As more people look for lower rates on their credit cards, it seems that an increasing amount of credit unions are starting to see growth opportunities and are making moves to capitalize on this shift. Recently it was announced that one of the largest credit unions in the country will be able to offer its members an American Express credit card. That credit union is Pentagon Federal Credit Union otherwise known as PenFed, and this agreement allows them to be the only credit union within the U.S. to offer their members an American Express branded card.

Named the PenFed Premium Travel Rewards American Express Card, this credit card will have rewards like none other within PenFed’s card portfolio. Cardholders will have the following benefits when it comes to using their cards:
 

• Earn reward points in multiple categories (including air travel, hotel stays, and dining)
• No caps or limits on reward points earned
• Travel Accident Insurance
• Trip and Baggage Delay Insurance
• Roadside Assistance
• Car Rental Loss and Damage Insurance

With credit unions growing in popularity and slowly looking more consumer friendly than many of their big bank counterparts, it comes as no surprise when credit unions announce new products such as this one. Although this is an exclusive agreement, we should hear more offers such as this coming from more credit unions in the near future.

When it comes to credit cards and cutting back, the first thing that comes to many people’s mind would probably be the consumer. In many cases you would be right, but on this occasion it is the issuer, and unfortunalty it is not on interest rates or fees. In this case Bank of America, which is one of the largest Visa and MasterCard issuers within the United States, wants to be more selective when it comes to offering consumers their credit cards.

So why would Bank of America want to be more selective? According to the bank, they don’t see any other choice as they believe the card industry will not see the profits that they saw in the past. The reason why experts think they will be more selective is quite similar but were drawn completely off of numbers. Those numbers begin with a $1 billion loss in the third quarter, and a bank leading default rate of over 14 percent for the month of September.

So will we see the "fewer is better" approaching happening with other banks in the future? No one can be for sure. As the largest bank in the U.S., Bank of America was very deep with sub-prime lending which many believe was the tipping point of the economic downturn.

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.

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 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.

It seems like the newest options that are being given to consumers deal directly with managing their finances. As of right now we have seen a number of different credit card issuers embrace this concept making available new features for their cardholders. It now looks that the branding companies are moving into the area as MasterCard has introduced its "Money Manager".

The new MasterCard Money Manager is an interactive financial managing tool that enables MasterCard cardholders to swiftly and proficiently examine card spending for themselves and members of their household. This tool will give its cardholders the capability to review signature and PIN-based MasterCard transactions by merchant class, and create customized categories. This will hopefully make it easier for cardholders to identify spending patterns and compare actual spend to a budget that may have been prepared.

It now seems that each company that deals with cards, whether debit or credit are becoming more competitive to gain the edge. At the moment there is no other way to get that edge than to give consumers products and services that they have been lacking in the past. Now that the MasterCard has entered the space, we can be assured that others will be sure to follow. It will be nice to see how other companies try to improve and how they will be able to offer cardholders more.

As they have done a good job of staying out of the media about their interest rates, it now looks like Wells Fargo is the next major credit card issuer to raise their interest rates on its plastic. While at coming at no surprise, many consumers that use Wells Fargo as their cards of choice, have had plenty of time to prepare for this increase. This is because every other credit card issuers have made major changes which include double digit increases in interest rates.

Doing things a little bit different, Wells Fargo is making their increase to cardholders’ interest rates public. The increase, which is three percent, is scheduled to go into effect November 30, 2009. The reason that is stated by the Wells Fargo’s group head of card services is that they don’t believe they can continue to keep credit flowing on their credit cards at the current pricing.

Other credit card issuers that have raised rates and made changes to their card offers include all of the major card issuers. The timing of this increase by Wells Fargo comes at a surprise to many experts due to the fact that Bank of America had just announced that they would stop increasing interest rates until early next year.

So what exactly happens when one credit card issuer decides to make a public pledge to no longer increase interest rates before the CARD Act is fully implemented? Not much so far, which is the reason why Senator Chris Dodd has called on other banks to follow Bank of America’s lead and no longer raise interest rates.

Although we have not heard much from any other credit card issuer, it is not far fetched to believe that others will follow suit. In recent events where Senator Dodd has gotten involved, many financial institutions seem to fall in line and reform to what is asked of them. This is no different.

For those that want to read the letter sent to Senator Dodd from Bank of America, the letter read:

"In light of the concerns expressed to us by our customers, Bank of America will not implement any change in terms (risk or economic based) re-pricing of consumer credit card accounts between now and the effective date of the CARD Act. We believe that this is the responsive to the concerns we have heard and is consistent with other consumer oriented policy changes we have made recently, like giving customers much more control over the risk of incurring overdraft fees and substantially limiting the application of those fees."

It seems that all you hear in the news is a credit card issuer changing some aspect for the negative on their cardholders’ accounts. In fact, since the signing of the CARD Act by President Obama it would seem that card issuers are out to get every consumer no matter their financial standing with the bank. Recently Bank of America wanted to put an end to that notion, and promised to not increase credit card interest rates or fees before the CARD Act is fully implemented.

Many experts believe that this move by Bank of America will cause a chain reaction and also believe that consumers should see more issuers following suit. The catch. They will follow suit only because lawmakers have recently introduced legislation to move up the date the CARD Act is fully implemented. The new date proposed for the law to take effect is at the beginning of January 2010.

For many Americans, this promise to not increase interest rates is just the case of too little too late. The reason is because millions of Americans have already had their interest rates doubled and some even tripled within the last couple of months. Most of which, have never made been late on a payment, pay well above the minimum payments and have never been close to credit limit.

Not to long ago, I wrote a post about a woman who decided to take a very private matter public when her interest rates were raised on her Bank of America credit card to over thirty percent. In that post entitled "Credit Card Revolt….What Would You Do?" it describes how youtube.com was used as the media vehicle of choice to gain the attention of anyone who would listen. Now it seems that the correct person was reached as according to CNN Money her rates were lowered to what she is comfortable.

According to reports not long after gaining a large media following, the woman got a call from Bank of America who was willing to negotiate a much lower interest rate. In fact, the interest rate was cut by more than half. So was her rate raised for not fault of her own? Well, it depends on who you ask. According to the lady, she has paid her minimum payments on time; but the bank says that she has two late payments and thus the reason for the interest rate increase.

Although this story got results from her youtube.com rant, do not expect this to be the outcome for everyone who decides to use this method. As you already know, she was not the first to try this nor will she be the last. It just so happened that her video and story was put in the limelight by the media.