college, they had not had checking accounts or debit cards. The lack of experience contributed to some major bumps in their financial paths, he said. "I didn't want another kid going through that," he said.

Teenagers will spend about $158 billion this year, according to Teen Research Unlimited, a Chicago-based company. Research also shows that about 3 percent of youths between ages 12 and 15 had debit cards; 18 percent of 16- and 17-year-olds had cards; and 50 percent of 18- and 19-year-olds used debit cards.

"If a student gets a credit card, make sure it has a low limit and that the limit cannot be increased," said Susan McDonnell of the Iowa State University Extension Service. "The trick is to teach kids how to save, spend and share their money."

Get ready for credit cards to go high-tech. The familiar magnetic strip on Visa credit and debit cards is disappearing, being replaced by a multifunction chip. Cards with the chip can include credit, debt and electronic cash functions, as well as access controls, loyalty programs, a digital signature, medical history, meal tickets, express check-in, parking vouchers and more. Already commonplace in parts of Europe, the new all-purpose card debuted in Latin America in August 1999 in a pilot project in Campinas, Sao Paulo state, Brazil. Now, the program has expanded to Rio de Janeiro, Brasilia and Fortaleza, the next phase in a planned regional roll-out. To replace all Brazilian magnetic cards with chip cards, Visa, member banks and technology partners plan to spend around US$70 million over the next three years. Fourteen Brazilian banks are already onboard, as is point-of-sale terminal vendor Visanet, which accounts for more than 90 percent of Visa payment card transactions in Brazil.

If Cook County Commissioner John Daley is determined to hold somebody responsible for passing out misleading campaign materials in his 11th Ward during last month's election, Anthony Sutor says he needs to investigate no further.

"I did it. I OKd it. I want the crybaby to know it came from us," said Sutor, the campaign manager for a trio of anti-Hispanic Democratic Organization candidates who were soundly defeated in the March primary.

It wasn't my intention to devote a second column to something as silly as dirty-trick palm cards, but Sutor forced my hand with his unsolicited admission and tough talk.

It's not every day that somebody volunteers to go toe-to-toe with one of the city's most powerful Democratic ward organizations -- or picks a fight publicly with the mayor's brother.

"Screw him," Sutor said of Daley. "Remus shouldn't be taking the hit for this. We were the ones."

If you read Tuesday's column, you know that the backdrop for Sutor's confession is an unusual State Board of Elections complaint filed by Daley against Richard Remus, a former Cook County jail supervisor who finished a distant third in the Democratic primary for sheriff.

Daley's complaint accused Remus' supporters of illegally distributing campaign materials labeled "The Official Palm Card for the 11th Ward Democratic Party" to voters outside 11th Ward polling places.

Daley, you see, is the 11th Ward Democratic committeeman, which makes him the boss of the 11th Ward Democratic Campaign Committee, what most people would consider the "official" Democratic organization in the 11th Ward. The palm card being distributed by Remus' volunteers supported an entirely different set of candidates than Daley was endorsing, hence Daley's concerns that some of his constituents were misled.

Normally, such an affront would have been answered with a dose of street justice, meted out on the spot by Daley's political workers. But for some reason, possibly related to the fact many of Remus' volunteers were not-so-easily-intimidated Cook County jail guards, there was no Election Day retribution. Instead, Daley turned afterward to the State Board of Elections, an agency better known for slaps on the wrist than smacks upside the head.

But Sutor called me to tell me Remus wasn't involved.

'THAT'S PART OF POLITICS'

Sutor said he was responsible for both preparing and printing the disputed "official" 11th Ward palm cards in his capacity as campaign manager for legislative candidates Oscar Torres and Francisco Rodriguez and Cook County commissioner candidate Leonard Dominguez. Sutor, whose own political committee is named the 25th Ward Independent Democratic Organization, said he worked out an alliance with Remus supporters to hand out his materials in the 11th Ward, a common practice for independent campaigns short of manpower.

Sutor said he sees nothing improper about the "official" palm card tactic, arguing he covered himself by not claiming the palm cards were from the "Regular" Democratic organization, the term historically used in Cook County to differentiate the official Democratic party from opposition groups.

"We did not plan on misleading the voters at all," Sutor insisted at first, giving ground only when I told him that wouldn't fly.

"I didn't mean it to be a dirty trick. I mean it to be a trick, yeah," he offered next. "You try to get as many votes as you can. Am I trying to confuse people? To a point."

"That's part of politics in the city of Chicago," concluded Sutor, 38, whose lengthy experience includes working with convicted former Ald. Ambrosio Medrano.

