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A credit card is a system of payment named after the small plastic card issued to users of the system. Personal finance is the application of the principles of Finance to the monetary decisions of an individual or family unit Credit is the provision of resources (such as granting a Loan) by one party to another party where that second party does not reimburse the first party immediately thereby generating Debt is that which is owed usually referencing Assets owed but the term can cover other obligations A credit union is a Cooperative Financial institution that is owned and controlled by its members and operated for the purpose of promoting thrift providing credit A debit card (also known as a bank card) is a plastic card which provides an alternative payment method to Cash when making purchases Debt consolidation entails taking out one Loan to pay off many others A loan is a type of Debt. This article focuses exclusively on monetary loans although in practice any material object might be lent A moneylender offers small Personal loans at high rates of interest, usually higher rates than the market rate charged on Credit cards or on A mortgage is the pledging of a property to a Lender as a security for a Mortgage loan. A pawnbroker is an individual or business entity that offers monetary loans in exchange for an item of value to the given pawn broker A contract of employment is a category of Contract used in Labour law to attribute right and responsibilities between parties to a bargain A salary is a form of periodic payment from an Employer to an Employee, which may be specified in an Employment contract. A wage is a compensation workers receive in exchange for their labor. An employee stock option is a Call option on the common stock of a company issued as a form of non-cash compensation. Employee benefits and (especially in British English) benefits in kind (also called fringe benefits, perquisites, perqs or Retirement is the point where a person stops employment completely A retirement plan is an arrangement to provide people with an income or Pension, during Retirement, when they are no longer earning a steady income from employment An Individual Retirement Account (or IRA) is a Retirement plan account that provides some Tax advantages for Retirement savings in the United A pension is a steady income given to a person upon Retirement, typically in the form of a guaranteed annuity. Social security primarily refers to a Social insurance program providing social protection or protection against socially recognized conditions including poverty old A business plan is a formal statement of a set of business goals the reasons why they are believed attainable and the plan for reaching those goals A corporate action is an event initiated by a Public company that affects the securities ( Equity or Debt) issued by the company A financial planner or personal financial planner is a practicing professional who helps people deal with various personal financial issues through proper planning which includes A financial adviser is a professional who renders investment advice and Financial planning services to individuals and businesses Estate planning is the process of accumulating and disposing of an estate to maximize the goals of the estate owner The field of finance refers to the concepts of Time, Money and Risk and how they are interrelated In Economics, a financial market is a mechanism that allows people to easily buy and sell ( Trade) financial Securities (such as stocks and bonds There are two basic financial market participant categories Investor vs Corporate finance is an area of Finance dealing with the financial decisions Corporations make and the tools and analysis used to make these decisions Personal finance is the application of the principles of Finance to the monetary decisions of an individual or family unit Public finance is a field of economics concerned with paying for collective or governmental activities and with the administration and design of those activities A banker or bank is a Financial institution whose primary activity is to act as a payment agent for customers and to borrow and lend money Financial regulations are a form of Regulation or supervision which subjects Financial institutions to certain requirements restrictions and guidelines aiming to A payment is the transfer of wealth from one party (such as a person or company to another Plastic is the general common term for a wide range of synthetic or semisynthetic organic solid materials suitable for the manufacture of industrial products In the case of credit cards, the issuer lends money to the consumer (or the user) to be paid later to the merchant. Money is anything that is generally accepted as Payment for Goods and services and repayment of Debts. Consumers refers to individuals or households that use goods and services generated within the economy. Merchants function as professionals who deal with Trade, dealing in commodities that they do not produce themselves in order to produce Profit. It is different from a charge card, which requires the balance to be paid in full each month. A charge card is a means of obtaining a very short term (usually around 1 month loan for a purchase In contrast, a credit card allows the consumer to 'revolve' their balance, at the cost of having interest charged. Credit card interest is the principal way in which card issuers generate Revenue. Most credit cards are issued by local banks or Credit Unions, and are the same shape and size, as specified by the ISO 7810 standard. A banker or bank is a Financial institution whose primary activity is to act as a payment agent for customers and to borrow and lend money ISO/IEC 78102003 is an International standard that defines four formats for identity or Identification cards ID-1 ID-2 ID-3 and ID-000

Contents 1 How credit cards work 1.1 Interest charges 1.2 Benefits 1.3 Grace period 1.4 The merchant's side 1.5 Parties involved 1.6 Transaction steps 1.7 Secured credit cards 1.8 Prepaid "credit" cards 2 Features 3 Security 3.1 Problems 4 Profits and losses 4.1 Costs 4.1.1 Interest expenses 4.1.2 Operating costs 4.1.3 Charge offs 4.1.4 Rewards 4.1.5 Fraud 4.2 Revenues 4.2.1 Interchange fee 4.2.2 Interest on outstanding balances 4.2.3 Fees charged to customers 5 Neutral consumer resources 5.1 Canada 6 History 6.1 Charga-Plate 6.2 Collectible credit cards 7 Controversy 7.1 Hidden costs 7.2 Redlining 8 Credit card numbering 9 Credit cards in ATMs 10 Credit cards as funding for entrepreneurs 11 References 12 See also 13 External links 13.1 Credit card associations

How credit cards work

Credit cards are issued after an account has been approved by the credit provider, after which cardholders can use it to make purchases at merchants accepting that card. EMV is a standard for interoperation of IC cards ("Chip cards" and IC capable POS terminals and ATM 's for authenticating credit Holography (from the Greek, ὅλος - hólos whole + γραφή - grafē writing drawing is a technique that allows the The numbers found on Credit cards and bank cards have a certain amount of internal structure and share a common Numbering scheme. A magnetic stripe card is a type of card capable of storing Data by modifying the Magnetism of tiny iron-based magnetic particles on a band of magnetic material A signature (from Latin signare, " Sign " is a handwritten (and sometimes stylized depiction of someone's name nickname or even a simple The Card Security Code ( CSC) sometimes called Card Verification Value (CVV, Card Verification Value Code (CVVC, Card Verification Code (CVC Merchants function as professionals who deal with Trade, dealing in commodities that they do not produce themselves in order to produce Profit.

When a purchase is made, the credit card user agrees to pay the card issuer. The cardholder indicates his/her consent to pay, by signing a receipt with a record of the card details and indicating the amount to be paid or by entering a Personal identification number (PIN). A receipt is a written acknowledgement that a specified article or sum of money has been received as an exchange for goods or services A personal identification number (PIN is a secret numeric Password shared between a user and a system that can be used to authenticate the user to the system Also, many merchants now accept verbal authorizations via telephone and electronic authorization using the Internet, known as a 'Card/Cardholder Not Present' (CNP) transaction.

