Credit

MIT Federal Credit Union has been selected by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Alumni Association to offer its financial services, including an affinity credit card, to its 125,000 members.

Consumers are increasingly paying down their debts, according to the American Bankers Association.

The journey to align U.S. payments processing security standards with those in most of the rest of the world has all the appearances of progress: "inevitable" is the word most often heard in connection to EMV chip card, and MasterCard and Visa have set what seem to be migration deadlines.

Global Payments Inc.’s massive data breach underscores the need for the U.S. to embrace the EMV standard without delay, at least one chip card proponent contends.

Consumers are becoming less satisfied with their credit card rewards programs as conditions such as expiration dates and spending minimums have diminished the experience, new survey data suggest.

American Express Co. is working with Transaction Network Services Inc. to provide a payment-gateway service for e-commerce.

Two weeks before bitterly contested regulations regarding its debit cards went into effect in the fall, MasterCard Worldwide threw a party in New York. The company wanted to trumpet its commitment to the newest technology in payments, including a role in the about-to-launch Google Wallet, which lets a handful of eligible consumers buy chewing gum or bottled water by waving their smartphones around. Executives at the event were determinedly festive.

Cobranded retail credit cards seem to be gaining favor with recession-weary consumers looking for immediate bargains.

A chip-and-signature route to U.S. EMV adoption certainly would be less painful for banks and merchants than would the chip-and-PIN approach used most everywhere else, but taking the easy way out carries risk.

Credit card issuers in the United Kingdom will have a receptive audience if they strengthen and more heavily promote their rewards programs.

Loan originations continue to grow in several categories, especially to subprime credit card customers, new data show.

A technical problem affecting the Visa network barred consumers from using their credit and debit cards for about 45 minutes on Sunday, the cards company said.

If the Merchant Advisory Group is nothing else, it sure has been a persistent voice in supporting chip-and-PIN card transactions as the most-secure option for eventual U.S. acceptance of EMV smart cards.

Are credit card portfolios poised to begin growing again?

Two of Korea’s leading card issuers are heading for a showdown in court over one of them allegedly copying the other's card products.

The Federal Trade Commission put a robocall operation out of the telemarketing business under a settlement resolving charges that the operation made more than 2 billion calls pitching a variety of products and services, including worthless extended auto warranties and credit card interest rate-reduction programs.

This is the third in a series that initially focused on JPMorgan Chase & Co.'s delinquent credit card collections operation. The second article can be viewed here.

Karen Stevens spent nearly $1,900 paying off delinquent credit card debt she owed Bank of America Corp. in 2006. She then spent another three years fending off demands from collection agencies that she repay the debt all over again.

This is an updated version of an article posted earlier on March 30.

Forced to choose between making a payment on their credit card, car or mortgage, more cash-strapped consumers are opting to keep their wheels and let the plastic slide.