Podcasts about card act

[Editor's note: This is our last podcast of 2024. We are taking two weeks off and will be back on January 9. Happy Holidays everyone!]The 20 million college students in the US today, while a vast market that is somewhat homogenous, has not been a focus for many banks or fintechs. Since the Card Act in 2010, credit card issuers have not been able to set up shop on campus trolling their wares. That has left a wide open market that no company has dominated, at least not yet. My next guest on the Fintech One-on-One podcast is Carlo Kobe, the CEO and Co-Founder of Fizz. Carlo is a Gen-Z founder with a financial app focused squarely on Gen-Z consumers, specifically college students. He maybe the youngest founder I have ever had on the show, but don't let his youth fool you. He is a deep thinker and quick learner and his thoughtful approach to the market has Fizz well positioned for success.In this podcast you will learn:The formative experience as an international student that sparked the idea for Fizz.How prepared college students are for adult financial responsibilities.The attitude of college student towards credit cards.How Carlo describes Fizz today.How they created a debit card that helps build credit.How they are underwriting these college students for their line of credit.How they are able to empower college students to manage money.Where most budgeting tool fall short and how Fizz is different.How they calculate their "Available to Spend" number.Why they decided to build their own tech stack.The two partner banks they are working with today.How they were able to raise $14 million from Kleiner Perkins.How they are marketing to college students.Why they intend to let their customers go after they age out past 25.Connect with Fintech One-on-One: Tweet me @PeterRenton Connect with me on LinkedIn Find previous Fintech One-on-One episodes

Credit card late fees can be the bane of any budget, but a new rule from the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau might just be the relief many users need. In this episode of PennyWise, host Nat Cardona delves into the details with NerdWallet's credit card expert Sara Rathner. They break down the significant drop from $32 to $8 in maximum late fees and what this means for your wallet. Discover the implications for your financial health, the rationale behind this substantial reduction, and the anticipated timeline for its implementation. Plus, get expert tips on how to avoid late payments altogether and protect your credit score.  "Don't ruin the hard work that you've put in to raising your credit score over a long period of time in a flash, just by missing a payment. Really focus on ways you can meet those deadlines." Episode References Consumer Financial Protection Bureau | https://www.consumerfinance.gov/ Nerdwallet |  https://www.nerdwallet.com/ Card Act of 2009 | https://www.congress.gov/bill/111th-congress/house-bill/627 Federal Reserve | https://www.federalreserve.gov/ Episode summary created by https://headliner.app