'MAKE AN EXAMPLE OF THIS'

For those who may be unfamiliar with the concept, a palm card is just a printed list of candidates, usually on a half-sheet of paper, that campaign workers pass to prospective voters at election time as a reminder of which office-seekers their organization supports. The card is intended to be something you take into the polling place so that you'll know how you're supposed to vote.

In wards such as the 11th where people routinely vote as instructed, the palm card is therefore an important tool for keeping voters in line. That's also what makes it a valuable tool for political tricksters.

Sutor said he also distributed "official" palm cards in the 14th and 25th wards which also weren't authorized by the Democratic powers in those wards.

"Daley's trying to make an example of this so nobody else will come into the 11th Ward and try to do this against him again," said Sutor, who said he plans to do just that by helping Rodriguez run for alderman next year.

These are tense times for the 11th Ward organization with homeboy Robert Sorich, Mayor Daley's former patronage chief, slated to go on trial next month, which may explain John Daley's uncharacteristically tough talk that he's not "dicking around" with his complaint against Remus.

But 11th Ward voters resoundingly cast their ballots in March for the Daley-backed candidates, and there's no indication they're ready for a change.

Praxair, Inc. (NYSE:PX) announced today that its Praxair Express(SM) e-business extranet web site for customers in the United States and Canada now accepts credit cards. This new capability makes buying industrial and specialty gases and related equipment, consumables and accessories from Praxair even easier.

Launched in January 2002, the Praxair Express extranet provides easy-to-use online-purchasing tools and information designed to save customers' time, improve their efficiency and reduce costs. Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) technology ensures secure, encrypted communication of account information over the Internet.

"Praxair customers can now choose from two convenient payment options: a credit card and an established account," said Bill Gittler, director of e-business, Praxair Distribution, Inc., the company's North American packaged gases business. "Being able to use a credit card through the Praxair Express extranet makes it simpler to buy our products. It's an important addition to our e-business tools as we continuously strive to meet the evolving needs and capabilities of our diverse customer base."

The Praxair Express extranet allows customers to:

- Browse over 30,000 products

- Search Praxair's in-stock inventory

- Place orders

- Check order status

- Create custom templates that simplify reordering

- Check account and cylinder balances

- View and download Material Safety Data Sheets (MSDS)

The Praxair Express extranet also provides customers with an easy link to Praxair's eCatalog for detailed information about more than 30,000 products. This virtual information repository stores and updates product data such as photos, descriptions, specifications, packaging, and application specific details for gases, related equipment and consumables.

"Customers can access the Praxair Express(SM) extranet directly from their web browser without additional software," Gittler explained. "Customers who are using the Praxair Express extranet regularly have been receiving their items in less than half the time, and order accuracy is greatly improved because they are able to order by their own part numbers. They also like the fact that cost information is immediately available, and they're able to view open orders. It is definitely a great productivity advantage to our customers."

Praxair's e-business solutions, Praxair Express extranet and eCatalog, are complemented by Praxair's Desktop(SM) supply management system, a simple and convenient way to manage bulk liquid supply accounts on line, and Praxair's fully-integrated Electronic Funds Transfer (EFT) and Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) capabilities.

Praxair Distribution, Inc. and its subsidiaries and distributors deliver a large array of industrial and specialty gases, equipment and supplies, technical expertise, and services to thousands of customers in the United States and Canada. With hundreds of locations throughout North America, Praxair provides differentiated product and service offerings that help customers achieve their objectives faster, better and at lower total cost. For more information on the Praxair Express extranet, visit www.express.praxair.com to view the online demo.

Praxair is the largest industrial gases company in North and South America, and one of the largest worldwide, with 2001 sales of $5.1 billion. The company produces, sells and distributes atmospheric and process gases, and high-performance surface coatings. Praxair products, services and technology bring productivity and environmental benefits to a wide variety of industries, including aerospace, food and beverage, healthcare, semiconductor materials, steel, chemicals and refining, metal fabrication, water treatment, glass and others.

Jerome McNeil, 31, of New Orleans was sentenced to 48 months in prison for his part in a credit card scam involving cashiers at stores in The Esplanade mall in Kenner.Federal prosecutors say McNeil recruited mall workers to skim credit card information from shoppers that he would encode into other cards he used to make purchases of electronics, clothing and other items. McNeil and his accomplice, Jonathan Green, would then sell the merchandise on the street at half price. Green pled guilty in a separate cases. He testified in federal court that he and McNeil were earning between $6,000 and $8,000 in cash a day during the scam. They went so far as to advertise their enterprise on business cards with the name You Want It, We Got It and their phone numbers. In addition to his prison sentence, McNeil was also ordered to pay $35,000 in restitution and serve three years of supervised release.

