For a product claiming to protect consumers from unforeseen misfortunes, banks' credit card payment-protection plans have made plenty of enemies. A federal probe could give those opponents the upper hand for the first time.

A federal judge has temporarily halted a telemarketing operation that allegedly sold bogus credit cards and took money from consumers' bank accounts without their consent.

The credit card industry is inching closer to settling yet another challenge to its controversial interchange system, though the ultimate price banks and networks will have to pay to appease merchants is not yet clear.

Recoveries against bad loans have become a major source of cash for credit card issuers, and hence an increasingly important factor in the industry’s return to pre-recession loss rates.

Last year JPMorgan Chase & Co took New York resident Shady Gergis to court over a few thousand dollars in allegedly unpaid credit card debt.

In what could be worrying news for card issuers in Australia, new survey data suggest about 32% of the country’s households last year fell behind financially, which affected their credit card use.

A strong holiday shopping season appears to have led some Americans to delay extra debt payments in December, but despite an end-of-year slowdown all 50 states ended the year with less credit card debt than when the year began, according to a recent report issued by CreditKarma.com.

Credit card issuers quietly are testing a variety of new fees to help make up for other fee income wiped out last year when the Credit Card Accountability, Responsibility and Disclosure Act went into effect, one analyst contends.

Releases of allowances for bad credit card loans continued to plump banks' bottom lines in recent earnings reports, but loss rates look set to bounce off record lows in the first quarter.

Target Corp., which has tried for years to sell its credit card assets, is giving up for now, and it is spending more than $2.8 billion to divorce itself from JPMorgan Chase & Co.

A comparison of credit card debt shows that consumers in all 50 states reduced their outstanding balances last year, with averages falling 11% to $6,576 in December compared to December 2010, according to CreditKarma.com, which on Tuesday released its U.S. Credit Score Climate Report.

Narrower loan spreads and lower average loan balances, partially reversed by lower revenue reversals associated with a reduction in net charge-offs, helped drive fourth-quarter reductions in both net revenue and net income for the Card Services & Auto unit of JPMorgan Chase & Co., the issuer announced Friday.

Credit card users have been unusually diligent in paying off their bills recently in the wake of the financial crisis. Their discipline slipped a bit late last year, however, which led revolving credit to post a surprise jump in November.

U.S. consumer borrowing surged 10% in November, its largest gain in a decade, and a positive sign for the fragile economy. The increase was the 13th in 14 months and the biggest jump since creditors boosted lending after the September 11 attacks.

The economy may be crawling back to normal in some sectors, but credit card industry revenue continues to fall, according to one longtime observer.

Consumers might be warming up a bit to using credit cards again after overindulging in card use during the recession, a new poll suggests.

How wide should credit card lenders open the gates to borrowers after slamming them shut during the recession when losses soared? It depends on their analytics.

Bank of America Corp. on Dec. 21 sold $700 million in credit card assets to U.S. Bancorp in the struggling Charlotte, N.C., company’s latest effort to slim down.

WASHINGTON – Key congressional backers of a 2009 law that strengthened consumer protections for credit card users are now concerned that the Federal Reserve Board has gone too far with regulations that could restrict credit to stay-at-home mothers.

Next year could be a “transition” year in which consumer deleveraging slows significantly and borrowing improves, spurring credit card market growth.