Carrying a balance on your credit card from one month to the next may not be recommended but for many Americans it's unavoidable. On the latest episode of PennyWise, show producer Ambre Moton is joined by John Kiernan, managing editor of WalletHub, who shares the the top credit card mistakes to avoid.  Read more on WalletHub here! About this program Nat Cardona is host of PennyWise as well as Lee Enterprise's true-crime podcast Late Edition: Crime Beat Chronicles. Lee Enterprises produces many national, regional and sports podcasts. Learn more here. John Kiernan is the managing editor at WalletHub. He oversees WalletHub's content strategy and helps produce product reviews, educational guides, and other content to help answer people's financial questions and help them save money. John joined WalletHub's parent company as a writer in 2010. Since then, he's helped build WalletHub from the ground up, becoming one of the most senior members of the team. His previous work experience includes USA TODAY, US News and The Washington Post. Episode transcript Note: The following transcript was created by Adobe Premiere and may contain misspellings and other inaccuracies as it was generated automatically: It's been hammered into our heads to not carry a balance on our credit card from month to month and to live within our means. And yet Americans are notorious for being fairly deep in credit card debt. Welcome to Pennywise Lee Enterprises podcast. I'm Ambre Moton, the producer and editor of the show filling in for Nat Cardona. WalletHub managing editor John Kiernan is joining me to talk about credit card mistakes to avoid. Based on the article, it looks like there's eight common mistakes that people make in regards to credit cards. So let's start with that. There are so many options for credit cards right now. What should people be taking into account when selecting cards? What are the most common credit card selection mistakes? Sure, the first one right off the bat is not having a credit card. Some people kind of think it's dangerous to have one, but really not having one is is dangerous, especially for your credit, regardless of what card you pick. If you have a major credit card, it's going to be reporting information to the major credit bureaus monthly. And so you could have a card with no annual fee that you lock in a drawer and still benefit. So kind of the fear of credit cards that some people have is one thing you immediately need to get over. Beyond that, as you mentioned, there are tons of options. We track more than 1500 cards in our database at WalletHub. And so it really what you focus on really depends on who you are as a consumer and what you're looking for from your card. And that might seem obvious, but it can be more difficult in practice. The first thing we recommend people doing is checking their credit score. This will immediately kind of focus you on a segment of the market. You have a pretty good idea that you'll be approved. So if I check my credit score and say that it's 700, I say, okay, maybe I have a pretty good chance of getting a credit card that requires good credit and I can kind of rule out the ones that are have lower requirements that are very attractive or the ones that require excellent credit outright. And beyond that, just kind of the main rules of thumb are if you're going to pay in full monthly, you should focus on rewards because interest rates don't matter in that scenario. So you can kind of a card that has excellent rewards and a really high interest rate, that's fine. The interest rate won't affect you. Conversely, if you're going to carry a balance, we recommend trying to get a card with a 0% introductory rate to really kind of be able to finance whatever big ticket purchases or balance transfers you need to do in the short term and then get out of debt before the high regular rate takes effect. Pretty much no credit cards at the moment have very low regular, ongoing APR. So you kind of have to take advantage of limited time deals. I know I'm constantly getting all the offers where it's like, Hey, here's this, here are all the perks, here's all of that. So I really like you talking about if you're going to pay it off every month, then go ahead and go for those. And those offers you get in the mail. Like a lot of times people will just say, I got an offer. Let me apply for it without context, which is the wrong approach. But you can use those to get a sense of what kind of offers you have good approval odds for. If you're receiving something in the mail for a card that requires good credit, you can pretty feel pretty confident and you'll have good approval odds for other cards, for good credit. And you can then kind of say, Can I beat the offer that I got in the mail with other cards that are on the market? Gotcha. In the article, there was something about mistaking no preset spending limit for a limitless credit line. Can you talk about that for a minute? Sure. So this is kind of something the credit card companies are intentionally misleading about having? No. And limit, in the short phrase, kind of gets people thinking, I have I can spend as much as I want. There are no restraints. But the kind of preset part of no preset spending limit is very important. So all credit cards have a limit. Is just the limit on a no preset spending limit card can vary from month to month based on your spending and payment habits. The state of the economy. They can be issuers, financials. And the problem with that is they don't always communicate to you what that limit is. So with these cards, you don't sure have a firm set limit that's in your online account that you can reference, but there is a limit of them of the day. And there's a lot of uncertainty that comes along with that. The other problem with that is that the credit card companies don't always communicate. No preset spending limit cards, spending limits accurately to the credit bureaus. So this can sometimes lead to mistakenly high credit utilization that can hurt your credit score. It really kind of depends on how the issuer reports things. So it can vary, but this isn't to say that those cards are something you should stay away from. Some of these cards are the best among the best cards on the market for certain types of rewards and things like that. But it's definitely something to take into account and to not be misled by it. And another thing that I thought was really interesting was thinking that college students can't use credit cards. I remember being an undergrad, and any time you go to a game or an event or even like career fairs, there's always someone handing something out. But I feel like we were always told, No, no, no, you can't have one. You can't have one. You're not, you know, you're still a student. So, yeah, things have kind of the pendulum has swung throughout the years back in the day. You're right that you could go get a free T-shirt or Frisbee or whatever. Can they get your information Signing up for a credit card. Laws have since changed, and so they can no credit card companies can't do that type of direct kind of outreach on campus anymore. But a lot of people have taken that combined with rules about independent income when applying for a credit card, and they've mistaken it to be that you can't get a credit card as a student. But all the rules really require now is if you're under 21, so 18 to 21 years old, you have to use independent income to show that you can afford bill payments. And the difference is older people can use shared household income. They have reasonable access to it. And so it's basically everyone at the end of the day has to prove or show that they can afford a new credit line. And with students, they just want to make sure that you're not just kind of reporting your their parent's income or something like that. And they really can afford the the credit that they're taking on. We all know that, you know, it's important to build credit. But what do people usually get wrong when they're building credit with credit cards. Kind of going back to not having a credit card? It's really not getting started early. I know one thing that I'm thankful of. My parents made me an authorized user on their credit card when I was young, before I could get one on my own. So by the time I was able to apply legally at 18 and get my own credit card account, I already had some credit standing, so it made it easier to get approved. So you can add someone to as an authorized user to your account when they're a minor and help out on the credit. And then once you turn 18, I think people really need to get their own credit card, even if they don't plan to use it. So they get that monthly influx of information to their credit bureaus and their credit reports. The contents of your credit card is what makes up your credit score. And so and using the credit card responsibly is the easiest way to get information onto your credit report month after month. And you don't even need to use it. You can just open a card with a $0 fee and lock it and draw and you'll benefit. When it comes to looking up your credit score. Do you ever pay to get your credit score? No, definitely not there. I'm obviously a little biased because Wallethub does free credit scores and credit reports and credit monitoring, but there are a ton of options, reputable options these days that have free credit scores and reports. And you're going to those are based, again, on the information, your major credit reports and so with the kind of prevalence of so many free options that are reputable and will tell you what you need to know, there's really no reason to try to pay. A lot of people think, I need to get the exact same model as the credit card company or the lender is going to be using. But that's really tough to do because the lenders all modify kind of the publicly available models with their own in-house variations is never really going to get the same exact model. And the different credit scores are basically kind of directionally the same. I think there's a CFPB report a few years ago that said there's like a 90% correlation between the contents or the credit scores, the final credit score, credit ratings based on the different models. So they're pretty much kind of on par. Basically, if you're checking the same free one over time, that's what you really want to see. So if you're improving by any of those models or any of those free scores, you should be improving by the others as well. Awesome. Okay, then we have to talk fees. I know I'm always getting mailings about transferring balances or fees on cash advances. What are some of the more common credit card fee mistakes? Well, on one end of the spectrum, a lot of people see annual fees and say, okay, a card with an annual fee must be worse than one with a fee or vice versa. They have these assumptions, but you really need to try to take into account what the card offers in return for the fee. So if you're going to get a $500 initial bonus and 5% cash back on purchases, but you have to pay a $95 annual fee, you still might come out and you're likely to come out way ahead at the end of the day, once you take that into account and the no annual fee card could be more at the end of the day, or it might not. Knowing your fee is kind of it's more likely to save you more when you're not going to be using the card super often or spending a lot on it. But the bottom line is people should have kind of an open mind about annual fees and take into account what they're getting for that. When it comes to balance transfer fees, it's a it's a similar situation. Most of the best balance transfer cards that offer 0% introductory APRs for the longest possible period do charge a 3% balance transfer fee. You have far fewer options if you want a card without a balance transfer fee and the intro periods are going to be much shorter. So if you don't need as long to pay to pay off what you're going to be transferring. For example, if you could do it in 12 months instead of 21, then the no fee option will probably saved you more