Electronic verification systems allow merchants to verify that the card is valid and the credit card customer has sufficient credit to cover the purchase in a few seconds, allowing the verification to happen at time of purchase. Electronics refers to the flow of charge (moving Electrons through Nonmetal conductors (mainly Semiconductors, whereas electrical A credit card is part of a system of Payments named after the small Plastic card issued to users of the system The verification is performed using a credit card payment terminal or Point of Sale (POS) system with a communications link to the merchant's acquiring bank. Several types of credit card terminals are available to Merchants Most have the same basic purpose and functions Point of sale or point of service ( POS or PoS) can mean a retail shop, a checkout counter in a shop or the location where a transaction An acquirer (or Acquiring bank) is a member of a card scheme(s for example MasterCard and/or Visa, which maintains merchant relationships and receives Data from the card is obtained from a magnetic stripe or chip on the card; the latter system is in the United Kingdom and Ireland commonly known as Chip and PIN, but is more technically an EMV card. A magnetic stripe card is a type of card capable of storing Data by modifying the Magnetism of tiny iron-based magnetic particles on a band of magnetic material A smart card, chip card, or Integrated circuit card ( ICC) is any pocket-sized card with embedded integrated The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom, the UK or Britain,is a Sovereign state located Ireland (pronounced /ˈaɾlənd/ Éire) is the third largest island in Europe, and the twentieth-largest island in the world Chip and PIN is the name of a government-backed initiative in the United Kingdom to implement the EMV standard for secure payments EMV is a standard for interoperation of IC cards ("Chip cards" and IC capable POS terminals and ATM 's for authenticating credit

Other variations of verification systems are used by eCommerce merchants to determine if the user's account is valid and able to accept the charge. Electronic commerce, commonly known as e-commerce' or eCommerce, consists of the buying and selling of products or services over electronic These will typically involve the cardholder providing additional information, such as the security code printed on the back of the card, or the address of the cardholder. The Card Security Code ( CSC) sometimes called Card Verification Value (CVV, Card Verification Value Code (CVVC, Card Verification Code (CVC

Each month, the credit card user is sent a statement indicating the purchases undertaken with the card, any outstanding fees, and the total amount owed. After receiving the statement, the cardholder may dispute any charges that he or she thinks are incorrect (see Fair Credit Billing Act for details of the US regulations). The Fair Credit Billing Act (FCBA is a United States Federal law enacted as an amendment to the Truth in Lending Act (codified at et seq Otherwise, the cardholder must pay a defined minimum proportion of the bill by a due date, or may choose to pay a higher amount up to the entire amount owed. The credit provider charges interest on the amount owed (typically at a much higher rate than most other forms of debt). Interest is a fee paid on borrowed capital Assets lent include Money, Shares, Consumer goods through Hire purchase, major assets Some financial institutions can arrange for automatic payments to be deducted from the user's bank accounts, thus avoiding late payment altogether as long as the cardholder has sufficient funds.

Interest charges

Credit card issuers usually waive interest charges if the balance is paid in full each month, but typically will charge full interest on the entire outstanding balance from the date of each purchase if the total balance is not paid.

For example, if a user had a $1,000 transaction and repaid it in full within this grace period, there would be no interest charged. If, however, even $1. 00 of the total amount remained unpaid, interest would be charged on the $1,000 from the date of purchase until the payment is received. The precise manner in which interest is charged is usually detailed in a cardholder agreement which may be summarized on the back of the monthly statement. The general calculation formula most financial institutions use to determine the amount of interest to be charged is APR/100 x ADB/365 x number of days revolved. Take the Annual percentage rate (APR) and divide by 100 then multiply to the amount of the average daily balance (ADB) divided by 365 and then take this total and multiply by the total number of days the amount revolved before payment was made on the account. Financial institutions refer to interest charged back to the original time of the transaction and up to the time a payment was made, if not in full, as RRFC or residual retail finance charge. Thus after an amount has revolved and a payment has been made, the user of the card will still receive interest charges on his statement after paying the next statement in full (in fact the statement may only have a charge for interest that collected up until the date the full balance was paid. . . i. e. when the balance stopped revolving). ^[1]

The credit card may simply serve as a form of revolving credit, or it may become a complicated financial instrument with multiple balance segments each at a different interest rate, possibly with a single umbrella credit limit, or with separate credit limits applicable to the various balance segments. Revolving credit is a type of credit that does not have a fixed number of payments in contrast to Installment credit. Usually this compartmentalization is the result of special incentive offers from the issuing bank, either to encourage balance transfers from cards of other issuers. A balance transfer is the act of transferring debt from one Credit card to another assuming the newer card has better terms and rates In the event that several interest rates apply to various balance segments, payment allocation is generally at the discretion of the issuing bank, and payments will therefore usually be allocated towards the lowest rate balances until paid in full before any money is paid towards higher rate balances. Interest rates can vary considerably from card to card, and the interest rate on a particular card may jump dramatically if the card user is late with a payment on that card or any other credit instrument, or even if the issuing bank decides to raise its revenue. Interest is a fee paid on borrowed capital Assets lent include Money, Shares, Consumer goods through Hire purchase, major assets

Benefits

Because of intense competition in the credit card industry, credit card providers often offer incentives such as frequent flyer points, gift certificates, or cash back (typically up to 1 percent based on total purchases) to try to attract customers to their programs. A frequent flyer program (FFP is a Loyalty program offered by many Airlines. Scrip is any Substitute for Currency which is not Legal tender and is often a form of credit. When accepting payment by Credit card, merchants typically pay a percentage of the transaction amount in commission to their bank or merchant services provider

Low interest credit cards or even 0% interest credit cards are available. The only downside to consumers is that the period of low interest credit cards is limited to a fixed term, usually between 6 and 12 months after which a higher rate is charged. However, services are available which alert credit card holders when their low interest period is due to expire. Most such services charge a monthly or annual fee.

Grace period

A credit card's grace period is the time the customer has to pay the balance before interest is charged to the balance. Grace periods vary, but usually range from 20 to 30 days depending on the type of credit card and the issuing bank. Some policies allow for reinstatement after certain conditions are met.

Usually, if a customer is late paying the balance, finance charges will be calculated and the grace period does not apply. Finance charges incurred depend on the grace period and balance; with most credit cards there is no grace period if there is any outstanding balance from the previous billing cycle or statement (i. e. interest is applied on both the previous balance and new transactions). However, there are some credit cards that will only apply finance charge on the previous or old balance, excluding new transactions.

The merchant's side

For merchants, a credit card transaction is often more secure than other forms of payment, such as checks, because the issuing bank commits to pay the merchant the moment the transaction is authorized, regardless of whether the consumer defaults on his credit card payment (except for legitimate disputes, which are discussed below, and can result in charge backs to the merchant). In most cases, cards are even more secure than cash, because they discourage theft by the merchant's employees and reduce the amount of cash on the premises.