The top provider of online banking, payment and security solutions to the financial services industry, today announced that Credit Union Electronic Transaction Services (CUETS), a provider of MasterCard(R) issuing and acquiring products and services to over 450 credit unions, caisses populaires and other organizations throughout Canada, has selected Corillian Credit Card Management as its foundation for a next-generation online credit card management solution.

Through Corillian Credit Card Management, CUETS' clients will have a feature-rich solution to deliver new and innovative online services to their members and customers. Included in the solution will be eStatements and Alerts modules to enhance the self-service capabilities of the online credit card site. End users will be able to view all of their account information in real-time, set up alerts to be proactively notified of new changes to their accounts and store up to 12 months of statement history. Also, the flexibility of Corillian Credit Card Management will allow each affiliate organization to create a unique brand and navigation to each site to create user loyalty.

"More and more consumers are turning to the Internet to take control of managing their financial accounts," said Alex Hart, president and CEO of Corillian. "Financial institutions and other organizations are looking for ways to take advantage of this growing adoption by delivering compelling online services and a unique online experience to their users. Corillian Credit Card Management incorporates industry-leading functionality and usability best practices to enable organizations like CUETS to be at the forefront of online financial services and set themselves and their clients apart from the competition."

CUETS' CIO Tom Kindred noted that the partnership with Corillian will also help CUETS' clients create greater brand recognition and become more competitive in the online channel. "Our mission is to provide world-class products and services to our clients, and the online channel is of strategic importance to us and our clients," Kindred said. "Corillian Credit Card Management will help us take our online services to the next level and help our clients provide a superior online experience to their members and customers."

Corillian Credit Card Management will seamlessly interface in real-time with CUETS' back-end systems, providing unparalleled ease-of-use. Key features and benefits available in Corillian Credit Card Management include:

--Real-Time Access: Provides real-time access to balances, current and historical transactions, downloading transactions, payment due dates, credit limits, cash advance limits, finance charges and rewards programs.

--eStatements: Offers the cardholders the convenience of receiving an electronic version of their monthly statement online as well as the ability to sort and categorize transactions. Along with the suppression of paper printing, online administrative tools are offered to manage exception processing.

--Alerts: Offers increased cardholder loyalty by delivering email message notifications when account or specific transactional events such as credit limit reached or payment is due events are triggered.

--Self-Service Functionality: Offers a comprehensive range of self-service functionality, including the ability to request credit limit changes, replace or add cards, change addresses, secure online inquiries, dispute transactions, order checks and change passwords.

About Corillian Corporation

Corillian is the market leader of online banking, payment and security solutions to the financial services industry. With 29 of the top 100 U.S. banks and 21 of the top 100 U.S. credit unions as customers, Corillian serves over 30 million online banking users. Corillian provides the most flexible, scalable and secure set of online banking applications across multiple lines of business, integrating best-practice functionality developed for some of the most innovative financial institutions in the world. Corillian's fraud prevention solutions use Preemptive Forensics(TM) to protect web sites from phishers, hackers, and fraudsters. Corillian's strong authentication solution provides a low-cost solution for multi-factor authentication while maintaining high user satisfaction. Corillian features integrated applications across Consumer Banking, Small Business Banking, Wealth Management, Credit Card Management, and Corporate Cash Management, as well as enterprise wide solutions, including Fraud Detection, Payments Warehouse, Alerts, eStatements, and OFX. Empowered by Corillian solutions, some of the world's most visionary financial institutions provide their customers with the tools to manage their finances more effectively and securely.

Introduction

While looking for better ways to publish a newsletter online, this writer, who designed and wrote software in a previous career, invented what looks like a new tool for online commerce. This article outlines fundraising possibilities of this "smart codes" design for computer-controlled money, with financial accounts that can reproduce without limit, inheriting options and services and forming family trees. Believing that this approach may be a fundamental advance that should not be patented and owned exclusively by one person or company, I published it online for anyone to use, and am encouraging open-source software development.

