A war is raging and credit card issuers once again are finding themselves right in the middle of the battleground. Instead of the usual opponent, which is the consumer, now credit card issuers are finding themselves up against merchants. For a while now, merchants have complained about increasing processing fees, known as interchange fees, which banks charge every time a consumers uses a debit or credit card for payment.

In this confrontation, both sides have stated their reasoning behind their fight. Merchants state that the fees are excessive and negate any small profit margins that they may be seeing, which will cause an increase in prices to consumers who cannot afford to pay for higher prices. Credit card issues say that the service that they provide the merchants is much needed and these fees go to maintenance for devices and upkeep of service. Regardless of the reasons, interchange fees accounted for around forty-eight billion dollars in 2008.

Just as with the consumer and credit card issuers, it now seems like Congress could get involved. In fact, Congress is considering up to three bills that would regulate processing fees. If any bill passes, it would most likely allow merchants to enter into a collective bargaining agreement with banks when setting fees.

One thing that any and every business or corporation needs and wants is a secure way to make and control purchases. Without it, a company could quickly find themselves in a position that they don’t want to be or even worse, out of business. That is why CitiGroup has partnered with MasterCard to offer companies a payment solution known as “Citi Virtual Card Accounts”.

I know that some viewers may say that this is nothing new, and many credit card issuers offer the same solutions when it comes to payment options. In many cases you are correct, but Citi has added a feature that sets themselves apart from their competitors. That feature, multicurrency capabilities. Made possible by having a large market in the credit card space, Citi is able to issue accounts in local currency regardless of location.

Many experts believe that virtual cards will be the next big move companies shift toward, and this market is expected to grow tremendously over the next three to five years. We should see more headlines in the future with credit card issuers coming out with products to capitalize on this growth.

Although many consumers don’t think about it, many businesses have found themselves in the same situation as countless consumer credit cardholders when it comes to business credit cards. Like consumers, companies are being faced with a tightening credit environment making it very hard to run their businesses. The exact things that business are seeing and how they are being effected can be found in an article entitled "The Changing Landscape for Small Businesses Credit Cards".

According to the article, credit cards have become an everyday part of life for business owners and have been faceted to almost every part of daily operation. In fact, even as the recession started an increasing number of businesses found themselves using credit cards to control cash flow. This in itself showed many experts that other sources of traditional funding had decreased, making companies look for credit cards as a heavily used option for payment solutions.

Some of the things that are being seen within the business credit realm include the same changes consumers find in their mailboxes everyday. These include a drastically reduced credit line, increased interest rate, and less products or services that can be financed. As with any credit card, business owners must be smart and know that changes have and will take place, and try their best to adjust accordingly.

Over the past couple of years we have seen social sites grow in popularity and become a main source of communication for all groups of people. Those with no interest at one time have quickly found themselves immersing in sites like Twitter, Facebook, and many others. Now American Express Open has launched a new forum called "Open Forum", as a resource and networking site for small business owners.

So what things can business owners look to find at the Open Forum? According to American Express, business owners will have the ability to create important connections that provide practical information that can be easily implemented. The Open Forum will also allow business owners and entrepreneurs to receive insightful tips and research from industry leaders, bloggers, and other business owners.

American Express has stated that their research shows a majority of business owners feel that they are challenged when it comes to finding new innovative ways to market their products and services. Of this majority, less than ten percent of those business owners are using the social networking opportunities of the internet as a way to gain insight and valuable opinion about their targeted consumers. Now that the Open Forum is available, American Express really hopes with their help that this changes in the near future.
 

Now that Advanta has closed the door on new purchases for its cardholders due to a dramatic increase in defaults, American Express has decided to offer their services. The catch is that only those certain cardholders that are deemed “smart choices” will get an offer to replace their Advanta credit card.

So how do you know if you are a small business credit cardholder that will be one of these select few, and how will you be contacted? According to Advanta you must have been a cardholder in good standing, and apparently Advanta will contact you and relay an invitation to apply for a credit card account with American Express. If you don’t get one from Advanta don’t worry because in some occasions you may get an invitation from American Express themselves. If you do get an invitation, please note that most are only valid for 60 days, so time will be of the essence.

If you don’t happen to get an invitation to become an American Express business credit card holder, it will be up to you to actively try to get another credit card or another line of credit. Although it may be tough, there are still a couple of other credit card issuers that may be worth giving a try. You can find a couple here under business credit cards.
 

For many small business owners, around 1 million to be exact, May 30, 2009 is a day that will not be soon forgotten. You see, on that day Advanta cardholders were no longer able to use their credit cards to make purchases. As they were only given a couple of weeks notice, many business owners were left wondering how they were going to make payroll and purchases. Although this may seem like just a repeat of what has happened to consumers on a day to day basis, this is quite different and could have a major impact on our economic recovery. Unlike consumers, a business owner’s credit line can be compared to their business’ lifeline.  For them, their credit and their ability to make purchases is the difference between a healthy thriving business and the loss of their primary if not only income.

Since the economic downturn, many people have suffered from what seems to be a drought in lending, but none more than small business owners. For the past months, many business owners have seen a decrease in the number of credit card offers made available to them. This is due to the fact defaults on business credit cards have increased as consumers spent less. In the case of Advanta, they decided to cut off credit to cardholders after charge-offs increased dramatically.

Help for small business owners needing credit may soon be on the way however, as President Obama vows to help. Stating that small businesses are an essential part of the economy, he promises to revive frozen credit markets to increase lending to small business. With a two step solution in the works, this is what many business owners want to see, in order to get credit flowing again.