money. But if it'll take you a much longer time than a card with a fee balance transfer fee like you said, be more given how expensive the regular interest rates on balance transfer cards are. So if you don't pay off the full balance transfer by the time the intro period ends, the remaining amount will be subject to the regular MPR. And so that could end up being a lot more expensive than a 3% fee. Gotcha. I had a couple of teammates in college who would joke around about how using a credit card was free money and then they would, you know, try and consolidate or transfer and things like that. And I think they just kind of ended up spending a lot more on the fees. And I think that that is a concern. A lot of people think they can hop from one card to another, but it's kind of like musical chairs at some point they up the offers kind of dry up or become very expensive in terms of fees. And so then you're kind of left holding a pricey bag, not the good kind, I guess. So what can you say about the mistakes that people are making about spending and payments? Is it the end of the world if you miss a payment or if you're late? Yeah. So it's not the end of the world if you missed kind of one due date, especially because credit card companies usually don't report a missed payment until the second due date. So you're 30 days late on the first and you've missed your second due date or been report was late and that's very bad for your credit score, especially if you keep being reported as late. So you want to avoid that. But if you happen missed one due date or something like that, that's often not the end of the world. What I would definitely recommend is calling your credit card company or company and saying, Hey, whatever the case may be, something came up and I paid on time every time until then. Can you kind of mark me as on time when I make it up or waive the late fee? We've done surveys of and people credit card companies are more willing than you might think to kind of forgive a one off fee or something like that, especially to keep you as a customer in terms of the missing payments. Beyond that, obviously, like, you can have some leeway if you missed one or something like that. But the best thing to do is to set up automatic payments from a bank account. If you're like me, you're kind of forgetful. You're liable. Sorry. my gosh. That payment was due three days ago. If you don't have something automatic set up so setting up from a bank account kind of just takes forgetfulness out of the equation and it can be really helpful. I know early on in my credit card career, I've missed a payment and just because I forgot. But since I autopay and I haven't since there's some kind of things you need to take into account with that you can't just forget about your account and not look at the charges ever, because it could be something that you got overcharged for a fraudulent purchase or something along those lines. And you need to make sure you're kind of keeping within your budget and all that. Is it, I guess, worst to exceed your credit limit or do a cash advance? Are they both bad? Yeah, neither is very good. You might not be able to exceed your limit. It's up to the kind of issuer if they'll approve a transaction that would go over your limit or not. But maxing out your card is definitely not good for your credit score. It's not the end of the world. If it happens at one point and you pay it off pretty quickly thereafter. A cash advance, kind of a similar situation. It's bad in the sense that pretty much all cards will charge a fee for the cash advance. And you might also be hit with ATM fees. And then there's a high interest rate that starts applying immediately. There's no grace period for cash advances, but if you're okay with like an $8 fee or whatever the case may be, and you can you need cash for something for some reason, you can't get it another way and you'll be able to pay it back pretty quickly. So you're not accruing much interest. It's not the end of the world, but it's not something you want to be doing on a regular basis, Right? So in case of emergency as opposed to something you can do. Exactly. And if you have to do it, the sooner you can pay it off, the better. Fraud and identity theft. What mistakes are people making in this category when it comes to credit cards? Yeah, The biggest mistake people have here is kind of not being engaged, not reviewing their account history. One of the the benefits of credit cards is that all major cards have a $0 fraud liability guarantee. So if you notice a fraudulent charge or charge, you didn't make or charge double for something by a merchant by accident, you're not going to have to pay for that. But you it's better if you can notice it and tell the credit card company because they won't always catch everything. So reviewing your monthly statements, just watching out for things like that, it in the most important and as with your email and other important accounts, changing your password regularly is a good idea. Just in case lots of accounts are kind of compromised and data breaches and things like that. You know, make your yourself less of a target if you have a good strong password being changed fairly regularly. You know, that sounds something I definitely need to get better about. It's changing those passwords need to know what are the best tips to kind of combat the mistakes that are commonly made when it comes to using credit cards internationally. Yeah, it's a good question. The biggest thing is before you leave to make sure you have a no foreign transaction fee credit card, about 70% of cards do charge foreign transaction fees, but a growing number of issuers such as Capital One don't charge foreign fees on any of their cards. And so the foreign fee is important because it's usually around 3% that every purchase that's process internationally. And so if you're going abroad, you're going to end up making a lot of purchases and spend 3% more than you have to, which is going to add up to a lot. So getting no foreign fee card on the Visa MasterCard network will help you avoid that extra costs and we'll be able to use it pretty much wherever cards are accepted. The additional benefit to using a credit card is Visa. MasterCard automatically gives really competitive exchange rates. And so you're going to be getting a lot more bang for your buck on the conversion than you would if you're converting hard currency at a local bank or an airport kiosk. And it's going to be happening automatically. So you'll need to be carrying around hard currency and worry about getting pickpocketed or losing it, etc. And unlike cash, your credit card can be easily replaced and you don't have to you're not liable for purchases made with it if it gets stolen. So you have the cost savings and the security and the convenience of not having to lug around a bunch of extra stuff when you're when you're traveling abroad. I know my last trip I went to Barcelona by myself and I did get cash once I got there, but I mainly used a credit card that didn't have a foreign transaction fee, and so I just tracked everything set and already set aside money. So I knew as soon as I got home I could pay it off. So but that's yeah, definitely. You know, my friends were like, “No, just get cash!” I think people feel like they're a little more immersed or something when they have the local currency, but they can take that, that feeling and you can save 3%. The other benefit I went after college on a trip, I think starting in Spain, I went to France and a bunch of places, but my bags were delayed. They lost them for a long time and I basically had to buy a bunch of new stuff and it would have been really expensive. But my credit card had baggage insurance. wow. So I basically could just submit the receipts. I'm mad because I went shopping in France and got a bunch of not nice stuff. And yeah, I felt more secure at the time of the benefit than I could have gone crazy. But but yeah, so those types of secondary benefits can really help you out in a pinch too. Yeah, that's cool. Definitely have to look into that because I've had my bags delayed getting to me while traveling too. So that's. Yeah, that's a good one. Okay. So so far we basically talked about, you know, credit card debt as it relates to individuals. But what are some of the common business credit card mistakes? Most of the same mistakes apply for consumers and businesses. There are some differences in the regulations on consumer cards and business cards that kind of can maybe influence your decision. So, for example, business cards aren't subject to the same rules under the CARD Act as consumer cards. And so one of the rules that allows kind of the business credit card issuers to increase interest rates whenever they want, and some credit card companies have proactively extended the rules to their business cards. And so it's not a concern, but it's kind of it's not something you can rely on as much with a financing. So a lot of business owners might want to get a 0% consumer card, especially if it gives 0% for longer. And some people might be worried about using a consumer card for business given the increase in liability. But one thing a lot of people don't realize about business cards is that you're personally liable for any debt on those because credit card companies generally view a small business as an extension of the owner's personal finances. So you can really cast a wide net when you're looking at business credit cards. A lot of times with with rewards and other features like that, you can get a little more functionality from a business credit card, but you can also consider consumer cards if they can get you better deals as well. That makes sense. Well, is there anything that we haven't talked about that you think is really important that our listeners learn about credit card debt and mistakes that people make. Not really paying attention to the latest offers is is probably something to consider. People maybe shop for credit cards a couple of years ago. And then I think the market doesn't change so much. But we're seeing a lot of competition. So kind of the initial bonus offers are among the most attractive they've ever been 0% periods or as long as 21 months. Right now. And I guess the other thing is if you want to have get a better credit score or have a better credit card, the kind of long term thing you need to do is improve your credit score and try to earn more money, income and your credit history. The most important things and the best cards overall require good or excellent credit. And in the short term, just comparison shopping is really important. Not taking any offer in a vacuum and kind of saying, okay, one initial bonus, let's compare the different offers out there and get the best one based on the numbers. And as a plug, WalletHub can can help you do that. Pretty awesome. That's great. Well, John Kiernan of WalletHub, thank you so much. We appreciate it. Thanks for having me. Support the show: https://omny.fm/shows/pennywiseSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In today's podcast episode, we will discuss credit laws you must understand to avoid being taken advantage of by your lenders. Although there are many, we will focus on four pieces of legislation today. They will include the following: The CARD Act of 2009 The Fair Credit Reporting Act The Fair Debt Collection Practices Act And the Credit Repair Organizations Act Be sure to stay until the end for a bonus If you like this kind of content and want to know every time I upload, don't forget to subscribe and leave a review.  Free Credit Report, visit www.annualcreditreport.com 2. Opt out of "junk mail,"  www.optoutprescreen.com 3. 'Let's Talk Money' LinkedIn Newsletter https://www.linkedin.com/in/willita-cherie 4. 5 Ways to Increase Your Credit Score episode https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/build-young-grow-wealthy/id1525719425?i=1000602467837 Website: www.willitacherie.com --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/willita-cherie/message

