Banks are getting in on the green act. The saying: “paying with plastic” is soon going to be a thing of the past as financial institutions promise the development of a new biodegradable credit card.
Virgin Money, headed by staunch environmentalist entrepreneur Sir Richard Branson is leading the pack, with a green credit card (it will literally be coloured green), which will be manufactured out of biodegradable materials. A launch date for this “save the planet” innovation is still to be announced.
A Virgin Money spokesperson admits there is “work...
Biodegradable credit card...
Westpac to charge interest on credit car...
WESTPAC customers are about to be slugged interest on their interest. The bank – which is already making about $18 million a day in profit – has written to hundreds of thousands of credit card holders that from June “interest will also apply to interest charges and fees on your credit-card account”.
Westpac spokeswoman Jane Counsel says the move brings the bank in line with industry standards. “We’ve aligned our processes with industry standards and are charging interest on interest which is essentially what we do with savings products as...
Credit Union cuts variable rates...
A second niche lender with national ambitions has cut its interest rates on variable rate home loans. Credit Union Australia has cut rates on its standard variable mortgage for new customers by 0.25 per cent to 6.37 per cent.
National Australia Bank’s standard variable rate, which is the cheapest of the major banks, is 0.37 percentage points higher than that at 6.74 per cent, while the most expensive of the big four, Westpac, is at 7.01 per cent. The RBA’s cash rate is 4.0 per cent.
AMP cut its basic and discounted variable rates earlier this week as well. Andrew Hadley,...
Shoppers using stores to dodge ATM fees...
CUSTOMERS are grabbing cash from store checkouts in a backlash against ATM fees.
Woolworths, Coles, Big W and Kmart are among outlets that act as de facto banks – even for customers who don’t buy anything. Woolworths spokesman Luke Schepen confirmed customers could withdraw cash without making a purchase at staffed and self-serve checkouts.
He said the system helped shoppers dodge potential “foreign” ATM fees. The Woolworths group, including supermarkets and other stores, handles 80 million “cash outs” through the Eftpos system...
UBank goes mobile...
NAB online banking offshoot UBank plans to offer its first mobile banking service later this year even though it has not yet recouped what the bank invested in getting its online savings account up and running.
Earlier this week NAB’s revised earnings breakdown gave some clues as to the extent of start up losses incurred by the online bank. Gerd Schenkel, UBank general manager, yesterday confirmed that while the organisation is now “writing positive income” it was still “working toward becoming cash positive.” Nevertheless UBank is already considering new...
Majority can’t understand credit c...
In a recent study by the Communications Research Institute, just 14 per cent of participants could decipher a credit card statement and work out how to avoid paying interest on purchases.
Only 29 per cent could find and explain interest that had been charged on the purchases listed on the statements. The only tasks were successfully completed by most participants were identifying the cardholder, account number and credit card company.
The Institute said that it was not the participants’ fault that they could understand the statements because banks make...
Posted by admin in Credit Card News on 03 18th, 2010 | Comments Off
Fraudsters harvest teenagers’ deta...
FRAUDSTERS are buying credit cards on the black market for as little as $8 each and then “harvesting” intimate details of teenagers from social networking sites such as Facebook to steal their identities.
Queensland’s fraud unit head, detective Superintendent Brian Hay, has warned D-Day was coming for a generation who will become young fraud victims after posting too much personal information about themselves on the net. Speaking at a parliamentary inquiry into cyber crime, Supt Hay said details of 16-year-olds were being stored in “data...
Crackdown on excessive credit card fees...
EXCESSIVE fees for credit card purchases could be abolished in the wake of an inquiry into exorbitant surcharges.
The charges are often applied by corporations with market dominance, such as airlines and taxi firms. They were allowed to be introduced by the Reserve Bank in 2003 in an effort to let companies recoup the cost of transactions. Research has found taxis and airlines are slugging customers up to 10 per cent, with Qantas and Tiger airways last year delivered a “shonky” award by Choice for charging passengers $7.70 each. Choice said the real...
Posted by admin in Credit Card News on 03 18th, 2010 | Comments Off
Secondary market develops for gift cards...
Gift card breakage rates could fall significantly as a result of the establishment of a secondary market in closed loop gift cards in Australia.
Consumer group Choice has estimated that up to one in three gift cards are not redeemed, meaning merchants and card issuers reap millions of dollars in breakage each year from unused gift card vouchers.
“They can be money for jam for retailers,” Choice spokesperson Christopher Zinn told the Sunday Herald Sun in January.
CardLimbo.com.au offers consumers the opportunity to sell their unwanted gift cards for between 60 and 80 per...
Posted by admin in Credit Card News on 03 18th, 2010 | Comments Off
American Express a flat earner for David...
Christmas may be the most important season for retailers but it did not lift the profits of the credit card partnership that retailer David Jones has with American Express.
David Jones said that its financial services business earned an EBIT of $21.2 million in the half year to January 2010, compared with an EBIT of $21.8 million in the July 2009 half and $19.7 million in the January 2009 half.
DJs discloses very little else on the performance of its cards partnership, though the presentation for investors asserted that new card numbers are “well ahead of target” and that...
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