This article focuses on fundraising--on making it convenient, engaging, and rewarding to donate as much or as little as one chooses. The details needed to do everything described here are already published at http://www.MicropaymentSmartCodes.com. But that site looks less at fundraising than at how musicians and other artists could use smart codes to market their work independently through social networks worldwide--allowing friends, supporters, and other donors to buy bulk prepaid downloads as gifts, for sharing in smart Web links through networks, so that most downloads can be free while the artist still gets paid for them. (For our readers, the same system could also make medical-journal articles more accessible, as journals could easily sell thousands of downloads at a time to third parties who could market them effectively to small organizations and others now excluded because they are not part of a big university, corporation, or other institution.)

This article considers four fundraising scenarios:

I. Instant Web pages automatically born with the ability to accept payment by credit or debit cards and in many other ways--regardless of whether or not an organization already has a presence on the Web;

II. Allowing anyone to reward good work online by giving large or even very small online donations by using a single payment code, and with almost no transaction cost:

III. Direct links from music to practical ways of getting involved; and

IV. Turning an individual donation to an historically important organization into a collectible investment as well--creating digital collectibles, which could add an entirely new incentive to conventional fundraising appeals.

At this time (July 2005) the smart codes described are only a design; the software to provide and manage them has not been written. I am committed to AIDS Treatment News, and would like to use smart codes in our fundraising, but am not in a position to develop this accidental invention as a business. I can develop it as a conversation, and am looking for others to help explore next steps. Perhaps you know someone who might be interested.

Here we cut this article for length, and prepared the following bullet points from the remainder of the text. You can find the full article at http://www.MicropaymentSmartCodes.com/fundraising.

Smart Codes: Benefits

* Anyone with a smart code can immediately pay money online, receive money (including from credit cards or any other means provided by the smart-code server), use the code's control center on the Web to change any' of dozens or hundreds of options, and create any number of new children codes (with those options) to give or sell to others. These children are fully powered smart codes that can also reproduce, through any number of generations--forming family trees of related accounts that can evolve through practical use in social, business, or other networks.

* Anyone with a smart code can also create any number of public codes--limited smart codes that can only receive money (which credits the parent), but can never pay money. Each public code automatically has its own dynamic Web page with its own funding stream and accounting; it can accept payment from smart codes, credit cards, and other means through the server (subject to restrictions). Public codes, each of which may represent a donation appeal or merchandise offer, can be given memorable names and published or distributed widely. They will usually be included in Web links, so the public can use them without knowing anything about the smart-code system. Their owners can simply check a box at the control center tot such services as a color cartoon display (on the public Web page) showing fundraising progress so far, and the donor's or any other new contribution going into the pot.

* Each server will be able to manage many thousands of codes, and offer smart-code service throughout the world, even to people using different languages and currencies. International users will be able to change their choice of language and currency if necessary at their code's control center, probably by clicking on a row of flags, and on a row of currency symbols. Smart codes do not do language translation, but could provide system messages in many languages--and also standard business, etc. phrases, allowing anyone to click a flag on a public-code site to refresh the display with those phrases in their language. All the work is done on the server; smart codes will not need to run any software on the end user's computer.

A credit card that pays a percentage of your spending to fund anti-Aids programmes in Africa has been launched by rock star activist Bono.

The Red card, set up with American Express, was announced at the World Economic Forum in Switzerland last week.

Other companies have launched Red-themed products, including Gap and Emporio Armani, and all have made a commitment to the Global Fund, a public-private body that channels money into combating Aids, tuberculosis and malaria.

Amex estimates there are 1.5 million "conscience consumers" willing to use the "power of their pocket" to effect social change.

The card, available from 1 March, will donate 1 per cent of any spending up to pounds 5,000 to the Global Fund, rising to 1.25 per cent above pounds 5,000.

Amex will also donate another pounds 5 on behalf of consumers who use the card in the first month.

A spokeswoman for Amex concedes the card isn't the cheapest on the market. It has an annual percentage rate of 12.9 per cent and a balance transfer offer at 5.9 per cent for six months.

"Amex Red gives more than most charity cards, which donate only 0.25 per cent of spending," said Martin Lewis at financial website Money-savingexpert.com." However, users must watch out for repayments that pay down any cheaper balance transfer debt first.

MasterCard International on Friday said a security breach of credit card payment data had exposed about 40 million cards of all brands to potential fraud in what one analyst said was the biggest privacy breach ever.

About 13.9 million of those credit cards at risk are MasterCard-branded cards, the company said. An unauthorized person infiltrated cardholder data at a company which processes transactions.

"It sounds like the Guinness Book of World Records here," said Richard Smith, a leading computer privacy activist who runs a Web site called ComputerBytesMan.com.

There have been a string of episodes this year in which companies have reported stolen or misappropriated customer data. Bank of America Corp., ChoicePoint Inc. and Reed Elsevier's are some of the companies that have reported breaches.