LendIt Fintech's weekly news show covering the top stories in fintech.This week's list of top stories include:CFPB plans to revisit the CARD Act, older regulations: ChopraFidelity to Allow Retirement Savers to Put Bitcoin in 401(k) AccountsRobinhood cuts nine percent of workersActing OCC comptroller calls for standards on stablecoinsStarling bags £130.5m from existing investors to build "war chest" for acquisitionsCFPB Dusts off Old Rule to Investigate FinTechLendingClub earnings beat Q1 expectationsNonbank jumps at rare chance to get into SBA 7(a) lending

Long term, the Chase Sapphire Reserve is definitely the superior card. But you may want to open the Chase Sapphire Preferred first because the Sapphire Preferred often offers a higher welcome bonus than the Sapphire Reserve After keeping the Preferred open for a year you can then upgrade to a Chase Sapphire Reserve. You must wait 1 year to upgrade due to a federal law called CARD Act. Cards mentioned in this episode: Chase Sapphire Reserve Chase Sapphire Preferred Amex Platinum for military You can also compare the Chase Sapphire Reserve vs Chase Sapphire Preferred. Optimal order to open credit cards in while you're in the military. You can maximize the benefits of military annual fee waivers rapidly by opening up credit cards in this order. Learn more about military travel hacking in the Ultimate Military Credit Cards Course at https://militarymoneymanual.com/umc3

We discuss recent and ongoing enforcement activity of the PA AG involving consumer financial services. Our conversation focuses on activity directed at: Auto title lenders for alleged violations of PA usury law; national banks for alleged CARD Act violations; furniture retailers for alleged “hang tag” law violations; home sellers for alleged violations of mortgage laws arising from the use of contracts for deed; and phone scams. Alan Kaplinsky, Ballard Spahr Senior Counsel, hosts the conversation.

Long gone are the days of companies giving away coolers on college campuses when students would sign up for high-interest credit cards. Unfortunately, there are still sneaky promotions, fine print, and ways these companies take advantage of unsuspecting customers.  Our guest today is Sara Rathner. Sara is a NerdWallet travel and credit cards expert. She appeared on the Today Show, Nasdaq, and CNBC’s Nightly Business Report and has been quoted in Yahoo Finance, Time, Business Insider, and MarketWatch. She’s held a total of 23 credit cards using travel reward points to see the world on a budget. A proud Northwestern University alum, she also has a certificate in financial planning from Boston University. She’s here today to talk about personal finance scams and how to manage your credit cards. Show Notes: [1:40] - Sara’s passion is personal finance and people reach out to her to ask questions. She really wants finances to be empowering and not scary. [3:04] - Chris remembers the days when he was in college seeing booths of credit card companies setting college students up with credit cards. Sara explains the Card Act that changed the law to protect young adults. [4:31] - There are times when your credit limit can really help you in a bind. [5:10] - Sara recommends everyone read the fine print of every credit card you apply for, even though it is not enjoyable to do so. You can find all this information before you even fill out an application. [6:06] - You want to find a card that provides greater value than its annual cost. You want to find a card that has rewards that you will actually redeem and use. [6:32] - The credit card industry is seeing a lot of change due to the pandemic. [7:29] - Sara explains how revolving credit accounts work and where credit card balances can get dicey. [9:14] - If you pay your credit card bills every month rather than the minimum payment, you won’t deal with interest. [10:00] - Chris shares an experience of reading the fine print on a store credit card application that claimed to be interest-free for the first 12 months. Sara confirms how that works and cautions people to know that fine print. [12:30] - Interest rates are negotiable to an extent. [13:11] - Missing a payment is huge. Many cards have late fees and a late payment could hit your credit score by 100 points or more overnight. [14:05] - The thing that you need or want now is great, but if it causes you long term financial struggle, oftentimes it wasn’t worth it in the first place. [15:23] - Sara recommends for those really large purchases to save up money rather than taking on the stress of debt if you can. [16:30] - There are a lot of recent scams, specifically small business loans and unemployment insurance, that are popping up after the pandemic caused people to lose their job and reliable income. [19:05] - Sara recommends going directly to the government agencies that offer financial assistance during this time and never to go to an outside source no matter how legitimate they appear. [20:58] - Sara shares an experience with a credit card company contacting her about a problem with her account and asked her for her credit card number to verify. She refused and called the number on the back of her card to make sure. [23:13] - Any time you are trying to buy and sell items on platforms like Craigslist and Facebook Marketplace, be very careful because there are scams there, too. [26:07] - It is much more important to be careful and seem paranoid than take a risk. You’re dealing with strangers so their opinion doesn’t matter. [28:06] - Chris and Sara discuss sketchy ways scammers try to snag you. But there are legitimate credit repair resources online and many of them are free. NerdWallet is an excellent resource. [29:49] - It takes a few months for positive behaviors to show up on your credit reports, so if you stick with it you will be rewarded. [30:27] - NerdWallet is your financial best friend that has tons of great articles and calculators. Check out the app and website. [31:01] - Sara shares her most valuable piece of advice for those who think they have been a victim of a scam, including a website to report potential scams. Thanks for joining us on Easy Prey. Be sure to subscribe to our podcast on iTunes and leave a nice review.  Links and Resources: Podcast Web Page Facebook Page whatismyipaddress.com Easy Prey on Instagram Easy Prey on Twitter Easy Prey on LinkedIn Easy Prey on YouTube Easy Prey on Pinterest Sara Rathner on NerdWallet Sara Rathner on Twitter NerdWallet on Twitter NerdWallet Web Page NerdWallet on Facebook NerdWallet on Instagram Report a Potential Scam  

In our first podcast of the 116th Congress, we hear from the Vice Chair of the Joint Economic Committee, Congresswoman Carolyn Maloney, about her Credit CARD Act (AKA Credit Card Holder's Bill of Rights). Then, JEC staff speaks with Dr. Neale Mahoney, whose 2013 study shows that the Credit CARD Act saved American consumers more than $12B/year. Coming soon on iTunes, Google Play, Stitcher or wherever you get your podcasts. Follow the Joint Economic Committee Democrats on Twitter and Facebook at @JECDems, and check the show notes at https://www.jec.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/democrats/podcast for more information on what we’ve covered today.  

