With all the changes that have occurred within the last year, consumers are fed up with their issuers and many have vowed to never use a credit card again. In turn, many consumers are now using debit cards to pay for their products and services, as well as have switched to saving more money as opposed to spending it. For this reason, many experts have concluded that card issuers will see hard times for what could be years to come.

At the moment there are a couple of things that should have issuers worrying. The first, which has an immediate effect is the current level of unemployment. As far as analysts are concerned, unemployment has one of the most direct influences on the profit or losses for issuers. History has shown that late payments have risen dramatically in times with high unemployment rates and this time is no exception. The second factor effecting issuers is the implementation date of the Credit Card Accountability, Responsibility and Disclosure Act, which was signed in May. The date which is in early February is quickly approaching and issuers, for the time being, are still scrambling to find ways to make up revenue that will be lost. This is mainly due to the fact that the CARD Act requires promotional rates to remain in effect for at least six months, limits the ability for issuers to raise interest rates on existing balances and restricts fees for sub-prime cards among other things.

With so many things going against credit card issuers at the moment, what do you think the future is for issuers? For many including myself, it doesn’t seem that issuers will return to where they were for some time to come. With cardholders now receiving annual fees (where they didn’t before), interest rates at and above 30 percent, increased fees and lower credit limits, it doesn’t seem that the credit card issuers are trying to help themselves. Card companies instead are isolating themselves from the very consumers that relatively kept them in business throughout the years.

How would you feel if you were notified the moment that potential card fraud activity occurred with your account? Recently Visa announced cardholders can look forward to a new notifying service that does exactly that. Issuers with Visa branded credit cards can now provide their cardholders with real-time alerts on purchases that they may or may not have initiated. This allows consumers the ability to watch their accounts for abnormal activity and take instant action if they think fraudulent transactions have taking place.

How does it work? For those cardholders that decide to opt into receiving real-time alerts, they will receive messages (email and/or text messages) from "VisaNet", which is Visa’s global processing network. The alerts will detail information such as amount spent, time and date of the transaction, and merchant information (name and location). When it comes to when you will be notified, cardholders have many options to choose from which include:
 

• Transactions exceeding purchase amount chosen by the cardholder
• International transactions
• Online or telephone payments
• Gasoline transactions
• ATM cash withdrawals
• Declined transactions
   

So what does Visa hope to achieve by giving cardholders real time alerts on potential fraud purchases? According to a Visa representative, they are hoping that their new alert system will help cardholders to become more active when it comes to managing and protecting their account. For Visa itself, the move to a faster alert system will allow them to become more competitive in the market as advanced notifying systems have increased customer satisfaction for their competitors.

When it comes to paying for products and services, everyone has a different opinion on which way is best. For those within the United States it seems that the most popular way is with plastic, but as credit cards seem to get more expensive a major shift has occurred and debit cards are becoming a popular choice for many. So is the debit card the future of card payments? Well the answer to that all depends on who you ask as both have evolved within recent months.

In the case of debit cards, the shift for consumers seems to be a natural one that for the most part gives some of the same benefits that were associated with their credit card. One benefit that cardholders seem to love the most is the fact that many debit cards now offer many discounts as well as rewards (such as cash back and airline miles), that where once unheard of with the card.

In the case of credit cards, there are still many cardholders using their cards as they see them the best option for making purchases. In many cases these cards are being paid off in full at the end of each month to avoid interest charges. Also when it comes to credit cards many people are looking toward other financial institution other than the large issuers. As stated in a post entitled "Recent Survey Crowns Credit Unions "King"", many credit unions offer lower rates and consumers seem to be opting for these as their card provider.

Although many consumers and experts tell you to stay away from them, it seems that debt settlement companies are being utilized now more then ever as an increasing amount of people look for an alternative to bankruptcy. Because of this reason and the fact that there is a push to regulate the market, many within the credit card industry are finding themselves growing more inclined to work with settlement companies.