MasterCard International said its security staff identified the breach at Tucson-based CardSystems Solutions Inc., a third-party processor of payment card data. Third party processors process transactions on behalf of financial institutions and merchants.

Secret Service spokesman Jonathan Cherry declined to comment. The U.S. Secret Service and CardSystems were not available for comment. Calls to Visa USA, MasterCard's biggest rival, also were not returned immediately.

MasterCard said security vulnerabilities in CardSystems processor's systems allowed an unauthorized individual to infiltrate CardSystems' network and access cardholder data.

MasterCard cautioned that social security numbers, dates of birth and the like were not stored on MasterCard cards.

CardSystems has already taken steps to improve the security of its system, MasterCard said it was giving the company "a limited amount of time" to demonstrate compliance with MasterCard security requirements.

MasterCard said it immediately notified its customer banks of specific card accounts that may have been subject to compromise so they can take the measures to protect their cardholders.

Almost 90 per cent of credit card companies failed to check the incomes of applicants, a survey shows, raising concerns that banks have a "lend now, ask questions later" culture. Some people on low incomes were allowed credit limits of pounds 10,000.

Britain's national total of unsecured lending is pounds 1.13 trillion, of which pounds 56.35bn is on credit cards. British consumers account for two-thirds of credit card debt in the EU, and the growing popularity of "plastic" is blamed for contributing to a record number of bankruptcies.

The report by uSwitch. com, a price comparison website, came as the brother of a woman who committed suicide after accumulating pounds 14,560 of debts criticised her bank, Barclays, for using heavy-handed tactics.

Lisa Taylor, 26, from Blackburn, Lancashire, hanged herself last July be-cause she believed she would never pay off her debt, including pounds 3,692 due on her Barclaycard. Most of her debt was a student loan of pounds 6,738. She also owed pounds 2,779 to Egg and pounds 1,351 to Capital One.

She left a letter to her father saying she had "serious debts that I will never pay off. I can't bear it any longer".

Her brother, Mark, said Barclays had sent several letters demanding payment and threatening legal action. "I don't understand how companies can almost sit back and watch someone getting into a helpless situation like this."

A spokesman for Barclays said: "We extend our sympathies to the family. Barclays treats cases of financial difficulty with sensitivity and care."

This month uSwitch.com surveyed the finances of 1,937 people, of whom 749 had successfully applied for a credit card in the past year.

Most (88 per cent) who were approved for a credit card were not asked for proof of their annual income beyond the figures they put on the application. Some 95 per cent were not asked to show evidence of their outgoings.

In some cases, the credit limits were equal to or above a borrower's annual income. Of people earning between pounds 10,000 and pounds 20,000 ayear, six were given credit limits of pounds 8,000 to pounds 10,000.

In one instance, a person earning less than pounds 10,000 was given a credit limit of between pounds 10,000 and pounds 12,000. The individual would need to repay more than one-third of their monthly take-home salary to meet the minimum repayments, and would take more than 28 years to clear the balance, paying pounds 8,600 in interest in the process.

Despite many lenders failing to check whether customers could afford to repay debt, an estimated 100 million unsolicited credit card application forms were posted in the three months leading up to Christmas.

A new survey by the credit rating agency Experian has found that many online retailers do not make basic checks on buyers using credit cards.

Experian surveyed 800 UK companies that traded online and found that just 57% of them reported fraud cases to the police. Of these, over half found that the police were not interested in following up the matter, according to the BBC. Of all the fraud cases reported, only 9% led to a prosecution. The survey suggested that nine out of ten fraudsters were getting away with their crime, said Richard Fiddis of Experian UK.

Experian also found that almost a half of all online retailers did not use external data to verify that the shopper was actually the credit card holder and only 15% used automated systems to make identity checks.

Almost 90 per cent of credit card companies failed to check the incomes of applicants, a survey shows, raising concerns that banks have a "lend now, ask questions later" culture. Some people on low incomes were allowed credit limits of pounds 10,000. Britain's national total of unsecured lending is pounds 1.13 trillion, of which pounds 56.35bn is on credit cards. British consumers account for two-thirds of credit card debt in the EU, and the growing popularity of "plastic" is blamed for contributing to a record number of bankruptcies.

The report by uSwitch. com, a price comparison website, came as the brother of a woman who committed suicide after accumulating pounds 14,560 of debts criticised her bank, Barclays, for heavy- handed tactics. Lisa Taylor, 26, from Blackburn, Lancashire, hanged herself last July because she believed she would never pay off her debt, including pounds 3,692 due on her Barclaycard. Most of her debt was a student loan of pounds 6,738. She also owed pounds 2,779 to Egg and pounds 1,351 to Capital One.

