When it comes to contactless payment cards, what is the first thing that comes to mind? For me it is the old Visa PayWave commercials that were shown a while back. In these commercials everything starts off smoothly, as everyone is either swiping or waving their credit cards at a terminal, until someone decides to pay with cash and the world seems to stop. During that time just having a contactless card probably seemed high tech (or at least it did to me), and it didn’t seem that paying for products could get any more futuristic. Nevertheless, one company has decided to take these cards to a whole new level, and light up the card industry; literally.

Thanks to a company named Oberthur Technologies, consumers can look forward to a contactless card that lights up when you make a payment. This new card called the "Smart Lumiere" was designed to notify the cardholder that a transaction has taking place while they swipe it. As of the question on which color the light will be, the answer is completely up to the bank that issues the card.

While some people will argue that this new feature is only for aesthetics, the creators believe it has value that far outweighs the "cool factor" associated with it. They believe that cardholders will benefit from the visual cue that is given as a transaction has taken place, showing that not only are contactless cards a quicker way to make payments but it is also more secure.

Whether it was an increase in interest rate, decrease in credit limit or implementation of an annual; for a countless number of cardholders the latest changes involving their credit cards have been the breaking point. For this reason cardholders have decided to cancel their cards, which for many are attached to accounts that have been used for years. While canceling a card account may seem like the only thing that can be done, an article from the Wall Street Journal, entitled "Credit Cards: Break Up, or Make Up?" offers tips on how to handle higher rates and new fees that more than likely have been imposed upon you.

Some of the tips that are covered in this article include:

• Asking the card issuer why changes were made to your account, and what you could do to reverse it

• Asking the issuer if there is any way to waive new fees on your card, or if you could exchange it for one that may not have a fee

• Switching to a non-reward card if you consistently carry a monthly balance because reward cards typically tend to have higher interest rates

After reading this article you will find that there are many other great tips that are well worth trying if you truly want to keep your card. If none of these work and you have no other choice but to cancel or "opt-out" of your current agreement; please remember that under the new law you will be able to pay off your current balance at the rate the opt-out occurred.

As the need for card products grow within the U.S., now more than ever there is an increasing amount of companies looking for a specific niche’ where they can become the market leader. It now seems that one company is ready to become the top prepaid card supplier for the Hispanic community, and has teamed up with MasterCard Worldwide to make this happen. That company’s name is Univision Communications, and their goal is to connect millions of un-banked or underserved individuals to the mainstream financial system with both a prepaid card and gift card slated to be made available nationwide in 2010.

The cards will be named the following:

• Univision Prepaid MasterCard Card (Tarjeta Univision MasterCard Prepagada)

• Univision MasterCard Gift Card (Tarjeta de Regalo Univision)
   

Univision’s goal for creating these new financial card offers is to empower those within the Hispanic community by linking them with financial services and tools that they can trust. They also wish to give them a product that is culturally significant, secure, and most importantly a cost effective alternative to cash. As for the market size that could benefit from these cards, 106 million people in the U.S are financially underserved; 19% of that number being Hispanic according to a study by the Center for Financial Services Innovation.

As many more changes involving your credit card seem evident before the Credit CARD Act is fully implemented, it seems that the amount of people seeing their credit limits decrease are around the numbers that many experts have expected. That is according to an article entitled "Banks Slash Credit Limit for 58M Cardholders in One Year", which stated around one-third of all cardholders saw their limits slashed between April 2008 and April 2009.

As with the other changes that credit cardholders have seen within the past months, these changes in limits have been made regardless of their credit scores. In fact, more than half of those affected have what is considered "good credit" within the financial industry, and lacked the risk factors that are generally associated with having ones’ limit reduced. The rest of those affected fit the more conventional profiles, which include high credit balances and late payments that issuers typically look at to determine the need of a credit line reduction.

Although the number of consumers who have seen the decrease is surprising to some, a number of industry experts still believe that cardholders will continue to see limit cuts until the middle of 2010. In fact some banking analysts believe that credit lines could decline by as much as forty-five percent for many cardholders before all is said and done.

As companies find new ways to attract and keep customers, it seems essential that they improve their current products or offer new ones to get the competitive edge. Although many people probably do not think about it, the same can be said when it comes to credit cards as well. As we have already seen new products hit the market to help cardholders better control their finances, it now seems that retailers are getting into the mix looking to give their cardholders more value for their bucks.

Very soon new Sears’ credit cardholders can look for a little something extra that they probably have never received in the past from anywhere else. Trying to shake up the retail world Sears recently announced that they will be offering their cardholders unique products. Two of these products include a Sears Platinum MasterCard, which is connected to a Sears Choice Rewards program; and "Credit Score Access" which gives the consumer the ability to access their credit scores. At this time Sears will be the first major retailer to offer its cardholders access to their credit score at no extra cost.

According to the President of Sears Financial Services, the reason for these new products is because consumers need more when it comes to their financial needs. Also they believe that with the recent changes to the credit card industry, they must be able to give the cardholder more retail value to be chosen as the card of choice.