For each purchase, the bank charges the merchant a commission (discount fee) for this service and there may be a certain delay before the agreed payment is received by the merchant. The commission is often a percentage of the transaction amount, plus a fixed fee. In addition, a merchant may be penalized or have his ability to receive payment using that credit card restricted if there are too many cancellations or reversals of charges as a result of disputes. Some small merchants require credit purchases to have a minimum amount (usually between $5 and $10) to compensate for the transaction costs, though this is not always allowed by the credit card consortium.

In some countries, like the Nordic countries, banks guarantee payment on stolen cards only if an ID card is checked and the ID card number/civic registration number is written down on the receipt together with the signature. The Nordic countries make up a region in Northern Europe called the Nordic region, consisting of Denmark, Finland, Iceland, An identity document, also called a piece of identification ( ID) is a document used to verify aspects of a person's Identity. In these countries merchants therefore usually ask for ID. Non-Nordic citizens, who are unlikely to possess a Nordic ID card or driving license, will instead have to show their passport, and the passport number will be written down on the receipt, sometimes together with other information. Some shops use the card's PIN code for identification, and in that case showing an ID card is not necessary.

Parties involved

• Cardholder: The holder of the card used to make a purchase; the consumer. Consumers refers to individuals or households that use goods and services generated within the economy.
• Card-issuing bank: The financial institution or other organization that issued the credit card to the cardholder. This bank bills the consumer for repayment and bears the risk that the card is used fraudulently. American Express and Discover were previously the only card-issuing banks for their respective brands, but as of 2007, this is no longer the case.
• Merchant: The individual or business accepting credit card payments for products or services sold to the cardholder
• Acquiring bank: The financial institution accepting payment for the products or services on behalf of the merchant. An acquiring bank (or acquirer) is the Bank or financial institution that accepts payments for the products or services on behalf of a merchant
• Independent sales organization: Resellers (to merchants) of the services of the acquiring bank. In the English-speaking world a Independent Sales Organization (ISO also called a Member Service Provider (MSP is an outside company (not a MasterCard or
• Merchant account: This could refer to the acquiring bank or the independent sales organization, but in general is the organization that the merchant deals with. A merchant account is a contract under which an Acquiring bank extends a Line of credit to a Merchant, who wishes to accept Payment card
• Credit Card association: An association of card-issuing banks such as Visa, MasterCard, Discover, American Express, etc. MasterCard Worldwide ( is a multinational corporation based in Purchase, New York, USA. Digital Interactive Systems Corporation (or DISCover) is a company specializing in gaming technology for PCs American Express ( sometimes known as " AmEx " or " Amex " is a diversified global Financial services company headquartered in that set transaction terms for merchants, card-issuing banks, and acquiring banks.
• Transaction network: The system that implements the mechanics of the electronic transactions. May be operated by an independent company, and one company may operate multiple networks. Transaction processing networks include: Cardnet, Nabanco, Omaha, Paymentech, NDC Atlanta, Nova, Vital, Concord EFSnet, and VisaNet. ^[2]
• Affinity partner: Some institutions lend their names to an issuer to attract customers that have a strong relationship with that institution, and get paid a fee or a percentage of the balance for each card issued using their name. Examples of typical affinity partners are sports teams, universities and charities.

The flow of information and money between these parties — always through the card associations — is known as the interchange, and it consists of a few steps.

Transaction steps

• Authorization: The cardholder pays for the purchase and the merchant submits the transaction to the acquirer (acquiring bank). The acquirer verifies the credit card number, the transaction type and the amount with the issuer (Card-issuing bank).

• Batching: Authorized transactions are stored in "batches", which are sent to the acquirer. Batches are typically submitted once per day at the end of the business day.

• Clearing and Settlement: The acquirer sends the batch transactions through the credit card association, which debits the issuers for payment and credits the acquirer. Essentially, the issuer pays the acquirer for the transaction.

• Funding: Once the acquirer has been paid, the acquirer pays the merchant. The merchant receives the amount totaling the funds in the batch minus the "discount rate," which is the fee the merchant pays the acquirer for processing the transactions.

• Chargebacks: A chargeback is an event in which money in a merchant account is held due to a dispute relating to the transaction. Chargebacks are typically initiated by the cardholder. In the event of a chargeback, the issuer returns the transaction to the acquirer for resolution. A chargeback is a reversal of a payment card transaction initiated by the consumer who holds the card or the bank that issued the card used in the purchase The acquirer then forwards the chargeback to the merchant, who must either accept the chargeback or contest it.

Secured credit cards

A secured credit card is a type of credit card secured by a deposit account owned by the cardholder. A deposit account is a current account at a Banking institution that allows money to be deposited and withdrawn by the account holder with the transactions and resulting balance Typically, the cardholder must deposit between 100% and 200% of the total amount of credit desired. Thus if the cardholder puts down $1000, he or she will be given credit in the range of $500–$1000. In some cases, credit card issuers will offer incentives even on their secured card portfolios. In these cases, the deposit required may be significantly less than the required credit limit, and can be as low as 10% of the desired credit limit. This deposit is held in a special savings account. Savings accounts are accounts maintained by retail Financial institutions that pay Interest but can not be used directly as Money (by for example Credit card issuers offer this as they have noticed that delinquencies were notably reduced when the customer perceives he has something to lose if he doesn't repay his balance.

The cardholder of a secured credit card is still expected to make regular payments, as he or she would with a regular credit card, but should he or she default on a payment, the card issuer has the option of recovering the cost of the purchases paid to the merchants out of the deposit. The advantage of the secured card for an individual with negative or no credit history is that most companies report regularly to the major credit bureaus. This allows for building of positive credit history.

Although the deposit is in the hands of the credit card issuer as security in the event of default by the consumer, the deposit will not be debited simply for missing one or two payments. Usually the deposit is only used as an offset when the account is closed, either at the request of the customer or due to severe delinquency (150 to 180 days). This means that an account which is less than 150 days delinquent will continue to accrue interest and fees, and could result in a balance which is much higher than the actual credit limit on the card. In these cases the total debt may far exceed the original deposit and the cardholder not only forfeits their deposit but is left with an additional debt.

Most of these conditions are usually described in a cardholder agreement which the cardholder signs when their account is opened.

Secured credit cards are an option to allow a person with a poor credit history or no credit history to have a credit card which might not otherwise be available. This article deals with the general concept of the term credit history They are often offered as a means of rebuilding one's credit. Secured credit cards are available with both Visa and MasterCard logos on them. MasterCard Worldwide ( is a multinational corporation based in Purchase, New York, USA. A logo ( Greek el λογότυπος = el-Latn logotypos is a graphical element ( Ideogram, Symbol, Emblem, Icon, Sign) Fees and service charges for secured credit cards often exceed those charged for ordinary non-secured credit cards, however, for people in certain situations, (for example, after charging off on other credit cards, or people with a long history of delinquency on various forms of debt), secured cards can often be less expensive in total cost than unsecured credit cards, even including the security deposit.

