When it comes to today’s economic environment, millions of Americans are turning to credit unions over larger national banks for many of their financial needs. In what should come at no surprise it is the credit card that is getting most of the attention as study after study is being done to determine if consumers are better off with credit union credit cards or that of their big bank counterpart.

As with everything else, when it comes to credit unions there are both pros and cons. While there may be others, the folks at Bankrate.com have broken down some of those pros and cons to help you if you are contemplating on getting a credit card from a credit union. This can be found in an article entitled, "Should you get a credit union credit card?", and the highlights include the following:

Pros of switching to credit unions for credit cards:

• Lower fees and interest rates
• Many credit union cards don’t charge a balance transfer fee
• Protection against negative changes
   

Cons of switching to credit unions for credit cards:

• Difficulty in getting a card
• Banks also offer low rates
• Limited selection for those with "bad credit"
• Little to no rewards
• Shorter customer service hours
   

So is a credit union credit card right for you? Well, only you can make that decision. In my opinion it could be very worthwhile to carry both a credit card from a larger institutions and a credit union. This will allow you to not only have a card to use if you choose to move from one or the other later down the line, but it also gives you the ability to utilize the lower interest card in everyday purchases or in case an emergency arises.

As you may have already heard, with the future acquisition of Revolution Money it looks like American Express is gearing up to make big moves within the financial industry. At one time considered to be a low cost alternative to American Express, the price tag set to acquire them is a hefty one at $300 million. With one of the reason for acquiring Revolution Money being their credit card called the RevolutionCard, here is a little information about the card and what sets it apart from its competitors.

When you look at the RevolutionCard you will notice that is very different to the credit card you may have in your pocketbook. Having no cardholder name, signature or account number displayed on the card, this card offers secure payments in which transactions are authorized by using a PIN number, in the same way debit cards are generally used. When it comes to making purchases online or by phone, cardholders are able to use a one time pin number of their choosing. This allows the cardholder the ability to make safer purchases by not giving out their primary number. When it comes to rewards, cardholders receive the same rewards that they do with other credit card issuers and more. With the RevolutionCard cardholders get exclusive offers, discounts on many purchases, and even have access to loyalty programs offered directly from retailers.

Do you have a RevolutionCard? If so, I would love to know how you feel about it.

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.

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.

Since the beginning of the "credit crunch", times have been hard for consumers and credit card issuers alike. For this reason many U.S. consumers have not only dramatically decreased their spending but also seem to be charging less to their credit cards for their daily necessities. There is however, one group of people that have actually been spending more and card issuers are now looking towards them to shore up their sagging bottom line. This group is known as the "affluent cardholders".

With credit card issuers, "affluent" consumers are those people earning at least $100,000 a year or above. These consumers typically are not affected as much by economic downturns and have statically shown to continue making purchases of higher priced goods whether times are good or bad. So far in 2009, researchers have seen the overall spending on luxury goods and services rise dramatically from the second quarter to the third quarter. This is a trend that is expected to continue not only throughout the forth quarter but into 2010.

While issuers such as Chase (Sapphire Card) and Barclays (Visa Black Card) have offers geared specifically for wealthy consumers, it seems that American Express has control of the market. This is largely due to the fact that they are the largest credit card company by purchases, and offer numerous charge cards that seem to be the type of card preferred by these consumers.

As many issuers race to maximize revenue before the Credit Card Accountability Responsibility and Disclosure Act (CARD) goes into effect February 22, 2010 it seems that the only thing consumers can continue to do is wait. However if cardholders continue to receive letters in the mail, such as those recently sent out by Citi Bank, I truly believe that consumers will soon lose any patience that they have left. So what did these letters say exactly? According to a recent headline they informed many cardholders that their interest rate rose to just below thirty percent. 

According to an article entitled, "Credit Card Interest Rates Jump to 29.99%" this increase is just the beginning of what some cardholders may see in the future. This is because this interest rate increase was on variable rate credit cards linked to the prime rate. At the moment the prime rate is at historically low levels, but once these begin to raise so will the cardholder’s interest rates; well above thirty percent.