Summary: Physical and cyber attacks against ATMs receive a lot of coverage, but they are not the only ways in which criminals can empty an ATM of cash. Transaction reversal fraud is one example of a manipulation of loopholes in transaction processing rules to steal cash, but it requires little to no tampering with the terminal. This episode will cover the latest process/communication manipulation fraud methods and news, as well as how to stop these attacks.  Resources:  Blog: Changing Risk, Risking Change: Security at the ATM A look at how ATM Security has Changed....and how it hasn't Whitepaper: Managing ATM Security COMMERCE NOW (Diebold Nixdorf Podcast)   Diebold Nixdorf Website   Transcription:    Amy Lombardo:                00:00                     Physical and cyber attacks against ATMs receive a lot of coverage, but they are not the only ways in which criminals can empty an ATM of cash. Transaction reversal fraud is one example of a manipulation of loopholes in transaction processing rules to steal cash, but it requires little to no tampering with the terminal. This episode will cover the latest process and communication manipulation fraud methods and news, as well as how to stop these attacks. I'm Amy Lombardo, and this is COMMERCE NOW. Scott Harroff:                     00:43                     Hello, again. I am Scott Harroff, Chief Information Security Architect at Diebold Nixdorf and your host for this episode of COMMERCE NOW. Today, we are live from the TAG PIX event in Las Vegas. I'm joined today by a very special guest from First Data, Mr. John Campbell, Director of STAR ATM Acceptance.                                                                               Welcome, John. I hope your experience here at TAG PIX has been a good one so far? John Campbell:                 01:04                     Yes, it's always a pleasure to be here at TAG's hut. This is actually my 13th year, and I look forward to it every year to get some great information from the vendors and the clients themselves. Scott Harroff:                     01:15                     Yeah. I think I've been coming here, John, for about 15 years. I've probably bumped into you one of those first early sessions. Great seeing you here every year for all those years, year over year. Hey, before we dive into some questions on reducing ATM related fraud, tell us a little bit about your background, positions you've held. What are doing these days? John Campbell:                 01:36                     I spent about 15 years working at Virginia Credit Union. I was a longtime TAG member. In a previous life, I was an accountant who actually settled the debit networks before jumping into ATM operations back in 2005. TAG attendee for 11 years. During those times, presenter and director on the TAG board from 2010 to 2015. Back in those days, I was responsible for the ATMs and debit processing for the credit union. These days, I work for First Data in Atlanta. I'm Director of STAR ATM acceptance for the STAR network and work closely with First Data processing ATM requiring side of the business, [ISOs 00:02:09] and [FIs 00:02:12]. I am currently a member of ATMIA, US Payments Forum ATM Work Group, and the National ATM Council. Scott Harroff:                     02:17                     So what you're saying, John, is you've been around a little while and you've seen a few things when it comes to ATM fraud? John Campbell:                 02:22                     A couple. Scott Harroff:                     02:23                     All right. Having been on both the FI side and now working for a transaction processor, how would you describe the state of ATM security today? John Campbell:                 02:32                     Fluctuating, evolving, and sometimes growing. We are better at what we used to do, but so are the bad guys. When I started in ATMs in the early 2000s, the biggest scares we had were the occasional ram raid and the old webanese loop capturing cards at ATMs before DIP readers came into existence. The move from OS/2 to Windows started bringing all sorts of different degrees of cyber attacks and logical attacks on software that we had never seen. But they were still sporadic and slow. But now it seems that even after all the security enhancements we've done, EMV, encrypted hard drives, point-to-point encryption, the attacks seem almost constant and even renewed. I think some of that's also from the fact that criminals are not just attacking the ATMs logically, but they've gone back to the low-hanging fruit and ram raids and cash trapping. The cashouts that made a lot of news the last couple weeks in the FBI. A lot of it were from best practices just not being followed that had been out there for years. It's still a very fluid environment. Scott Harroff:                     03:40                     Yeah. That's about the same thing I'm seeing. When you say EMVs out there, I just got done talking to customers where they were charged back several hundred thousand dollars, because they had made the decision, "Maybe I won't implement EMV. What's the worst that could happen if I don't spend all that money to do the upgrade to EMV?" I've had quite of few of them where they didn't spend the money, and now what's happening is larger financial institutions are coming back. They're saying, "Hey, we detected this fraud. The only thing in common is your ATM, so why are getting all these non-EMV transactions from our customers that have EMV cards off your ATMs?"                                                                                 It's the same thing with TLS, John. I've watched TLS roll out. Your network was one of the early adopters of rolling out the TLS protocol. But at the same time, there was some really big FIs that are out there that still haven't turned it on. There's some big networks that haven't turned it on. It's interesting to me that some folks are really thought leaders in the industry and gets stuff done, and some others tend to be a little bit more of a laggard.                                                                                 What security risk do you see as they pertain to FIs and processors, or even processes in communication protocols? John Campbell:                 04:53                     Well, I think, first, as an industry, what's really been hampering us is the fact that we have no problem jumping on the barbarian at the gate, but then we go back to sleep behind the walls. We're seeing that over and over again with skimming and then EMV. We ramp up, a lot of the earlier adopters go, and then we seem to just get lulled back into sleep.                                                                                 I take it back to Ploutus coming out with the malware when those were rearing its head in the 2013 timeframe. Diebold and other industry leaders came out and said, "Here's best practices. This is what you need to implement to protect yourself." And it got quiet. In early 2018, suddenly a variant, Ploutus-D, comes out. It hits some ATMs in the country, and everyone's panicking. Everybody's freaking out. "What do I need to do?" And you're sitting there thinking, "The best practices that would have protected you were put out there five years ago, and you just didn't do it." And some of them were physical, of top hat security, and some of them were logical, just default passwords. Somehow, here we are in 2018, and it's still a problem. That really blows my mind and that.                                                                                 But one of the bigger steps I've seen that's actually moving the ATM industry in good spot is, as you were saying, that point-to-point encryption of the data between the ATM and the host to prevent man-in-the-middle attacks. Folks forget that, even in an EMV environment, there's still data that's visible out there. I mean, we're still in a US market that's routing by BIN tables, even though you have EMV protocol having it in the ATM. So whether it's an ISO ATM or a FI, you can still do man-in-the-middle attacks, still attack the data. So seeing MPLS communications at the routers and hosts was great, but now we need to protect those small spots where the criminals are still attacking. Because even with EMV, MFA, and tokenized PAN, there is no reason we should be sending any data in the clear anymore, and it's still happening. Those that have been, before, what you said, First Data and STAR, it's starting to pick up, but I'd like to see it pick up at a faster pace.                                                                                 The ones that's bypassing all these security protocols is account takeover. It's still a real problem, and it truly does bypass that onsite security, whether it's logical or physical. I equate it to ... It's you can have all these gates and cameras and barbed wire, but if you still, through social engineering, allow someone to steal the proverbial guard's coat, they're still getting inside the fortress. They're still getting out. You don't have to beat the technology. You're beating the human element, and that's still a big problem for us. Scott Harroff:                     07:28                     Yeah. Speaking of human elements and things that have been out there for a long time. With all the technology that everybody puts out there, I still get phone calls. I wouldn't say on a regular basis. But every month or so I get a phone call about some institution would have done a transaction reversal at the ATM. They'll be balancing their journal, and they'll be looking at their host logs. And, "Why am I out $300 of cash? It shouldn't have been gone." What do you see at the network as far as transaction reversal best practices? Because, John, in my mind, it's something that, between the ATM and the transaction processor, we should have been able to get rid of a long time ago. But I still get customers calling me on this. John Campbell:                 08:12                     Well, we still have ... In the industry, it's always been cardholder customer-centric. How do I protect the cardholder? Reg E is built all around that. And of course, that's what the criminals are manipulating. The TRF is a very low-tech scam. The criminal manipulates the ATM into thinking there's a fault while simultaneously breaching the dispenser shutter to grab the cash. But the way that the networks and the ATMs are set up, all it knows is there is a fault. "I don't think I've actually dispensed cash or I can, and, therefor, I need to reverse the transaction." So the debit is reversed, the bad guy walks away with the cash, and then can continue on with this fraud that they're probably getting at ATM and ATM.                                                                                 