Sometimes a credit card will be secured by the equity in the borrower's home. Home equity is the value of a homeowner's unencumbered interest in their property i ^[3][4] This is called a home equity line of credit (HELOC). A home equity line of credit (often called HELOC and pronounced HEE-lock is a Loan in which the lender agrees to lend a maximum amount within an agreed period (called

Prepaid "credit" cards

See also: Stored-value card

A prepaid credit card is not a credit card,^[5] as no credit is offered by the card issuer: the card-holder spends money which has been "stored" via a prior deposit by the card-holder or someone else, such as a parent or employer. A stored-value card represents Money on deposit with the Issuer, and is similar to a Debit card. However, it carries a credit-card brand (Visa, MasterCard, American Express or Discover) and can be used in similar ways just as though it were a regular credit card. ^[5][6]

After purchasing the card, the cardholder loads it with any amount of money, up to the predetermined card limit ^[7] and then uses the card to make purchases the same way as a typical credit card. Prepaid cards can be issued to minors (above 13) since there is no credit line involved. The main advantage over secured credit cards (see above section) is that you are not required to come up with $500 or more to open an account. ^[8] With prepaid credit cards you are not charged any interest but you are often charged a purchasing fee plus monthly fees after an arbitrary time period. Many other fees also usually apply to a prepaid card. ^[5]

Prepaid credit cards are sometimes marketed to teenagers^[5] for shopping online without having their parents complete the transaction. ^{[9][10][11][12]}

Because of the many fees that apply to obtaining and using credit-card-branded prepaid cards, the Financial Consumer Agency of Canada describes them as "an expensive way to spend your own money". The Financial Consumer Agency of Canada (FCAC is an independent Government agency of the Government of Canada. ^[13] The agency publishes a booklet, "Pre-paid cards",^[14] which explains the advantages and disadvantages of this type of prepaid card.

Features

As well as convenient, accessible credit, credit cards offer consumers an easy way to track expenses, which is necessary for both monitoring personal expenditures and the tracking of work-related expenses for taxation and reimbursement purposes. In common usage an expense or expenditure is an outflow of Money to another person or group to pay for an item or service or for a category of costs Reimbursement is the act of compensating someone for an expense Credit cards are accepted worldwide, and are available with a large variety of credit limits, repayment arrangement, and other perks (such as rewards schemes in which points earned by purchasing goods with the card can be redeemed for further goods and services or credit card cashback). Loyalty programs are structured marketing efforts that reward and therefore encourage loyal buying behaviour — behaviour which is potentially of benefit to the firm A service is the non-material equivalent of a good. A service provision is an economic activity that does not result in Ownership, and this is what differentiates When accepting payment by Credit card, merchants typically pay a percentage of the transaction amount in commission to their bank or merchant services provider

Some countries, such as the United States, the United Kingdom, and France, limit the amount for which a consumer can be held liable due to fraudulent transactions as a result of a consumer's credit card being lost or stolen. The United States of America —commonly referred to as the The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom, the UK or Britain,is a Sovereign state located This article is about the country For a topic outline on this subject see List of basic France topics.

Security

Credit card security relies on the physical security of the plastic card as well as the privacy of the credit card number. Therefore, whenever a person other than the card owner has access to the card or its number, security is potentially compromised. Merchants often accept credit card numbers without additional verification for mail order purchases. They however record the delivery address as a security measure to minimise fradulent purchases. Some merchants will accept a credit card number for in-store purchases, whereupon access to the number allows easy fraud, but many require the card itself to be present, and require a signature. Thus, a stolen card can be cancelled, and if this is done quickly, no fraud can take place in this way. For internet purchases, there is sometimes the same level of security as for mail order (number only) hence requiring only that the fraudster take care about collecting the goods, but often there are additional measures.   The main one is to require a security PIN with the card, which requires that the thief have access to the card, as well as the PIN.

An additional feature to secure the credit card transaction and prohibit the use of a lost credit card is the MobiClear solution. Each transaction is authenticated through a call to the user mobile phone. The transaction is released once the transaction has been confirmed by the cardholder pushing his/her pincode during the call.

The PCI DSS is the security standard issued by The PCI SSC (Payment Card Industry Security Standards Council). This data security standard is used by acquiring banks to impose cardholder data security measures upon their merchants.

Problems

Main article: Credit card fraud

The low security of the credit card system presents countless opportunities for fraud. In the broadest sense a fraud is a Deception made for personal gain or to damage another individual This opportunity has created a huge black market in stolen credit card numbers, which are generally used quickly before the cards are reported stolen. The numbers found on Credit cards and bank cards have a certain amount of internal structure and share a common Numbering scheme.

The goal of the credit card companies is not to eliminate fraud, but to "reduce it to manageable levels". ^[15] This implies that high-cost low-return fraud prevention measures will not be used if their cost exceeds the potential gains from fraud reduction.

Most internet fraud is done through the use of stolen credit card information which is obtained in many ways, the simplest being copying information from retailers, either online or offline. Despite efforts to improve security for remote purchases using credit cards, systems with security holes are usually the result of poor implementations of card acquisition by merchants. For example, a website that uses SSL to encrypt card numbers from a client may simply email the number from the webserver to someone who manually processes the card details at a card terminal. Transport Layer Security ( TLS) and its predecessor Secure Sockets Layer ( SSL) are Cryptographic protocols that provide secure Naturally, anywhere card details become human-readable before being processed at the acquiring bank, a security risk is created. However, many banks offer systems where encrypted card details captured on a merchant's webserver can be sent directly to the payment processor.

