The Display Rack

Mar 9, 2023

I recap the credit card and payment industries every week Got it! Powell Signals Increased Rate Hikes if Economy Stays Strong The Federal Reserve could increase the size of its interest rate hikes and raise borrowing costs to higher levels than previously projected if evidence continues to point to a robust economy and persistently high inflation, Chair Jerome Powell told a Senate panel Tuesday. Powell’s comments reflect a sharp change in the economic outlook since the Fed’s most recent policy meeting in early February. At that meeting, the central bank raised its key rate by just a quarter-point, downshifting after a half-point rise in December and four three-quarter-point hikes before that. [ Associated Press ] The dangers of buying a gift card from the display rack in a store Corbis via Getty Images Why You Should Avoid Buying a Gift Card from the Display Rack at the Store In 2021, the Federal Trade Commission reported that gift cards were the top payment method for scammers, leading to a reported $148 million stolen from consumers. Scammers will target display racks of gift cards, especially when the rack is out of sight from cashiers or pharmacy counters. They will then tamper with the packaging to take off any film strip, record the gift card and pin number, and then cover up their tampering. Some scammers have even used fake barcodes as a sticker covering up the gift card’s real barcode. Then, they set up a computer program that has an algorithm that follows those cards. And when any of those cards are manipulated like that go to the register for activation, that criminal is pinged, and they are able to drain the funds off of that card. [ HuffPost ] Credit Card Debt is at An All-Time High, Putting Households Near a Breaking Point More consumers are leaning on credit cards to afford increasingly expensive necessities like food and rent. That helped propel total credit card debt to a record $930.6 billion at the end of 2022, a 18.5% spike from a year earlier, according to the latest quarterly report by TransUnion. The average balance rose to $5,805 over that same period. Delinquencies are already on the rise. A delinquency is a payment that’s 60 days or more overdue. Credit cards are one of the most expensive ways to borrow money. Currently, annual percentage rates are around 20%, an all-time high. [ CNBC ] CFPB's Bid to Curb Late Credit Card Fees Faces Strong Opposition A U.S. consumer watchdog's proposal to slash late fees on credit cards is facing a rough road ahead as lenders gear up for what could turn out to be a fierce battle with the agency. Last month, the CFPB said it was looking to curb such "excessive" fees, which cost American consumers about $12 billion each year, according to the agency's estimates. Credit card issuers that have a bigger exposure to subprime customers or private label cards, which can only be used with a specific brand, could be the worst hit, with revenues expected to decline by mid-to-high single-digit percentage points, ratings agency Fitch estimates. Fitch identified Discover, Capital One, Synchrony and Bread Financial Holdings among those at risk. [ Reuters ] MORE FOR YOU Buy Now, Pay Later Users More Likely to Experience Financial Distress Consumers using buy now, pay later are likelier to use other credit products and high-interest financial services than non-users of BNPL, a recent report by the CFPB said. For example, 62% of BNPL borrowers said they used retail credit cards compared to 44% of non-BNPL consumers. Additionally, 32% of BNPL users relied on personal loans compared to 13% of non-BNPL consumers; and 33% of BNPL borrowers said they had student loans compared to 17% of non-BNPL consumers. BNPL users were more likely to suffer financial distress than non-borrowers and were more likely to use high-interest financial products like overdraft, payday, pawn and auto title loans. [ Fox Business ] T-Mobile's AutoPay Credit Card Discount Is Ending in May T-Mobile is updating its automatic payment rules, including dropping the ability for credit card users to gain the AutoPay discount on its plans. The carrier confirmed that starting "as early as May" it will be limiting these discounts just to those who pay with a debit card or bank account. The move marks a change from the carrier's current policy, which allows anyone to get a discount on wireless or home internet service if they set up automatic payments, regardless of the method they use to pay their bills. If you still want to pay your T-Mobile bills with a credit card, you can, but it will be without this discount. [ CNET ] Betting: FanDuel First to Take Debit Cards at Sportsbook FanDuel became what appears to be the first U.S. sportsbook to accept debit card payments at retail, offering the option at its Phoenix location at Footprint Center, home to the Suns. Working with Toronto-based payment processor NRT Technology, FanDuel installed card readers at its betting counters at the arena sportsbook, allowing fans to pay for their bets as they would items at other stores, using a chip-enabled debit card. Cashiers verify their payment cards against a photo ID. Debit card wagers are maxed at $2,500. The system requires winners to collect any payouts in cash rather than have them deposited into their checking account, but the initial transaction can be made entirely without cash. [ Sports Business Journal ] Mastercard Launches Bitcoin Card in the UK and EU The third most visited cryptocurrency exchange in the world, Bybit, has announced the release of a debit card issued by Moorwand and powered by the Mastercard network. Users will be able to easily transition from the cryptocurrency world into the fiat world and make purchases or withdraw cash from ATMs using this card. By using Bybit Card, consumers can circumvent the need for middlemen and other off-ramp providers when making direct payments for products and services using their cryptocurrency holdings. [ Finbold ] BidenCash Market Leaks Over 2 Million Stolen Credit Cards for Free A carding marketplace known as BidenCash has leaked online a free database of 2,165,700 debit and credit cards in celebration of its first anniversary. Out of these, tens of thousands were duplicates, but there are still 2,141,564 unique ones. The dataset contains personally identifiable information such as names, emails, phone numbers, home addresses, and payment card details, including card expiration dates and CVV codes, with the cards' expiration dates going as far out as 2052. [ Bleeping Computer ] Capital One's New Premier Collection Hotel Program Is Live The Capital One Premier Collection is a luxury hotel program offering benefits at partner hotels like daily breakfast for two, bonus miles on paid reservations, and the option to redeem Capital One miles to pay for the stay. Reservations must be made through Capital One Travel. Capital One’s most premium credit card holders, those with the Capital One Venture X Rewards credit card or Capital One Venture X Business card, have access. Similar programs from competing card issuers exist: take Chase's Luxury Hotel & Resort Collection or American Express' Fine Hotels + Resorts. However, Capital One has several exclusive partnerships with coveted hotels. [ Travel + Leisure ] Post-Covid Surge in Australian Business Start-Ups Fuels Mobile Payments Research released today by the Commonwealth Bank of Australia shows one in three Australians have started a small business or side hustle since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic or plan to start one in the next 12 months. Of those surveyed, 9% of these entrepreneurs started a business between March 2020 and January 2022, while almost twice as many (16%) have started trading in the past 12 months, highlighting sustained entrepreneurial activity among Australians since the Covid pandemic. [ Comm Bank ] White House Cybersecurity Strategy Pivots to Regulation The White House has unveiled a national cybersecurity strategy calling for comprehensive regulation of the nation's vital services, acknowledging in a 38-page blueprint that reliance on voluntary cybersecurity measures has stopped short of preventing billions in economic losses following a spike in ransomware attacks, as well as "inadequate and inconsistent outcomes" across critical infrastructure like energy pipelines, food companies, schools and hospitals. The new framework, led by the Office of the National Cyber Director in the White House, calls out China, Russia, Iran and North Korea for aggressive cyber tactics exhibiting "reckless disregard for the rule of law" and elevates ransomware attacks, such as the 2021 Russia-linked offensive on the Colonial Pipeline, to issues of national security. [ CBS News ]