So what is it that you look for in a credit card? For many people the answer to this once simple question has turned into a complex formula that has grown hard to answer. The reason is because now consumers have to think about more than the types of rewards they want; now they have to factor in increasing interest rates, fees and much more. So what is a person searching for a credit card to do? Well according to an article in Forbes entitled "Want A Better Credit Card? Consider A Credit Union, Study Says", a credit union may be right for you.

From this article, it seems that a recently released study now says that credit cards issued by the largest credit unions are much more consumer friendly than those of its big bank card issuing counterparts. In fact the study not only showed that the interest rates were much lower but also found that fees associated with the cards were too.

Before this last year many people have been finding themselves walking through the doors of a credit union for the great rates they receive on financial products other than plastic. Now it seems that the reason consumers are heading to credit unions is because of the credit cards themselves. Although we really do not know the exact number of people turning to credit unions for their card selections, there is one thing that we do know. We know that larger issuers are seeing this and it will be surprising to see how they can regain their market shares that are looking for a more consumer friendly alternative at the moment.

In what seems like the leadership many U.S. consumers are looking to see, it seems that some in Washington have seen enough of the dramatic changes credit card issuers have implemented on their cardholders. According an a recent article entitled "Senate Bill Moves to Freeze Credit Card Rates", Senate Banking Committee Chairman Chris Dodd introduced a bill aiming to stop credit card interest rates from rising on existing balances this past Monday.

So why draw up a new bill while another bill has already been voted on? According to his office, it is because he and some of his fellow Congressmen believe that credit card issuers have been getting around the protections that Congress set up for the American people.

While this bill is different from a recent one voted on, which calls for the implementation date of the Credit CARD Act to be moved to December. Some experts wonder if this newest bill is simply too little too late. This is because now that millions of Americans have already had their interest rates increased to record high numbers, this could just cause issuers to move or increase fees elsewhere. So as with all the other changes, we will have to see if this actually passes and if so; whether it will actually help the American cardholder.

As the market for prepaid cards grow, so does the need to make load and reloading easier. So far we have seen loads that are directly deposited from a check, mobile transfers, peer to peer transfers, as well as the point of sale load. Now it seems that prepaid card holders can look forward to the very things millions of people visit on a weekly or even daily basis. That’s right; it is your ATM via the Star Network, the leading EFT network in the United States.

So how will you be able to load / reload your prepaid card at your neighborhood ATM? Through patent pending technology, Star Network will be able to expand the settings that are associated with the cards that can be used within their network. These setting will include activation, load/reload as well as other security features to reduce fraud. If you are wondering which prepaid cards can be load/reloaded, Star Network newest icon "STAR RELOAD" will be displayed on them as well as the ATMs that will utilize this new technology.

As being the first to implement loading at the ATM, this could be the beginning of a very profitable venture for not only Star Network but prepaid card issuers as well. Although we do not know how fast consumers will take hold of this technology, we do know that consumers today want things in a hurry and this could be a way to get their money to them not only easier but quicker as well.

As the war rages on in Congress on whether the implementation date for the Credit CARD Act should be moved to the end of the year, it does not seem that card issuers are in any hurry to end many of the current practices that will be illegal starting February 2010. That is at least what one company has seemed to find according to a newly released report entitled "Still Waiting: ‘Unfair or Deceptive’ Credit Card Practices Continue as Americans Wait for New Reforms to Take Effect".

In this report, cards from the largest credit card issuers and credit unions in the U.S. were reviewed to determine the effect their terms and conditions had on their cardholders. For many the results are not considered surprising. According to the report, there was a 20% rise in advertised card interest rates within the first half of 2009. Some other findings included that 99% of card issuer’s terms allowed them to increase interest on outstanding balances, and 95% of issuers were able to apply payments in a way that is frowned upon by the Federal Reserve.

In all the report shows that many issuers have yet to give the cardholders something that is considered consumer friendly. We only have a couple of more months before the banks will be force to make changes, but still it is not soon enough for some.

For many Americans today, starting their own business is beginning of the "American dream" and financial freedom.  Although the potential to make money always exist, what many people do not realize is that the most frequent reason new businesses fail is purely financial. While owning a business there are many ways to access money to pay for goods and services, but the most common method is with a credit card. In an article entitled "Business Credit Card Debt May Hurt More Than It Helps", we see that while it makes sense to get a credit card, the over usage could potentially lead to failure.

In this article, we find the results of a recent study which was performed to determine if a link between high debt and a high failure rate among American businesses could be found. What they found out was that the survival of the business was in exact correlation with the amount of credit card debt that was carried.

As is the same case with any credit card, business owners must use their cards wisely. Just like with personal credit cards, owners must read and understand the terms and conditions of the offer and determine if it right for them. As interest rates climb and credit limits decrease, it is essential more now than ever for business owners to navigate carefully to help increase the odds of survival.