Controlled Payment Numbers are another option for protecting one's credit card number: they are "alias" numbers linked to one's actual card number, generated as needed, valid for a relatively short time, with a very low limit, and typically only valid with a single merchant. A controlled payment number (also called a "substitute credit card number" or "one-time use credit card" is an alias for one's Credit card number

The Federal Bureau of Investigation and U.S. Postal Inspection Service are responsible for prosecuting criminals who engage in credit card fraud in the United States, but they do not have the resources to pursue all criminals. The United States Postal Inspection Service (or USPIS) is the law enforcement arm of the United States Postal Service. Credit card fraud is a wide-ranging term for Theft and Fraud committed using a Credit card or any similar payment mechanism as a fraudulent source In general, federal officials only prosecute cases exceeding US $5000 in value. Three improvements to card security have been introduced to the more common credit card networks but none has proven to help reduce credit card fraud so far. First, the on-line verification system used by merchants is being enhanced to require a 4 digit Personal Identification Number (PIN) known only to the card holder. A personal identification number (PIN is a secret numeric Password shared between a user and a system that can be used to authenticate the user to the system Second, the cards themselves are being replaced with similar-looking tamper-resistant smart cards which are intended to make forgery more difficult. A smart card, chip card, or Integrated circuit card ( ICC) is any pocket-sized card with embedded integrated Forgery is the process of making adapting or imitating objects statistics or documents (see False document) with the intent to deceive. The majority of smartcard (IC card) based credit cards comply with the EMV (Europay MasterCard Visa) standard. EMV is a standard for interoperation of IC cards ("Chip cards" and IC capable POS terminals and ATM 's for authenticating credit Third, an additional 3 or 4 digit code is now present on the back of most cards, for use in "card not present" transactions. See CVV2 for more information. The Card Security Code ( CSC) sometimes called Card Verification Value (CVV, Card Verification Value Code (CVVC, Card Verification Code (CVC

The way credit card owners pay off their balances has a tremendous effect on their credit history. This article deals with the general concept of the term credit history All the information is collected by credit bureaus. A credit bureau (US or credit reference agency (UK is a company that collects information from various sources and provides consumer Credit information on individual The credit information stays on the credit report, depending on the jurisdiction and the situation, for 1, 2, 5, 7 or even 10 years after the debt is repaid.

Profits and losses

In recent times, credit card portfolios have been very profitable for banks, largely due to the booming economy of the late nineties. In Economics, the term boom and bust refers to the movement of an economy through Economic cycles. However, in the case of credit cards, such high returns go hand in hand with risk, since the business is essentially one of making unsecured (uncollateralized) loans, and thus dependent on borrowers not to default in large numbers.

Costs

Credit card issuers (banks) have several types of costs:

Interest expenses

Banks generally borrow the money they then lend to their customers. As they receive very low-interest loans from other firms, they may borrow as much as their customers require, while lending their capital to other borrowers at higher rates. If the card issuer charges 15% on money lent to users, and it costs 5% to borrow the money to lend, and the balance sits with the cardholder for a year, the issuer earns 10% on the loan. This 5% difference is the "interest expense" and the 10% is the "net interest spread".

Operating costs

This is the cost of running the credit card portfolio, including everything from paying the executives who run the company to printing the plastics, to mailing the statements, to running the computers that keep track of every cardholder's balance, to taking the many phone calls which cardholders place to their issuer, to protecting the customers from fraud rings. operating cost are the recurring expenses which are related to the operation of a business or to the operation of a device component piece of equipment or facility Depending on the issuer, marketing programs are also a significant portion of expenses.

Charge offs

When a consumer becomes severely delinquent on a debt (often at the point of six months without payment), the creditor may declare the debt to be a charge-off. It will then be listed as such on the debtor's credit bureau reports (Equifax, for instance, lists "R9" in the "status" column to denote a charge-off. Equifax Inc ( is a Consumer credit reporting agency in the United States, considered one of the three largest American credit agencies along with Experian ) The item will include relevant dates, and the amount of the bad debt. ^[16]

A charge-off is considered to be "written off as uncollectable. " To banks, bad debts and even fraud are simply part of the cost of doing business.

However, the debt is still legally valid, and the creditor can attempt to collect the full amount for the time periods permitted under state law, which is usually 3 to 7 years. This includes contacts from internal collections staff, or more likely, an outside collection agency. A collection agency is a business that pursues payments on Debts owed by individuals or businesses If the amount is large (generally over $1500 - $2000), there is the possibility of a lawsuit or arbitration. Arbitration, a form of Alternative dispute resolution (ADR is a legal technique for the resolution of Disputes outside the Courts wherein the

In the US, as the charge off number climbs or becomes erratic, officials from the Federal Reserve take a close look at the finances of the bank and may impose various operating strictures on the bank, and in the most extreme cases, may close the bank entirely.

Rewards

Many credit card customers receive rewards, such as frequent flier points, gift certificates, or cash back as an incentive to use the card. Qantas Airways Limited (ˈkwɔntəs ( is the National airline of Australia. Rewards are generally tied to purchasing an item or service on the card, which may or may not include balance transfers, cash advances, or other special uses. A balance transfer is the act of transferring debt from one Credit card to another assuming the newer card has better terms and rates A payday loan (also called a paycheck advance or payday advance) is a small short-term Loan that is intended to cover a borrower's expenses until Depending on the type of card, rewards will generally cost the issuer between 0. 25% and 2. 0% of the spend. Networks like Visa or MasterCard have increased their fees to allow issuers to fund their rewards system. However, most rewards points are accrued as a liability on a company's balance sheet and expensed at the time of reward redemption. As a result, some issuers discourage redemption by forcing the cardholder to call customer service for rewards. On their servicing website, redeeming awards is usually a feature that is very well hidden by the issuers. Others encourage redemption for lower cost merchandise; instead of an airline ticket, which is very expensive to an issuer, the cardholder may be encouraged to redeem for a gift certificate instead. With a fractured and competitive environment, rewards points cut dramatically into an issuer's bottom line, and rewards points and related incentives must be carefully managed to ensure a profitable portfolio. In finance a portfolio is an appropriate mix of or collection of investments held by an institution or a private individual There is a case to be made that rewards not redeemed should follow the same path as gift cards that are not used: in certain states the gift card breakage goes to the state's treasury. Breakage is a term used in Accounting to indicate Gift cards that have been sold but never redeemed The same could happen to the value of points or cash not redeemed.

Fraud

The cost of fraud is high; in the UK in 2004 it was over £500 million. ^[17] When a card is stolen, or an unauthorized duplicate made, most card issuers will refund some or all of the charges that the customer has received for things they did not buy. These refunds will, in some cases, be at the expense of the merchant, especially in mail order cases where the merchant cannot claim sight of the card. In several countries, merchants will lose the money if no ID card was asked for, therefore merchants usually require ID card in these countries. Credit card companies generally guarantee the merchant will be paid on legitimate transactions regardless of whether the consumer pays their credit card bill.