We've heard a lot about this from the European market more, especially in 2015, but it's creeping in again. Just like Ploutus and other sorts of attacks, they start other parts of the country, and the US continues to be the soft underbelly. So the current SOP for conducting this fraud is defined. Deployers who've gotten motorized ATMs, they are to set up for card before cash. And of course, the industry did this in response for EMV. I don't want the cardholder to leave their card, so I'm going to make sure the cardholder takes their card before I can give them their cash. I'll stage it behind the shutter. And then, as soon as they take it, I'll give them their cash. The bad guys know this. They test out ATMs. They can hear the dispenser cranking out. They can hear the money behind the shutter. Ant then, it doesn't take a whole lot for them to go manipulate the hardware and then obtain the cash. It's reversed again, as we were talking about before. And then, they run to the next ATM, or they just do the transaction multiple times. Scott Harroff:                     09:53                     Yeah. I look at the problem pretty much the same way you do, John. We've released XFS updates that would minimize the impact to the customer. I know First Data and a lot of other networks that are out there can turn on things inside the configuration and say, "If this occurs, then let's hold this for 24 hours, so we can verify whether the cash has been withdrawn back in. If it's been withdrawn back in, did we get all of it? Or did we just get a receipt that came back and looking like a piece of cash?"                                                                                 I know that we have a lot of technology. One of things I wonder about is, how can the industry as a whole, through events like TAG PIX, educate these customers on all the things about the deployers can do, as well as the networks. It would be interesting, I think, to get together a group of people that could really sit down and communicate this is a way that everybody understands the problem and everybody understands some solutions before something bad happens and they come back to us. I know what we can do as Diebold. What do you think processors might need to do differently to help prevent these kinds of attacks? John Campbell:                 10:57                     Well, I know that a lot of ATM deployers have actively monitored transactions reversals and card jams. They've put in some logic. But I relate it to what we're seeing. And fallbacks, as well. There's no consistent idea of what's the best way to combat the fraud. You have some FIs on fallbacks who go and decide, "I'm declining them all." Some, "If it's under 100." So you see the same thing with these transactional reversals. There's no unified idea of what's the best way to combat it.                                                                                 I think that these acquirers and issuers need to go back to what they were doing with skimming, which was regularly inspecting their shutters for damage, monitoring velocity of reversals. Issuers, education their issuers. Because the processors can help by, when they're implementing these ATMs, educate. I don't think they can just leave it up to the manufacturers. I don't they can leave it up to PCI. I think, we as processors, we as networks, need to be advocates. We can't just be rails that the transactions are running on. We need to actually be advocates for the issuers and acquirers to help them almost help themselves when it comes to these types of fraud. Scott Harroff:                     12:15                     Yep, I agree with you, John, 100%. We talked about a lot of different kinds of fraud events that are out there. Are there any other kinds of fraud attacks that you're seeing recently? Any other kind of things that the folks out there listening, Commerce Now, should really be thinking about? John Campbell:                 12:31                     A lot of what we're seeing now is the criminals trying to figure out, "How do I get around the security that's becoming more inherent at the ATM channels?" So they're going back to, "Let me attack lower security at certain financial institution's banking core. Let me go after mobile apps that were deployed years ago and haven't kept up with third-party authentication."                                                                                 There was an article a little ago that talked about cardless transactions and fraud. The way it worded, you almost thought that the transaction, the ATM interaction, was the problem. When you read in depth, that's not the case. It really was social engineering. Again, the human element. These accounts getting taken over. They're importing a new phone number, a new email address, and then, they don't have to get around the security. They've taken over the entity. They've taken over the person. The cardless transaction now is just a funnel for them. They don't have to beat the ATM. They don't have to beat the networks. They don't have to beat the processor. They beat the human. By doing so, they're bypassing all this wonderful security we've put into place in EMV and firewalls. They don't. They've gone back to, truly, stealing an identity. They've just done it in a cyber fashion. Scott Harroff:                     13:47                     Yeah. We spent a little bit of time talking about technology. We've spent a little bit of time talking about processes. You just spent some time talking about social engineering defeating the human element. There's another area that everybody likes to hear about. What is happening with regulatory compliance or new standards that you think might actually reduce fraud at an ATM or on an ATM network? John Campbell:                 14:11                     This industry is definitely closely watching the increasing move of state regulatory initiatives. Obviously, the constituents complain to their legislature about fraud hitting the local bank, the local credit union. They have taken it upon themselves to start introducing legislation. They feel, "Well, Federal Government's not doing enough." Or, "The industry's not doing enough. Fine. We'll put in some rules." Whether it's physical security, about cameras and vestibule locks.                                                                                 One of the ones that we've seen recently was a skimming sticker being put on ATMs, which, as soon as I saw it, being a former deployer, I just cringed to think, "We've spent a decade trying to get surcharge stickers off of ATMs, and now a state wants to have one on every ATM, fine people for it." Any ATM deployer knows issuers are not reading stickers. You can put, "Don't insert coin," on a deposit automation ATM, and I had someone tape four quarters to a piece of paper one time.                                                                                 So stickers aren't the issue or the solution. What you really want is, "Fine. You want to help us, states? Then help us do some education programs between the FIs themselves, the cardholders." We have PSAs out there. Let's educate them about fraud and skimming, but let's do it on things they're looking at, social media, out on TV. My gosh, we're a country that's glued to binging on Netflix. Let's put something on there and educate on the things to look for. Legislating it and punishing the acquirers is not the way to go. It's educating the public to be more diligent when they actually visit ATMs. Scott Harroff:                     15:50                     Yeah, I agree with you. I get all kinds of questions from about 1,300 customers around the United States that are small to medium-sized and handfuls of large ones that come back and say, "What have you heard about this?" And, "What have you heard about that?" Often, the regulations or the standards or a bill that somebody has generated is the subject of that.                                                                                 I remember a certain state where they decided to resurrect the old things of, "Well, if you're at an ATM and someone's about to hijack you, put your PIN in backwards, and that will summon law enforcement and save the day." John, have you ever seen any host actually responding to putting a PIN in backwards as an emergency signal? John Campbell:                 16:34                     Yeah, that's one of my favorite. Whether it's Facebook, Instagram, an email, I'll see this. I've actually saved on my phone a picture with a big, red X through it that has this warning. And it's always someone who's trying to do good. They're trying to inform their friends. And then, I have to go repost on Facebook or some other media of, "This is an urban myth. You cannot do this." I'll even explain the history of it. "There was a programmer in '90s. He wrote this." And I also explain, "We also had panic alarms at ATMs in the '80s, and all of law enforcement was changing around ghosts and came back."                                                                                 If you actually the 2010 Card Act, there's a line item. I think it's the last one where the government said, "We have to do a study on reverse PIN." It had gotten to the point where people believed it enough where it became a line item in a bill. They gave them 13 months. It came back. Like we all know, the industry, law enforcement, the processors, hardware, all went, "We can't do this. This doesn't make sense. You're going to hurt people." Most folks can't remember their PIN going forward if you asked them that. Much less, I have to remember in reverse when someone's pointing a gun at me. By the way, what do you do when the PIN is 1441? We have a problem there.                                                                                 It's one of those. It's a great idea. But when you put into the context of human beings, multiprocessors, multi-nodal networks, and by the way, the police still have to respond to it. It's just not the way to go. But, yes, whenever I see that, I start laughing, because it's one of those, "Okay, let me update this same post I've done every six months for the last 10 years." Scott Harroff:                     18:06                     Yeah. Thanks, John, for spending time with us here today. Thanks for all your valuable information, both as a customer and now as a ATM transaction processor. Thanks so much for being here today with us at TAG PIX.                                                                                 And thank you to the listeners for tuning in to this episode of Commerce Now. To learn more about reducing ATM fraud and how financial institutions can better protect themselves against these attacks, log in to DieboldNixdorf.com. Until next time, keep checking back on iTunes or your podcast listening channel for new topics on COMMERCE NOW.      

