London's police force investigates misuse of credit cards by officers

: The Metropolitan Police said Saturday it is investigating allegations that some military officers illegally used recognition card game issued to staff members for personal expenses.

The Greater London military unit said two investigators were arrested last calendar month on intuition of larceny in connexion with the investigation, which it said would continue.

But police force did not corroborate a study in News of the World newspaper that up to 6 million lbs (US$13 million, euro8.5 million) was illegally spent by military officers on the recognition card game for holidays or merchandises such as as extravagance tickers and level silver screen TVs, and that the Met's professional criteria guard dog is preparing to interview 100s of investigators in the investigation.

"The Director of Professional Standards is currently conducting a reappraisal around the issue and use of the Met's American Express cards," a spokesman for the military unit said on status of anonymity, in keeping with its regulations.

"Any alleged criminalism that is uncovered will be dealt with robustly. We have got a comprehensive program to retrieve any money that is outstanding," he said. Today in Europe

Credit card defaults keep rising, report says

NEW York (CNNMoney.com) -- American consumers are defaulting on their recognition card game at a sharply higher charge per unit compared to last year, in what could be another effect of the recent subprime mortgage marketplace crisis, according to a study published Tuesday.

In addition, late payments are also up, cardholders are showing marks they are less willing to pay and recognition card companies have got written off 30 percentage more payments during the first one-half of this twelvemonth versus a twelvemonth ago, the Financial Times reported.

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The recognition evaluation federal agency Moody's told the paper the job could be owed to the place marketplace lag and fewer householders opting not to refinance their residences.

"The combination of higher involvement rates and a softer existent estate marketplace diminished the attraction of mortgage refinancings in which many borrowers reduced their more than expensive recognition card debt by drawing on the equity in their home," Moody's told the paper.

At the same time, Moody's said that the people defaulting on their recognition card game may not be the same people defaulting on their subprime place loans. The federal agency cited stricter underwriting criteria in the recognition card industry and the fact that borrowers with small or no equity in their places may take to default on on their abode before giving up their recognition card, according to the paper.

Credit cards to pinch your pocket more! - Business Standard

Credit card game will now squeeze your pockets more as leading Banks have got got got got got hiked the bear down per unit of involvement charged on card dues by 1-3% per calendar calendar calendar month in the last two-three months.Credit card companies usually have a measure rhythm of 30-45 days, beyond which they charge monthly involvement rate.Market leadership like ICICI Bank, SBI card game and ABN Amro have already hiked rates on reappraisal of their cost of finances or a routine demand to aline with the industry.By far, ICICI is the marketplace leader in the recognition card concern with over 80 hundred thousand recognition card game against the sum marketplace size of 2.3 crore cards.Justifying the hike, Sachin Khandelwal, recognition card concern head, ICICI Depository Financial Institution told PTI that involvement rates on place loans had increased by 3-4% and the rates on recognition card game had not been revised for almost three years."We have revised the rates after reviewing our cost of monetary fund and also to aline with the industry which is charging in the scope of 3-3.25% per month," they said.Its nearest private sector rival HDFC Bank, however, is improbable to tramp the rates in the close future."We go on to closely reexamine the industry tendencies but have no contiguous programs to raise the involvement rates on recognition card dues", Bank's functionary interpreter said.HDFC currently bear downs involvement in the scope of 2.75-2.95% per month for different class of customers.

Quick and Easy Ways To Improve Your FICO Score

It used to be that "humans" decided your recognition worthiness. For example, you knew your banker by name and your handshaking was all the collateral you needed. Those years are long gone. Now a set of Numbers - your FICO mark - make up one's minds your recognition worthiness and your banker may be one thousands of statute miles away.

Although there are respective recognition models, the most commonly used is FICO, based on a theoretical account created by Fair, Isaac Company. Their consumer website is myfico.com, and you can happen information about the FICO recognition tons there.

Your FICO recognition mark controls your involvement charge per unit and how much recognition a loaner will give you. So taking attention of your score, and keeping your recognition clean volition save you money.

Preserving your FICO score, and improving it, is not difficult, but it may take time. Despite the books, courses of study and advisers offering to assist you better your recognition score, only 3 basic stairway come up into play. Here are the 3 stairway everyone must utilize to earn, continue and better their mark - based on three recognition examples.