Revenues

Offsetting costs are the following revenues:

Interchange fee

Main article: Interchange fee

Bank card associations like Visa and MasterCard require merchants to pay billions of dollars in Interchange fees to banks that issue their credit and debit cards. Interchange fee is a term used in the payment card industry to describe a fee that a merchant’s bank (the “acquiring bank” pays a customer’s bank (the “issuing bank” when MasterCard Worldwide ( is a multinational corporation based in Purchase, New York, USA. Interchange fee is a term used in the payment card industry to describe a fee that a merchant’s bank (the “acquiring bank” pays a customer’s bank (the “issuing bank” when ^[18] Card-issuing banks obtain these interchange fees in addition to the enormous revenue they receive from card holder interest and fees. Interchange fees are the single largest component of the various fees that banks deduct from merchants' credit card sales. Merchants pay their banks fees of 1 to 6 percent of each sale (for large merchants these fees may be negotiated^[19], but will vary not only from merchant to merchant, but also from card to card, with business cards and rewards cards generally costing the merchants more to process), which is why many merchants prefer cash, PIN-based debit cards, or even cheques, or will add a percentage to the sale price to cover the interchange fee. Cash usually refers to Money in the form of Currency, such as Banknotes and Coins In Bookkeeping and Finance, A debit card (also known as a bank card) is a plastic card which provides an alternative payment method to Cash when making purchases A cheque (spelled check in American English) is a Negotiable instrument instructing a Financial institution to pay a specific amount of Traditionally, interchange fees have been set by the bank card associations and their major card-issuing banks, who are the primary beneficiaries of these fees. ^[20]

The interchange fee that applies to a particular merchant is a function of many variables including the type of merchant, the merchant's total card sales volume, the merchant's average transaction amount, whether the cards are physically present, if the card's magnetic stripe is read or if the transaction is hand-keyed or entered on a website, the specific type of card, when the transaction is settled, the authorized and settled transaction amounts, etc. For a typical credit card issuer, interchange fee revenues may represent about a quarter of total revenues,^[19] but this will vary greatly among credit card issuers. Interchange fees may consume over 50 percent of profits from card sales for some merchants (such as supermarkets) that operate on slim margins. Merchants contend that interchange fees force them to raise prices for everyone; banks contend that interchange fees enable them to offer better cardholder rewards for their best customers.

Interest on outstanding balances

Interest charges vary widely from card issuer to card issuer. Credit card interest is the principal way in which card issuers generate Revenue. Often, there are "teaser" rates in effect for initial periods of time (as low as zero percent for, say, six months), whereas regular rates can be as high as 40 percent. In the U. S. there is no federal limit on the interest or late fees credit card issuers can charge; the interest rates are set by the states, with some states, like South Dakota, having no ceiling on interest rates and fees, inviting some banks to establish their credit card operations there. Other states, like Delaware, have very weak usury laws. Usury (ˈjuːʒəri comes from the Medieval Latin usuria, "interest" or "excessive interest" from the Latin usura "interest" The teaser rate no longer applies if the customer doesn't pay his bills on time, and is replaced by a penalty interest rate (for example, 24. 99%) that applies retroactively. So customers should be wary of these offers, that usually contain some traps.

Fees charged to customers

The major fees are for:

• Late payments or overdue payments
• Charges that result in exceeding the credit limit on the card (whether done deliberately or by mistake), called overlimit fees
• Returned cheque fees or payment processing fees (eg phone payment fee)
• Cash advances and convenience cheques (often 3% of the amount)^[21]. Transactions in a foreign currency (as much as 3% of the amount). A few financial institutions do not charge a fee for this.
• Membership fees (annual or monthly), sometimes a percentage of the credit limit.
• Exchange Rate Loading Fees (May not even appear on your statement!)^[22]

Neutral consumer resources

Canada

The Government of Canada maintains a database of the fees, features, interest rates and reward programs of nearly 200 credit cards available in Canada. This database is updated on a quarterly basis with information supplied by the credit card issuing companies. Information in the database is published every quarter on the website of the Financial Consumer Agency of Canada (FCAC). The Financial Consumer Agency of Canada (FCAC is an independent Government agency of the Government of Canada.

Information in the database is published in two formats. It is available in PDF comparison tables that break down the information according to type of credit card, allowing the reader to compare the features of, for example, all the student credit cards in the database.

The database also feeds into an interactive tool on the FCAC website. ^[23] The interactive tool uses several interview-type questions to build a profile of the user's credit card usage habits and needs, eliminating unsuitable choices based on the profile, so that the user is presented with a small number of credit cards and the ability to carry out detailed comparisons of features, reward programs, interest rates, etc.

History

The concept of using a card for purchases was described in 1887 by Edward Bellamy in his utopian novel Looking Backward. Edward Bellamy (March 26 1850 &ndash May 22 1898 was an American Author and Socialist, most famous for his Utopian Novel, Looking Backward 2000-1887 is a Utopian novel by Edward Bellamy, a lawyer and writer from Western Massachusetts, and was first published Bellamy used the term credit card eleven times in this novel. ^[24]

The modern credit card was the successor of a variety of merchant credit schemes. It was first used in the 1920s, in the United States, specifically to sell fuel to a growing number of automobile owners. Fuel is any material that is burned or altered in order to obtain energy In 1938 several companies started to accept each other's cards.

The concept of paying merchants using a card was invented in 1950 by Ralph Schneider and Frank X. McNamara in order to consolidate multiple cards. Frank McNamara may refer to Frank McNamara (musician, Irish arranger conductor composer and pianist Frank Hubert McNamara, Australian The Diners Club, which was created partially through a merger with Dine and Sign, produced the first "general purpose" charge card, which is similar but required the entire bill to be paid with each statement; it was followed shortly thereafter by American Express and Carte Blanche. Diners Club International, originally founded as Diners Club, is a charge card company formed in 1950 by Frank X A charge card is a means of obtaining a very short term (usually around 1 month loan for a purchase Western Union had begun issuing charge cards to its frequent customers in 1914. The Western Union Company ( is a financial services and communications company based in the United States.

Bank of America created the BankAmericard in 1958, a product which eventually evolved into the Visa system ("Chargex" also became Visa). Banc of America Securities Bank of America () is the largest bank by asset and second largest commercial Bank by deposits and Market capitalization in United MasterCard came to being in 1966 when a group of credit-issuing banks established MasterCharge. MasterCard Worldwide ( is a multinational corporation based in Purchase, New York, USA. The fractured nature of the US banking system meant that credit cards became an effective way for those who were travelling around the country to move their credit to places where they could not directly use their banking facilities. In 1966 Barclaycard in the UK launched the first credit card outside of the US. Barclaycard is a global credit provider ( Credit cards and Loans ' owned by Barclays plc in the UK.

There are now countless variations on the basic concept of revolving credit for individuals (as issued by banks and honored by a network of financial institutions), including organization-branded credit cards, corporate-user credit cards, store cards and so on.

In contrast, although having reached very high adoption levels in the US, Canada and the UK, it is important to note that many cultures were much more cash-oriented in the latter half of the twentieth century, or had developed alternative forms of cash-less payments, like Carte bleue, or the EC-card (Germany, France, Switzerland, among many others). Carte Bleue ("Blue Card" is a major Debit card payment scheme operating in France. In these places, the take-up of credit cards was initially much slower. It took until the 1990s to reach anything like the percentage market-penetration levels achieved in the US, Canada or UK. In many countries acceptance still remains poor as the use of a credit card system depends on the banking system being perceived as reliable.

