Credit cards are influencing not just how much we spend, but how we feel about the items we're buying, according to a new study published in the Journal of Consumer Research.

If your credit card statement didn't tell you what your minimum payment was, would you be likely to pay more or less? A team of international researchers finds in a new report that, left to your own devices, you'd pay more – as much as 24 percent more.

Consumers have won this round in forcing big banks to trash their plans for charging monthly debit card fees. But the banks are still staring down $6 billion in losses and they will have to make that up somewhere, say experts.

Score one for consumers. After a month of public rage over Bank of America's plan to start charging debit card users $5 a month next year, the bank announced on Tuesday it was scrapping the plan. The move followed similar reversals by four of the nation's largest banks in the last week.

What you charge on your credit card eventually may determine what ads you see online, according to a new report. The Wall Street Journal obtained documents indicating that Visa and MasterCard are working on strategies to link Web users with credit card purchases.