I love having guests on the show who look at something that everyone takes for granted and said, why do we do it that way? That’s what today’s guest, Jason Gross, has done with credit cards. Jason is the CEO of Petal. He and his co-founders have designed a card that has a different business model and aims at a different market. Credit cards have always sparked mixed feelings among consumer advocates and policymakers. On the upside, they provide incredible convenience and safety, over cash. On the down side, critics worry that that convenience factor is a double edged sword -- making spending too convenient and fueling over-consumption and under-saving. People also worry that cards are hard to understand. For decades, policymakers have tried repeatedly to solve that by regulating card disclosures and practices with requirements to  disclose the annual percentage rate and fees; make key information prominent in the so-called Schumer Box (named after New York Senator Charles Schumer); require a grace period; bar retroactive raising of interest rates; limit marketing to college students; disclose the long-term costs of paying only the minimum balance and much more. Concern about credit cards prompted Senator Elizabeth Warren, back when she was a Harvard Law professor, to begin fighting what she called “tricks and traps” in financial products, and also business models that rely on penalty fees or interest for their profitability. That concern led to the CARD Act of 2009, and then to the creation of the CFPB itself. The Petal card is trying to solve these challenges. It’s offering simpler, more transparent terms. It addresses the overspending problem by designing the card to encourage customers to pay the full balance each month, rather than revolve. And it’s tackling a third problem, which is reaching the tens of millions of people who don’t have a credit card. For most people, these cards are the first rung on the ladder to building a credit record so that they can later get a car loan or mortgage. Millennials have tended to avoid them, partly due to coming of age in the financial crisis and becoming leery about incurring debt. Jason notes that some young people are “sponsored” into the system by parents who provided them with cards, but for those who aren’t, it’s hard to build credit. That’s a catch 22 -- you can’t get a card because you don’t have a credit record, and you can’t build a credit record because you don’t have a card. Petal is solving that with one of the most important kinds of innovations underway in finance, namely, use of alternative data to evaluate risk. They are looking at the person’s own payment and income history, as reflected in their bank account, to determine ability to pay. Accessing that information has become controversial, as banks worry about allowing a third party to see this data even with the consumer’s permission, in case something goes wrong. However, the ability of consumers to allow such access is the life’s blood of most of the innovation underway in consumer finance. The CFPB is evaluating the issues arising around this, including questions like who really “owns” consumers’ bank account data, whether third parties’ data uses should be regulated, and whether we need to clarify where liability should fall in the event data is misused or breached. A lot of people are working on this issue. Solving it is one of the most important steps we can take toward making finance more inclusive. Listeners have often heard me say that I’ve spent most of my career working with efforts to promote consumer financial health and inclusion by regulating the financial industry, and that I think the results have been mixed at best! A few years ago, I realized that technology could do most of what we’ve been trying to do through policy (if we get the policy right). Petal is trying to do that -- use new data and technology to offer a product that they think will be highly profitable -- despite leaving some kinds of revenue on the table -- because consumers will choose it. Watching them will be fascinating. More information Articles on Petal’s September launch: https://www.paymentssource.com/organization/simple https://bankinnovation.net/2017/09/no-credit-score-say-hello-to-petal-card/ http://paybefore.com/finance-and-strategy/petal-uses-machine-learning-underwrite-credit-without-credit-score/ http://www.thisisgoingtobebig.com/blog/2017/9/8/introducing-petal-providing-access-to-credit-to-thin-file-consumers https://www.nytimes.com/2017/09/08/your-money/new-credit-card-option-for-those-with-scant-credit-histories.html?mcubz=1&_r=0 Jason's Article in Medium: https://medium.com/@jasonbgross_/petal-ba2bb74718f4 My podcast with Digit CEO Ethan Block (another example of innovators leveraging bank account data) http://www.jsbarefoot.com/podcasts/2016/2/25/effortless-saving-digit-ceo-ethan-bloch More for our listeners Please remember to review Barefoot Innovation on ITunes, and sign up to get emails that bring you the newest podcast, newsletter, and blog posts, at jsbarefoot.com. Be sure to follow me on twitter and facebook.  And please send in your “buck a show” to keep Barefoot Innovation going. Support our Podcast I’ll hope to see you at the events where I’ll be speaking this fall: Finovate, September 13th, New York City RegTech: Compliance Transformed, October 3-4th, Brooklyn, NY BAI Beacon/Fintech Stage, October 4-5, Atlanta, GA CFSI Network Summit, Fireside Chat with Thomas Curry, October 5, Chicago, IL FISCA, October 5-8th, Las Vegas, NV Money 20/20, October 25th, Las Vegas, NV Monetary Authority of Singapore Fintech Festival, November 13-17, Singapore RegTech Enable, November 27-29th, Washington, DC UN/ITU conference on financial inclusion in Bangalore (invitation only) Fintech Connect Live, December 6th, London S&P’s Fintech Intel, December 13, New York I’ll also be speaking in December to the Dutch Central Bank on financial innovation in December. I do many presentations for regulators and welcome those invitations. Regulators, in my view, have the hardest and most important role to play in financial innovation. We have wonderful shows coming up. I’ll be talking with Andres Wolberg-Stok of Citi Fin Tech. And I’m going to do one on one of the most fascinating experiences I’ve had in years -- I participated this month in the U.S. Army’s Threatcasting exercise  -- sort of a war-gaming process where we “threatcast” technology risks ten years into the future, and then “backcast” thinking about what we could do, today, to prevent the problem. It was off the chart fascinating.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    We also have a show coming up with Miles Reidy, Partner at the venture firm QED. Miles and I had a fun and fascinating talk about two topics -- the investment outlook for regtech, and then how to find and work with a venture capital firm. Speaking of RegTech, we’re going to have a show with Merlon Intelligence, an AML regtech firm, and also a special show with my own co-founders -- at Hummingbird RegTech. I’m proud to say that Hummingbird has been selected to present at Money 2020 in the startup pitch session. Be sure to come and watch! Meanwhile, keep innovating! Subscribe Sign up with your email address to receive news and updates. Email Address Sign Up We respect your privacy. Thank you!