In contrast, because of the legislative framework surrounding banking system overdrafts, some countries, France in particular, were much faster to develop and adopt chip-based credit cards which are now seen as major anti-fraud credit devices.

The design of the credit card itself has become a major selling point in recent years. The value of the card to the issuer is often related to the customer's usage of the card, or to the customer's financial worth. This has led to the rise of Co-Brand and Affinity cards - where the card design is related to the "affinity" (a university, for example) leading to higher card usage. An affinity credit card program is a marketing program which enables a designated organization to earn a small percentage of all transactions on the Credit card. In most cases a percentage of the value of the card is returned to the affinity group.

Charga-Plate

The Charga-Plate is an early predecessor to the credit card. They were issued by large-scale merchants, much like department store credit cards of today. In some cases, they were kept in the store. When an authorized user made a purchase, the clerk retrieved the plate from the store's files and then processed the purchase. This made it possible for stores to allow more specialized employees of their customers to use the cards, in addition to corporate officers and executives, who would normally have expense accounts and corporate credit cards. For example, an art-supply store that opened an account with a research institute might allow graphic artists employed by the institute to buy art supplies for ongoing projects. It would not be necessary for the research firm to issue a credit card to the artist: instead, a supervisor would simply say, "Go to Universal Art Supply and buy those supplies. " The employee would go to the store and choose the appropriate supplies, and they would be charged to Central Institute for Research's account.

Collectible credit cards

A growing field of numismatics (study of money), or more specifically exonumia (study of money-like objects), credit card collectors seek to collect various embodiments of credit from the now familiar plastic cards to older paper merchant cards, and even metal tokens that were accepted as merchant credit cards. Numismatics (numisma nomisma "coin" from the νομίζειν nomízein, "to use according to law" is the study or collection of Currency Exonumia is the study of Coin -like objects such as Token coins and Medals and other items used in place of legal currency or for commemoration The M acro E xpansion T emplate A ttribute L anguage complements TAL, providing macros which allow the reuse of code across Early credit cards were made of celluloid, then metal and fiber, then paper and are now mostly plastic. Celluloid is the name of a class of compounds created from Nitrocellulose and Camphor, plus dyes and other agents Fiber or fibre is a class of Materials that are continuous filaments or are in discrete elongated pieces similar to lengths of thread.

Controversy

Credit card debt has soared, particularly among young people. Debt is that which is owed usually referencing Assets owed but the term can cover other obligations Since the late 1990s, lawmakers, consumer advocacy groups, college officials and other higher education affiliates have become increasingly concerned about the rising use of credit cards among college students. A legislator (or lawmaker) is a person who writes and passes laws especially someone who is a member of a Legislature. Consumer protection is a form of Government Regulation which protects the interests of Consumers For example a government may require businesses to disclose detailed The major credit card companies have been accused of targeting a younger audience, in particular college students, many of whom are already in debt with college tuition fees and college loans and who typically are less experienced at managing their own finances. College ( Latin collegium) is a term most often used today to denote an Educational Institution. Tuition means instruction or teaching. In American English, the term tuition is often used to refer to a fee charged for educational instruction A loan is a type of Debt. This article focuses exclusively on monetary loans although in practice any material object might be lent

A 2006 documentary film titled Maxed Out: Hard Times, Easy Credit and the Era of Predatory Lenders deals with this subject in detail. Documentary film is a broad category of visual expression that is based on the attempt in one fashion or another to " Document " reality Maxed Out Hard Times Easy Credit and the Era of Predatory Lenders (2006 is an independent feature-length Documentary film and (2007 book that chronicles abusive ^[25] The nonprofit group Americans for Fairness in Lending works with Maxed Out to educate Americans about credit card abuse. Americans for Fairness in Lending (AFFIL is a Non-profit organization designed to draw national attention to the unregulated lending industry in America Maxed Out Hard Times Easy Credit and the Era of Predatory Lenders (2006 is an independent feature-length Documentary film and (2007 book that chronicles abusive

Another controversial area is the universal default feature of many North American credit card contracts. Universal default is the term for a practice in the Financial services industry for a particular lender to change the terms of a Loan from the normal terms to the When a cardholder is late paying a particular credit card issuer, that card's interest rate can be raised, often considerably. Universal default allows creditors to periodically check cardholders' credit portfolios to view trade, thus allowing the institution to decrease the credit limit or increase rates on cardholders who may be late with another credit card issuer. Being late on one credit card will potentially affect all the cardholder's credit cards. Citibank voluntarily stopped this practice in March 2007 and Chase stopped the practice in November 2007. Citibank is a major international Bank, founded in 1812 as the City Bank of New York, later First National City Bank of New York. JPMorgan Chase & Co ( is the largest Banking institution in the United States by deposits and market capitalization and is one of the oldest operating ^[26]

Another controversial area is the trailing interest issue. Trailing interest is the practice of charging interest on the entire bill no matter what percentage of it is paid. U. S Senator Carl Levin raised the issue at a U. Carl Milton Levin (born June 28, 1934) is a Democratic United States Senator from Michigan and is the Chairman of the Senate S Senate Hearing of millions of Americans whom he said are slaves to hidden fees, compounding interest and cryptic terms. Their woes were heard in a Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations hearing which was chaired by Senator Levin who said that he intends to keep the spotlight on credit card companies and that legislative action may be necessary to purge the industry. ^[27]

In the United States, some have called for Congress to enact additional regulations on the industry; to expand the disclosure box clearly disclosing rate hikes, use plain language, incorporate balance payoff disclosures, and also to outlaw universal default. The United States Congress is the bicameral Legislature of the federal government of the United States of America, consisting of two houses Universal default is the term for a practice in the Financial services industry for a particular lender to change the terms of a Loan from the normal terms to the At a congress hearing around March 1, 2007, Citibank announced it would no longer practice this, effective immediately. Citibank is a major international Bank, founded in 1812 as the City Bank of New York, later First National City Bank of New York. Opponents of such regulation argue that customers must become more proactive and self-responsible in evaluating and negotiating terms with credit offerers. Some of the nation's influential top credit card issuers, who are among the top fifty corporate contributors to political campaigns, successfully opposed it.