It seems that this change is only one of many that consumers are calling questionable. Earlier this month, many cardholders found out the hard way that their co-branded credit card was no longer active. When this happened Citi Bank closed the accounts of multiple consumers who received the cancellation notice only after their card was declined at the register. 

It seems that Bank of America in particular has made more headlines than any other credit card issuer for the last couple of months. Although some headlines such as vowing not to raise interest rates on their credit card offerings until the CARD Act was fully implemented is very cardholder friendly, other news was not. Now many experts have gained more insight on these moves by Bank of America from the release of its financial reports, and believe that consumers could still see more major changes on the way.

According to Bank of America’s 2009 third quarter financial reports, they are losing millions within certain parts of its credit card portfolio. It seems that within its global card services unit, their credit card purchases declined dramatically just over fourteen percent from sixty-three billion to fifty-three billion. Their results also showed its charge off rates doubled from just over six percent to twelve from the same time period last year.

One spot that is showing some increases is its debit card purchases. It grew slightly over three percent from fifty-three billion to just over fifty-four billion. This growth for many is no surprise as debit cards are turning into the payment option for many consumers and should continue to grow moving forward.

As many experts have suggested in the past, it now looks like issuers may be gearing up to connect annual fees with most if not all of their credit card offers. In what now seems like no surprise Bank of America has decided to take the lead and recently announced that these fees will take effect next year. Currently, they are testing annual fees on cards that previously were annual fee free, which is roughly about one percent of their portfolio to see what the feedback will be.

According to Bank of America these annual fees with be associated with a limited number of its credit cards consumers and range between twenty nine and ninety nine dollars. Also a representative stated that the accounts that will be charged annual fees will be based on "risk and profitability". In short, those cardholders that generally pay off their cards in full each month and always pay on time will probably be those to receive an annual fee.

This notice of annual fees comes at a time when they vowed to stop increasing interest rates until next year. For those that do not carry a balance, an increase in their interest rate was not a big deal, but now that these same cardholders will be paying just to have the card in their wallet, I see many cardholders going elsewhere.

Within the past couple of months, many credit card issuers have released different offers to appeal to not only the different credit ranges but also to different demographics. At no surprise, Chase has decided to lead the way and recently introduced many new consumer and business cards into the market as well as heavily promote one of its featured rewards card, all of which seem to be doing very well.

They are known as the following:

• Slate with BluePrint
• Chase Sapphire with Ultimate Rewards
• Chase Freedom Credit Card
• Ink with Ultimate Rewards
• Ink Plus with Ultimate Rewards
• Ink Cash Business Card
• Ink Bold with Ultimate Rewards

Why the new cards, and why now? For all intents and purposes many credit card companies are becoming more aggressive when it comes to acquiring cardholders. At the moment, many Americans that are currently shopping for credit cards have good credit. These cardholders are simply looking for another card because they are not happy about recent changes made to their terms.

Chase seems to be giving both consumers and businesses options ranging from money management tools to rewards. Only time will tell if these offers will become as prominent as Chase expects them to be.

In the months leading up to the signing of the Credit Cardholder’s Bill of Rights Act, every credit card issuer fought tooth and nail against the new regulations. Issuers let it be known that if regulators change lending practices, like the ability to change cardholder’s terms at any time or reason, it would force them to push unwanted actions to the consumer. In all cases it did, and the American cardholders are now paying more for it, literally.

In many case credit card issuers took quick action trying to find ways to offset any loses they percieved would occur due to the CARD Act being signed into law. In other cases many credit card issuers have decided to come out with new card offers in hopes to lure new consumers to use their cards over their competitors. We have already seen multiple financial applications and zero percent balance transfer credit card offers make headlines in recent news and I believe there are many more to come.

Many experts believe that now is the perfect time for issuers to gain market share and consumers that are dissatisfied with their current card issuers. For many card issuers, these dissatisfied customers that are being targeted have good credit which are considered very valuable, especially in a thriving economy.