Step One: Obtain a Recognition History

There are many grounds you may have got no recognition history. Maybe you're just starting out, maybe you pay hard cash for everything and have got never needed a loan. Anyway, if you have got no recognition history, your FICO mark is likely to be low.

The easiest manner to raise your mark is to acquire a little loan, and pay it off on time. In general, installment loans transport more than credibleness than recognition cards. In other words, you will better your recognition mark faster if you purchase commodity with an installment loan, rather than getting a recognition card.

Another manner to gain a better recognition history is to take $1000 and unfastened a 6-month cadmium business relationship at a fiscal institution. Now, acquire an installment loan for $1000, using that cadmium as collateral. Now, here's the trick. Take the $1000 loan, and unfastened another 6-month cadmium business relationship at another institution. Take another loan for the $1000 at the 2nd institution. Bash this 1 more time.

Now what you have got is 3 loans. Wage the lower limit payment for 6 months. In the last month, hard cash out your CDs and pay the loans off. You now have got a recognition history, and did not travel into long-term debt to acquire it.

Step Two: Continue Your Good Recognition History

Keep a stable beginning of income, wage your measures on clip and avoid high recognition card debt.

Here's more thoughts to maintain your FICO mark as high as possible.

First, don't fold your old accounts. The recognition available poetries recognition used finds a major portion of your score. Shutting old business relationships can take down this portion of your score, because doing this contracts your ratio.

Second, paying off your recognition card game every calendar month is good money management, but you may be able to better in this area.

Here's the scenario: you have got a $2000 recognition card. Every month, you bear down about $1800 to that card. And, every calendar month you pay it off. But here's what haps - your recognition card company studies your recognition information monthly to FICO. If they describe it before you pay off your card, it looks like you transport a balance on your recognition card every month.

You may happen your FICO mark betters if you pay off your recognition card at a different clip of the month.

Step Three: Repair Your Poor Recognition History

For whatever reason, if you have got a mediocre recognition history, there are actions you can take to better your score. Some of them take time, and you will probably make better by talking to a recognition counselor. Because they can assist fix your recognition history and assist get rid of what caused that mediocre recognition history in the first place.

The most heavily leaden portion of your mark is your payment history. The first action to take in starting to mend your recognition history is to pay your measures on time. The mortgage is the most important, followed by installment loans, and finally recognition cards.

How you utilize recognition is the adjacent biggest part of you FICO score. The fastest manner to better this is to pay down your installment loans and recognition cards.

One concluding point to look for is mistakes in your recognition report. Get a transcript of your recognition study from all three primary agencies, and expression at all the entries. You can happen the federal agencies here: experian.com, equifax.com, and transunion.com.

If there are any errors, start having them removed. Call your creditors - sometimes they will take negative information. If not, you have got got a right to have an account added to your recognition report.

Your FICO mark is an of import portion of your fiscal life, and using these schemes may assist better your FICO score. Before making any drastic alterations to your finances, confer with with a fiscal planner.

Stoozing Credit Cards

"What makes 'stoozing recognition cards' mean?" you might ask. The reply is easy. This is just a manner of making money by taking advantage of recognition card game that have got introductory 0% charge per unit offers. This lets the stoozer to borrow money for "nothing" and the chance to travel it into a high street nest egg account. Having said that, stoozing is not suitable for everyone as there are possible hazards involved. You necessitate to pay attending to item and inquire yourself the followers questions:

• Am Iodine financially savvy and can Iodine give clip to pull off my finance prudently?

• Do Iodine have got got an oculus for details?

• Will Iodine have the clip to research new offerings and do new applications?

• Can I ran into clip deadlines when transferring money?

• Will I be able to keep back enticement to spend/ gamble/ put the borrowed money when it is sitting in a no hazard account? (A "no hazard account" intends you are able to pay off the borrowed money, on time.)

If the reply is a "No" or "I don't know", then it's outdo to remain far away from stoozing. However, if the reply is a "Yes", then you are ready to stooze. As a stoozer you can gain anything between £500/- to £2,500/- annually just through stoozing. There are two ways of making money through stoozing. 1. At the end of the introductory 0% charge per unit offer, retreat the "Credit Card" money from the nest egg business relationship and usage it to pay off the full recognition balance. The involvement you will have got gained from your nest egg business relationship will be your "profit". (But make retrieve that, as always, the taxpayer necessitates to pay taxation on the involvement earned.)