Join us for a conversation with Krystal Penrose, who is a 2010/2011 "Are You Credit Wise" intern and a student at Central Michigan University. With the support of national student leaders, MasterCard Worldwide developed "Are You Credit Wise?" (AYCW), a campus-based, peer-to-peer education program that provides money management information to college students. There are 10 AYCW interns throughout the country who are trained to lead campus-wide education campaigns focused on the fundamentals of good credit habits. Join us for a conversation with a student expert who will provide us information on the alarming financial status of college students, the recently enacted "Card Act", and why it is important for young people to be "Credit Wise".

Mortgages. Credit credit cards. CARD Act. Dodd-Frank. Laws for government to use to surreptitiously transfer wealth from Bob and other responsible citizens to defaulting borrowers. We lose our credit card mileage and free checking accounts just so that deadbeats and spendthrifts can walk from their debts. This Sunday, Bob will discuss how banks have become the weapon of choice for Liberal class warfare.

Curtis Arnold, CEO of CardRatings.com will go over regular interest, rate hikes, penalty APRs, student credit cards, discounted credit cards, Universal default, allocation of payments, and what you can do. Curtis will also tell us about the 10 worst credit card mistakes you can make, such as applying for a lot of credit cards, too many department store cards, overlooking intro terms, paying late, not reading issuer notices or keeping track of your spending, co-signing for someone else, and making only the minimum payment (this link will give you more information on these: http://www.cardratings.com/worst-credit-card-mistakes.html) . This article gives some pitfalls to the historic new CARD Act legislation now that it has been fully implemented http://www.cardratings.com/new-credit-card-laws.html A recent Reuters article that he was just quoted in: http://blogs.reuters.com/deep-pocket/2010/09/17/memo-to-elizabeth-warren-how-to-protect-consumers/

Curtis Arnold, CEO of CardRatings.com will go over regular interest, rate hikes, penalty APRs, student credit cards, discounted credit cards, Universal default, allocation of payments, and what you can do. Curtis will also tell us about the 10 worst credit card mistakes you can make, such as applying for a lot of credit cards, too many department store cards, overlooking intro terms, paying late, not reading issuer notices or keeping track of your spending, co-signing for someone else, and making only the minimum payment (this link will give you more information on these: http://www.cardratings.com/worst-credit-card-mistakes.html) . This article gives some pitfalls to the historic new CARD Act legislation now that it has been fully implemented http://www.cardratings.com/new-credit-card-laws.html A recent Reuters article that he was just quoted in: http://blogs.reuters.com/deep-pocket/2010/09/17/memo-to-elizabeth-warren-how-to-protect-consumers/

Dr. Gelasia Marquez on Adolescence (Part 2); Music from Alejandro y Susana Allen, "Salmo108;" Q&A with Padre Luis Valbuena: The Angelus; Finance: Understanding the Card Act; The Christophers: Talk; Musical Meditation.

Find out what to expect from the CARD Act's newest and most extensive credit card regulations. They deal with important issues for consumers such as interet rate hikes and fees. Like what you hear? Help us out by writing a review at iTunes. Questions go to money@qdnow.com. Thank you!

Pam Villarreal - Lars Larson Show - Credit Card Act

A bit about the CARD Act and Lilly Ledbetter; Dave Thomas (in Christmas camo!), president of the Nashville chapter of Americans United for the Separation of Church and State, finally settles the question of whether or not we are a Christian nation; your holiday phone calls and a special appearance by Dr. Marisa Richmond of the Tennessee Transgender Political Coalition who explains Rep. Jimmy Matlock's (R-Lenoir City) participation in this year's war on Hannukah. [26.30MB]