She left a letter to her father saying she had "serious debts that I will never pay off. I can't bear it any longer".

Her brother, Mark, said Barclays had sent several letters demanding payment and threatening legal action. "I don't understand how companies can almost sit back and watch someone getting into a helpless situation like this."

A spokesman for Barclays said: "We extend our sympathies to the family.

Barclays also treats cases of financial difficulty with sensitivity and care."

This month uSwitch.com surveyed the finances of 1,937 people, of whom 749 had successfully applied for a credit card in the past year.

Most (88 per cent) who were approved for a credit card were not asked for proof of their annual income beyond the figures they put on the application. Some 95 per cent were not asked to show evidence of their outgoings.

In some cases, the credit limits were equal to or above a borrower's annual income.

Of people earning between pounds 10,000 and pounds 20,000 a year, six were given credit limits of between pounds 8,000 and pounds 10,000.

In one instance, a person earning less than pounds 10,000 was given a credit limit of between pounds 10,000 and pounds 12,000. The individual would need to repay more than one-third of their monthly take-home salary to meet the minimum repayments, and would take more than 28 year s to clear the balance - paying pounds 8,600 in interest in the process.

Despite many lenders failing to check whether customers could afford to repay debt, an estimated 100 million unsolicited credit card application forms were posted in the three months leading up to Christmas.

Keith Tondeur, chief executive of Credit Action, the money education charity, said: "These findings are alarming. Lenders need to ensure that figures given to them by potential borrowers are accurate - especially for those in the lower income bracket who are much more vulnerable should things go wrong and who may be desperate to borrow because of existing problems.

Nick White, head of personal finance at uSwitch. com, said measures were needed to ensure that money was lent in a responsible manner.

"The finding that only one in eight cardholders provided accurate salary or income details... emphasises the significance of the lenders' failure to conduct proper checks," he said.

The Post Office will stop charging commission on foreign curr- ency from 18 July. This is great news for those heading abroad since research shows that commission cost UK holiday makers pounds 190m last year. But for tourists not wanting to take wads of cash away with them, another option is to use a debit card to withdraw cash from an ATM at their destination.

It is often assumed you get a bad deal when withdrawing money from a cashpoint abroad. However, a debit card can be the best option, even though charges vary depending on which card you have.

The fact that Visa and Mastercard bulk-buy foreign currency means you'll get a better exchange rate if you withdraw money from an ATM rather than at a bureau de change or high-street bank. But you will probably incur charges, offsetting some of the benefits.

These charges are split into a cash-handling fee and the commission (also known as the loading fee), which includes the Visa or Mastercard processing fee plus the exchange rate calculations. You may also face a surcharge from the bank whose ATM you use.

Nationwide customers currently get the best deal as they aren't charged anything for taking out money. Barclays customers can also benefit from lower charges in certain countries. The bank has recently announced an ATM alliance with four other international companies: Bank of America, Deutsche Bank, Scotiabank in Canada and Westpac in Australia.

From 1 July customers can withdraw money from any of these banks' cashpoints without incurring a handling fee or a surcharge. The one cost will be the 2.75 per cent commission. As it's only available via four banks, this scheme is limited, although Barclays plans to expand the network.

Until then, customers taking cash out from other ATMs will be charged a handling fee of 1.5 per cent or pounds 1.50 (whichever is greater) on top of the commission.

The other three big high- street banks - HSBC, NatWest and Lloyds TSB - have no plans as yet to develop similar international networks. All three have a handling fee of 1.5 per cent and a loading charge of 2.25 per cent.

Using a debit card to get access to cash when you're abroad is worth while, but it is not advisable to withdraw money using a credit card. The charges are higher and there is no interest-free period with cash withdrawals, so you will start accruing interest immediately.

It is therefore better to keep your credit card for shopping purchases and restaurant bills, and get your cash with a debit card.

Booming sales of skates and snow-boards propelled a rapid expansion for New York City-based Blades Board & Skate, but the growth also forced the company to put on the brakes and evaluate how it was managing its retail operations.

From 1990 to 1996, the retailer grew from a single Manhattan location to eight stores in New York City and New Jersey. Last year, when the company planned to nearly double its number of stores to 15 and expand to Boston and Chicago, executives determined that the business needed a computer system that could instantly track sales and inventory at all of its stores.