2. The other manner is that you could set the borrowed money into an countervail mortgage instead. This volition cut down the involvement of your mortgage calculations. This debt decrease is usually taxation free because the borrowed money is not your income.

Credit Card Reward Programs

When you are applying for new credit cards, take a look at the reward programs they offer. Almost every major credit card company like MasterCard or Visa offers some type of reward program. Some offer cash rebates and others offer merchandise. See which one helps you out the most.

Cash rebates offers with credit cards vary depending on the company. Most offer between 1% to 5% cash back on qualifying purchases. That means that during the year if you spend $20,000 on your card you could earn up to a $1000 back. Make sure you read the terms, though, because many have a cap on how much you can actually earn back. The key to really taking advantage of this option is not to carry a balance and give all your rewards back in interest.

Many people I know save the cash back money and use it to take their yearly vacations. If you are not carrying a large balance on your credit cards and losing it on interest, you will actually be taking your vacation on them. And if you have $1000 to travel with, you can have one heck of a vacation

I personally prefer using cards that offer merchandise for your purchases. Usually you will receive one point for every dollar you spend. Then once you accumulate a certain total you can choose some merchandise. Many of them offer an online catalog to shop from. The credit card companies offer the merchandise in tiers. For instance, you might be able to get a $50 dollar gift certificate for 5000 points, but for 100,000 points you have the option of getting a high-tech outdoor BBQ grill.

I use the merchandise points I accumulate for gifts throughout the year. Especially for last minute Christmas gifts. Everyone likes a gift certificate, so there is a quick and easy gift idea.

I know many people who have learned to maximize these rewards to the fullest. For example, you are use to just writing a check to pay for your utilities every month. Instead, just use the credit card to pay them, and just pay it off each month. It is not an added expense; you are just changing whom you write the check to. They also pay things like their homeowners policies on them and if you can, another big point gainer is paying your property taxes on them. You then can add a lot of everyday purchases and get your point totals very high.

So decide which type of reward program is best for you. You may want the cash rebate over the merchandise. Either way, make sure that you actually get to benefit from them. Check all the terms of your credit card, not all purchases you make will qualify for points or the cash rebate options.

Pair to face charges of credit card theft

Two people charged with breaking into a Penn Township home and stealing two credit cards and using them to make purchases of at least $700, recently waived preliminary hearings on the charges.

Travis Paul Arnold, 21, of the 400 block of Baltimore Street, Hanover, and Nicole Dubs, 19, of the 6600 block of Pine Road, Thomasville, face various counts of access-device fraud, conspiracy to commit theft and receiving stolen property. Dubs is also charged with conspiracy to commit burglary.

Penn Township Police allege the pair, and a juvenile from Thomasville, broke into a home in the 500 block of McAllister Street on Jan. 19 and stole two credit cards. They used the cards to make purchases Jan. 18 and Jan. 19 at convenience stores and a department store, police said

Several days later, the three were identified in store surveillance photos and each admitted their involvement in the burglary, police said.

Play your cards right

For years, banking customers have been reaping rewards for using their credit cards — frequent-flyer miles, discounts on vehicles and other consumer goods, and even cash back.

Called "loyalty programs," the trend is migrating over to debit cards as more and more people use them instead of credit cards.

Debit cards, also called check cards, are used just like credit cards, but draw money directly from your checking account, rather than building up debt or requiring repayment every month.

A recent Federal Reserve Board study revealed that debit cards account for one in three point-of-sale consumer transactions, compared with 21 percent in 1999.

According to a recent survey by MasterCard Worldwide, one-third of debit card users make payments with their debit card more than 16 times a month, including at the point of sale, online or to pay bills.

At Visa USA, debit card purchases make up a whopping 68 percent of the company’s transactions, and 50 percent of its dollar volume.

Many people use debit cards because they offer the speed and convenience of a credit card without incurring interest debt. Now an escalating battle over debit reward programs is giving consumers another reason to switch. More than a third of all debit card issuers now offer some type of rewards program, and that number is rising daily.