Hidden costs

In the United Kingdom, merchants won the right through The Credit Cards (Price Discrimination) Order 1990^[28] to charge customers different prices according to the payment method. The United Kingdom is the world's most credit-card-intensive country, with 67 million credit cards for a population of 59 million people. ^[29]

In the United States, until 1984 federal law prohibited surcharges on card transactions. Although the federal Truth in Lending Act provisions that prohibited surcharges expired that year, a number of states have since enacted laws that continue to outlaw the practice; California, Colorado, Connecticut, Florida, Kansas, Massachusetts, Maine, New York, Oklahoma, and Texas have laws against surcharges. The Truth in Lending Act (TILA of 1968 is a United States federal law designed to protect consumers in credit transactions by requiring clear Disclosure

Redlining

Credit Card redlining is a spatially discriminatory practice among credit card issuers of providing different amounts of credit to different areas, based on their ethnic-minority composition, rather than on economic criteria, such as the potential profitability of operating in those areas. Redlining is the practice of denying or increasing the cost of services such as Banking, Insurance, access to jobs access to health care or even Supermarkets ^[30]

Credit card numbering

Main article: Credit card number

The numbers found on credit cards have a certain amount of internal structure, and share a common numbering scheme. The numbers found on Credit cards and bank cards have a certain amount of internal structure and share a common Numbering scheme.

The card number's prefix, called the Bank Identification Number, is the sequence of digits at the beginning of the number that determine the bank to which a credit card number belongs. The numbers found on Credit cards and bank cards have a certain amount of internal structure and share a common Numbering scheme. This is the first six digits for MasterCard and Visa cards. The next nine digits are the individual account number, and the final digit is a validity check code.

In addition to the main credit card number, credit cards also carry issue and expiration dates (given to the nearest month), as well as extra codes such as issue numbers and security codes. The Card Security Code ( CSC) sometimes called Card Verification Value (CVV, Card Verification Value Code (CVVC, Card Verification Code (CVC Not all credit cards have the same sets of extra codes nor do they use the same number of digits.

Credit cards in ATMs

Many credit cards can also be used in an ATM to withdraw money against the credit limit extended to the card, but many card issuers charge interest on cash advances before they do so on purchases. The interest on cash advances is commonly charged from the date the withdrawal is made, rather than the monthly billing date. Many card issuers levy a commission for cash withdrawals, even if the ATM belongs to the same bank as the card issuer. Merchants do not offer cashback on credit card transactions because they would pay a percentage commission of the additional cash amount to their bank or merchant services provider, thereby making it uneconomical. Debit card cashback (known as 'cashout' or EFTPOS in Australia) is a service offered to Retail Customers whereby an extra amount of money is added

Many credit card companies will also, when applying payments to a card, do so at the end of a billing cycle, and apply those payments to everything before cash advances. For this reason, many consumers have large cash balances, which have no grace period and incur interest at a rate that is (usually) higher than the purchase rate, and will carry those balance for years, even if they pay off their statement balance each month.

Credit cards as funding for entrepreneurs

Credit cards are a creative, yet often risky way for entrepreneurs to acquire capital for their start ups when more conventional financing is unavailable. It is rumoured that Larry Page and Sergey Brin's start up of Google was financed by credit cards to buy the necessary computers and office equipment, more specifically "a terabyte of hard disks". Lawrence Edward "Larry" Page (born March 26 1973 is an American Entrepreneur who co-founded the Google Web search engine, now Sergey Mikhailovich Brin (Сергей Михайлович Брин born August 21 1973 is a Soviet -born American Entrepreneur who co-founded Google Google Inc is an American public corporation, earning revenue from advertising related to its Internet search, e-mail, online A hard disk drive ( HDD) commonly referred to as a hard drive, hard disk, or fixed disk drive, is a Non-volatile storage device ^[31] Similarly, filmmaker Robert Townsend financed part of Hollywood Shuffle using credit cards. There have been several well-known people known as Robert Townsend, including Robert Townsend (Captain (1819-1866 US Navy Civil War era Ship captain Hollywood Shuffle is a movie released in 1987 that depicts the stereotyping of African Americans in both film and television ^[32] Director Kevin Smith funded Clerks in part by maxing out several credit cards. Kevin Patrick Smith (born August 2 1970 is an American Screenwriter, Writer, Film director, Actor and Comic book writer Clerks is a 1994 film written and directed by Kevin Smith, who also appears in the film in a minor role Richard Hatch also financed his production of Battlestar Galactica: The Second Coming partly through his credit cards. Richard Hatch (b May 21, 1945, in Santa Monica California) is an American actor Battlestar Galactica The Second Coming was a project to create a pilot film for a proposed new Battlestar Galactica television series that would pick Famed hedge fund manager Bruce Kovner began his career (and, later on, his firm Caxton Associates) in financial markets by borrowing from his credit card. Bruce Stanley Kovner (born 1945 in Brooklyn New York) is an American Businessman.

References

See also

• Adverse credit history
• Code 10
• Credit card hijacking
• Credit rating agency
• Credit reference agency
• Dynamic currency conversion, or DCC
• Electronic money
• Fair Credit Reporting Act
• Identity theft
• Merchant account
• Stoozing

External links

• Choosing and Using Credit Cards - Consumer credit card advice from the Federal Trade Commission
• Avoiding Credit and Charge Card Fraud - More advice from the Federal Trade Commission
• Talk Your Way Out of Credit Debt - NPR Story on how to negotiate with creditors
• Steer Clear in College - NPR story on college credit card debt
• Secret History of the Credit Card - PBS/Frontline/New York Times documentary on credit cards
• Credit Cards at the Open Directory Project

Credit card associations

• American Express
• Diners Club
• Discover
• JCB
• MasterCard
• Visa

This article deals with the general concept of the term credit history Code 10 calls are made when merchants are suspicious about accepting a credit card Credit Card Hijacking is the term used when a person’s Credit card information is used for undesired charges for goods or services where the credit card owner has trouble reaserting A credit rating agency ( CRA) is a company that assigns Credit ratings for Issuers of certain types of Debt obligations as well as the debt instruments A credit bureau (US or credit reference agency (UK is a company that collects information from various sources and provides consumer Credit information on individual Dynamic Currency Conversion (DCC or Cardholder Preferred Currency (CPC is a financial service in which holders of Credit cards have the cost of a transaction converted to their local Electronic money (also known as e-money, electronic cash, electronic currency, digital money, digital cash or digital currency The Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA is an American federal Law (codified at et seq Identity theft is a term used to refer to Fraud that involves stealing money or getting other benefits by pretending to be someone else A merchant account is a contract under which an Acquiring bank extends a Line of credit to a Merchant, who wishes to accept Payment card Stoozing, derived from the verb stooz, is a slang term used to describe the act of borrowing money at an interest rate of 0% a rate typically offered by Credit card The Federal Trade Commission ( FTC) is an independent agency of the United States government, established in 1914 by the Federal Trade Commission Act The Public Broadcasting Service ( PBS) is a Non-profit Public broadcasting Television service with 354 member TV stations in the Frontline is a public affairs television program of varying length produced at WGBH in Boston Massachusetts, and distributed through the The Open Directory Project ( ODP) also known as dmoz (from directory

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