So Blades modernized its retail point-of-sale (POS) system so that executives at headquarters could keep up with sales and inventory at all locations while each store could track its own such data. The new POS system also enabled managers to make better use of information gathered from customers.

To achieve the modernization, the company upgraded its POS software to the latest version of CounterPoint, from Synchronics Inc. of Memphis, Tenn. Blades had previously used an older, less sophisticated version of the Synchronics program.

"I was looking for better information management and greater ease of use" in a new system, says Joel Silverman, chief operating officer of Blades.

Information After The Sale

Improving information management has become the critical issue for most small retailers, says Judy Newdom, a principal of Computer Sciences Corp.'s national retail practice, based in Cleveland. As a result, cash registers at many small businesses have been transformed into computerized POS systems.

Newdom says POS systems help small retailers cut costs, increase profits, and serve customers better by making the most of sales information.

"Point-of-sale registers are no longer just machines for taking in money," she says. "They are hooked up to very sophisticated information about what is in the store and also to the inventory of a retailer's other stores. So if an item is not in the store, they can find another one that has it."

Silverman says he selected the upgraded CounterPoint software after evaluating other packages because it would run on the assortment of POS hardware his firm already had. Switching to competing POS software would have required Blades to purchase new hardware, he says.

The new version of CounterPoint gives the company a quicker, more accurate, and more detailed picture of its sales and inventory than the previous version. Moreover, the program can be tied into the firm's accounting software, Dynamics, from Great Plains Software Inc. of Fargo, N.D. This enables each sale to be entered instantly into the accounting ledger.

Silverman says the revamped CounterPoint system has met the goal of providing Blades better control of its process of ordering and distributing products even as the company grows. "Inventory control is a key feature for an expanding business," he says. "There's no way that we would have been able to achieve the growth that we have had in the last year without our new POS software package."

According to Silverman, the updated CounterPoint system gives store managers tools that help them better control their operations. Employees can use the system to see what is in stock at their location and in the warehouse.

Blades stores are linked to one another and to the warehouse and headquarters by electronic mail, which has resulted in more-efficient and less-expensive communications among stores, Silverman says. And the software also allows the company to order products from vendors only when needed, decreasing the amount of warehouse space required to store inventory and thereby improving cash flow.

Instant Tracking Of Trends

When used in sales transactions, POS systems record information that is then fed into the company's accounting and inventory systems to provide constant analysis of sales trends and customers' buying preferences. Combined with the widespread use of technologies such as bar-coding, POS systems can allow retailers to track each item.

In addition, says Computer Sciences' Newdom, the systems make it easier for firms to balance their books and make tax payments and electronic transactions with banks.

Simonson Station Stores Inc. in Grand Forks, N.D., is using POS technology to gain greater control over the merchandise and transactions in its nine convenience stores.

Each store is linked to the home office through CompuTouch, a POS system from Radiant Systems Inc. of Alpharetta, Ga. The link allows executives to maintain a constant audit of sales and supplies.

"There's nothing in our operation that we don't know about" through the POS system, says Arch Simonson, the firm's vice president. "We can actually audit our stores while sales are happening. It gives us deadly-accurate information, which helps us manage our stores."

Like the CounterPoint system, CompuTouch is easy for employees to use. They ring up sales using a touch-screen terminal and a bar-code scanner. POS functions are accessed by touching icons on the screen.

CREDIT card firms have been accused of targeting teenagers with the launch of a payment card.

MasterCard is issuing the cards to children as young as 13 so that they can purchase products on plastic.

How much they can spend is limited by the amount their parents have deposited in advance, but critics have still described the scheme as "irresponsible".

The National Consumer Council claims the cards will get children used to spending money that is not theirs.

The NCC said: "There is a risk that the cards will predispose them to irresponsible spending on credit cards later.

"Payment cards can be useful for certain groups, such as adults who do not have a bank account. But it is a much more dangerous scenario when these cards fall into the hands of youngsters. The fact that these cards are topped up by parents could get teenagers used to spending money on plastic which is not theirs."

However, supporters claim the cards are a natural step in a society which is growing more reliant on plastic.

The cards are being advertised in teenage magazines such as Smash Hits! and Bliss, as well as on Magic FM.

Customers pay Pounds 9.95 to open their card account and pay 85p for each withdrawal from an ATM cash dispenser.

Angela Eagles, the Labour MP for Wallasey and a member of the Commons Treasury select committee, said it would be more appropriate for teenagers to use debit cards which are linked to a bank account.