One of the newer entrants is Citizens Bank, which unveiled its rewards program in its 13-state region last fall.

"It’s another connection with our customers," said Rich Barry, president and CEO of Citizens Bank of Connecticut. "It’s all about deepening your relationship with your customer, providing them with other services and opportunities. You can acquire new customers, and you also solidify relationships with existing customers in a very competitive environment."

Citizens Bank stepped up the competition by offering more than most banks to its debit card users: Besides earning one point for every dollar spent by debit card, Citizens Bank customers also may receive two points for every dollar spent on recurring transactions, such as monthly bills, via debit card.

Also, Citizens Bank offers customers up to 20 points for every dollar spent by debit card at a wide variety of participating merchants, both online and in-store. The Citizens program offers the largest "bricks and mortar" network in the nation, including Dunkin’ Donuts, Eddie Bauer, FAO Schwartz, Hollywood Video, Macy’s, Restoration Hardware, Sharper Image, Timberland and other stores.

Wherever you bank, you need to be careful and read the fine print when it comes to rewards for using a debit card. That’s because most banks, including Citizens, require you to sign a receipt when using the card — i.e., use it as a credit card, even though the money still comes directly out of your checking account — rather than use a PIN number, in order to qualify for rewards. The reason is that merchants pay banks a flat fee when customers use a debit card, but pay a percentage of the purchase when customers use credit cards, which is more profitable for the banks.

If you hand a merchant a debit card and he or she asks "credit or debit?" you can say it’s a credit card and the merchant will handle it that way, but the bank will still treat your purchase as a debit card purchase.

Policies vary, though. At Chase Manhattan Bank, for instance, debit-card users earn one point for every $1 spent, but PIN purchases do not count. At Citibank, however, debit card users who sign the receipt slip earn one point for every $2 spent, and debit card users who punch in a PIN earn one point for every $3 spent.

Source : www.nhregister.com

Benefits of Using Credit Cards

By Jacob Joseph

Are you considering applying for a credit cards? Outlined below are the advantages of utilizing a credit card for making purchases.

Getting rewarded for your credit card use
Nowadays, almost every available type of credit card has some type of reward connected with it. Offering perks and freebies is the number one method used by credit card companies for soliciting business. They will never go head-to-head, offering lower interest rates. When you pay your credit card balance every month, you will earn a tremendous amount of 'rewards'. On the contrary, if you neglect to make your payments in full, the amount of money you end up paying in interest in likely going to cost you more than of the 'rewards' you receive.

There are many different types of reward credit cards available.
Some of the more popular include:
Cash rebates on purchases - Common annual savings are 1% on all purchases. At the end of the year you will either receive credit for the rebate total or a rebate check will be sent to you.

Airline miles - You will earn one frequent flier mile for every dollar that you spend. Miles are typically worth two or three cents each.

Gas rebates - When you use your credit card for filling up your car, you will receive a discount on gas when you use this type of credit card.

Store and restaurant discounts - These types of credit cards offer savings at participating restaurants and stores when used.

Free merchandise - Many credit cards offer seasonal rewards for card holders.


Some more advantages of using credit cards....

Eliminate stress at the airport - When you use a credit card to buy a plane ticker, it is viewed as non-suspicious by the FAA. As a result of terrorism, using cash to pay for a ticket is looked at as very suspicious and will likely result in you being detained and question.

Protection from bankrupt airlines - Using a credit card to buy an airline ticket offers you protection from losing money in case the airline goes bankrupt.

Stop payment rights - One of the best advantage of using credit cards for making purchases is the ability to make stop payments in the event an item is never received or is broken. For example, say you buy something on the Internet, but you never receive it, you can contact your credit card issuer and initiate a stop payment on the product.

Improving or rebuilding credit - No matter if you have bad credit or no credit, when used responsibly a credit card is one the most effective means of improving credit ratings and scores. Responsible credit card use means making timely payments every month and not going over your available credit limit. You do not have to pay your balance in full, just on time. A good rule of thumb is to not spend more than 15% of your available line.

Extended warranty, theft and damage protection - Many credit cards offer added warranty, theft and damage protection on purchases made with the card.

Jacob Joseph is a financial expert for http://www.starloanservices.com. At Star Loan Services you can apply for credit cards for people with bad credit.