Just like public opinion, issuers are mixed on the idea of working with settlement companies. While some have embraced the companies, others still perceive them with skepticism and have stated publicly that they will not work with them. According to a recent Nilson Report the stance of some of the larger card issuers are as follows:

Some issuers that state they are willing to work with them include: 

• USAA
• HSBC
• Wells Fargo
• U.S. Bank

Some issuers that state they aren’t willing to work with them include:

• Discover
• American Express
• Capital One
• Bank of America
• Citi Bank
• Barclays
• Chase

So what benefits do credit card issuers receive when it comes to working with settlement companies? What should come at no surprise, the answer to that question is solely based on money. Issuers that work with settlement companies agree mostly in part because they know that they will get at least a third of the amount owed to them if not more, which in most cases is paid with one or two payments. 
 
 

How do you feel about credit card issuers growing more inclined to working with debt settlement companies? Is a settlement company something you would use?

When was the last time you went to the mailbox and found a solicitation for a credit card that you currently don’t do financial business (banking, mortgage, car loan, etc.) with, or from a company whose products or services you haven’t utilized? If you are like me and many others, it may have probably been a while and whether you like it or not it seems that it will stay this way for awhile.

As credit has gotten harder to come by and card issuers decide to be more selective on the offers consumers are getting approved for; it seems that direct mail is not quite the marketing option that it was in the past. For example, when it comes to the third quarter of 2009, it was recently reported that issuers sent 71 percent fewer card mailings than that of the same quarter in 2008. Looking at actual numbers in the same time period, consumers only received 391 million offers, which is rather small in comparison to the 1.3 billion mailings sent last year.

So is fewer mailings from issuers that big of a deal? Well, for those consumers that just toss the credit card mailings into the "junk mail" pile the answer is propably not, but for researchers and experts the answer is a little different. For experts the decrease shows how banks have become a little bit more conservative on who they are approving and how their marketing dollars are used.

As many of the consumers within the United States have turned to other ways to pay for goods and services, many in the credit card industry have had to look for other avenues to make money. One of these avenues seems to be putting more focus on regions around the world that don’t rely on credit cards as heavily as Americans. Although this strategy could be considered risky by some, Visa has recently shown that when it is done correctly the profits can be enormous.

According to recent news, Visa has found a sweet spot within the Latin America and Caribbean regions that grew not only their total volume on branded goods but most importantly their revenue. As far as numbers go, the total volume on branded goods within the two regions grew 19% from the previous year to just over $581 billion for Visa’s fiscal year. During the last quarter itself, there was a 15% growth total over the same quarter in 2008, which was $150 billion.

So how was Visa able to post such a huge increase outside of the U.S.? According to company’s president over these regions, Visa is doing something that others have yet to accomplish. They are leading the regional shift from cash to electronic payments, which to him are through product advancements, dependability, and efficiency. There were also new programs introduced to the area such as a new payment technology in Brazil as well as various new educational tools.

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.

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.

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.

Although many people would love to have the official date of the Credit Card Accountability Responsibility and Disclosure Act (CARD) implemented earlier, one can only question if this move would actually hurt the American consumer more than it would help.

This comes at a time when Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke as finally weighed his opinion on the movement of the CARD Act implementation date. In a letter to Congress, Bernanke states that the move could potentially cause more harm than good. In his opinion credit card issuers must be given enough time for implementation to allow for an organized switch. If issuers are not given this amount of time there would be a chance of the change leading to unintended consequences.

As a cardholder, we very well know the "unintended consequences" that can occur. During the early stages, way before the bill was signed into law; issuers warned member of Congress that any changes to the way they do business will have a major impact on the consumer. Since the passing of the bill issuers have fulfilled their promises and cardholders have seen dramatic increases to their interest rates, decreases to their credit limits, higher annual fees as well as unforeseen account closures.

Do you believe that an earlier CARD Act implementation date will be better or worse for the American cardholder? Let me know as I would like to hear your opinion.