She said: "I do not think these add anything in terms of financial education. Children can open a bank account and use a debit card which is obviously superior."

The Department of Trade and Industry recently launched an investigation into the way credit and store cards are used, the high levels of interest charged on them and how potential customers are approached. Credit and store cards are the biggest causes of debt among teenagers. A survey seen by the Consumer Credit Counselling Service showed 18 year olds had an average of five credit providers.

Shannon Kelems is not much different than many heads of households who would just like to get ahead and avoid financial ruin. It is not the fact that she is a single mother of two children who is holding down two jobs in suburban St. Louis just to make ends meet. Nor is it the recent string of bad luck from an emergency gallbladder removal and repeated car troubles that keeps her concerned about her future.

Kelems shares the same plight of an estimated 135 million Americans who sat down to pay their bills the first of February just to discover that minimum credit card payment rates had in many cases more than doubled with the statements delivered mid-January.

Why don't you just rip my heart out, said Kelems, who like 35 million of those card holders are barely able to meet their minimum payments anyway. If I hadn't had this string of bad luck I'd be OK, Kelems said. Now I don't know what I will do.

Although reported in broadcast and news print before the end of 2005, many consumers and even financial professionals appear shocked at the impact a change in federal regulations has caused as minimum amounts due on major credit cards shot up from 2 percent to 4 percent virtually overnight. At the same time utilities, gasoline, and basic consumer goods are revealing the influence of inflation, and signal potential catastrophe for those Americans who do not have an increase in income to match what they are charged for basic living.

On the surface, the argument made by federal financial regulars made sense. Officials noted that as U.S. consumer debt passed the level of $2.2 trillion - more than doubling the amount posted a little over a decade ago - individuals and families living on credit were digging themselves a hole out of which it would take decades to recover. The decision was to have lenders double the amount charged for minimum payments and in turn reduce the time required to pay off debt into about one third of its original timeline under the most ideal of circumstances.

Doubling a minimum amount due on the issued credit cards seems reasonable if one is able to financially handle the load. It is no problem at all for those who ideally pay off their cards at the first of every month.

The reality is that most Americans who struggle to make minimum credit card payments or even minimum payments plus covering finance charges just to stay one step ahead. Observers contend that these individuals are no longer going to be able to make the current minimums with which they are faced. The result will be additional or late charges, compounded interest, deeper debt for the middle class - even if they no longer make use of outstanding cards - and financial ruin for many families while corporate losses await card companies.

Add increased credit card bills with job cuts and boosts in the cost of living, and what might look reasonable written on paper among governmental decision makers and in corporate board rooms, quickly spells disaster on the streets.

Among the coffeehouse court of public opinion, most questioned expressed anger at the move. How can they do that? This will be disastrous for people, said a waitress in her 60s who is concerned about the futures of her children and grandchildren.

I'm so much in debt now it doesn't even matter, confessed one coffee patron.

My minimum on one MasterCard went from $400 to more than $1,000 a month, said one man under the agreement of anonymity. I could do the $400 even though it wasn't easy. But there is no way I can cover this. I don't know what I'm going to do. I might as well not even try to pay it and just live with bad credit.

Some card holders went so far as to suggest their suspicion that credit card companies are penalizing current card holders because of a rush of bankruptcies that were filed at the end of 2005, in anticipation of legal changes in bankruptcy laws for 2006.

Even financial experts in the legal profession are cautious about making any definitive statements. Bankruptcy lawyers contacted for comment suggested that questions be directed to consumer lawyers. In turn, consumer lawyers recommended that bankruptcy lawyers be sought for insight.

Some might argue that credit card companies caused their own problems with advertising that shows how easy it is to use their plastic for lavish vacation trips, sports events or concerts of the year. However, among most consumers questioned, the bulk of their credit debt during 2005 came with charges to make home repairs, keep automobiles operational and even purchase groceries just because pay checks covered little more than the mortgage and utilities.

For most credit card holders many questions remain regarding new regulations that are certain to put them into hotter financial water than they were already experiencing.

STEP 1

A welfare recipient comes into a store with a Link food-stamp card credited by the government with a dollar amount for groceries, $100, for example.

STEP 2

The store clerk swipes the card through a government computer terminal and takes credit for $100 in phony food sales.

STEP 3

Then the clerk hands $70 - the going rate of return is about 70 cents on the dollar - to the welfare recipient and keeps the rest as profit.

STEP 4

Part of the crooked store owners' proceeds are often shipped overseas.

STEP 5

Investigators suspect some of that money is winding up in the hands of terrorists.