16 May, 2012
College Students Credit Card Students
One of the primary goals of the 2009 CARD Act was to significantly cripple credit card companies and their efforts of wooing college students via tables set up on campus with free gifts for those who applied for new credit cards.
Now, though, theres a new marketing effort prepaid cards. And its all legal and its working like a charm. College students are in the bulls eye once again, this time, though, the risks are fewer. One of the biggest supporters is American Express and its introduced its own product for college students.
The Campus Edition Prepaid Card by American Express was unveiled this week.
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5 May, 2012
Business Loans Business Loans Service Loans Service Service
The high-cost lender Wonga is launching a business loans service, promising to make funds available within 15 minutes of an application.
Wonga was reluctant to quote a typical annual percentage rate, or APR, for loans, saying the measure was inappropriate as they could be taken out for as little as a week. The firm has been heavily criticised for lending to individuals at an APR of 4,214%, but claims business loans will be at rates starting at 17% APR.
Loans of £3,000 to £10,000 will be available for terms of between one and 52 weeks. The cost, including a variable application fee and interest, starts at 0.3% a week and the loans must be repaid in weekly instalments.
Wonga is entering the business loan market at a time when firms are struggling to raise funding. R
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8 Apr, 2012
Websites
We are football club supporters who object to the presence of banner advertisements for Wonga.com on the websites of the clubs we follow. The clubs we support are among the 80-plus which use an otherwise excellent standard website platform – adapted with local content – provided as part of a package deal with the Football League, through their internet subsidiary, Football League Interactive.
There has been an enormous amount of adverse commentary in the press and parliament of the business practices of Wonga.com (Report, 2 March) and the dozens of similar “payday loan” companies. It has been argued that these companies are doing nothing illegal – but that is only because there are at present few, if any laws, restricting their activities in UK. Their
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31 Mar, 2012
10 Million Mastercard
Mastercard has confirmed that U.S. based payment processor Global Payments Inc. has had a security breach, potentially compromising up to 10 million credit card accounts. The Secret Service has confirmed the incident and is currently investigating.
Mastercard has taken immediate steps to minimize the damage, releasing a statement Friday addressing the issue. “As a result, we have alerted payment card issuers regarding certain MasterCard accounts that are potentially at risk, Mastercard’s representatives wrote. “Ma
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25 Mar, 2012
Card Credit Card
When people apply for and receive a credit card, mortgage or new car loan, they dont do it with the belief that they might find themselves financially strapped a year or two later, but it happens. It happens to those considered most prepared to responsibly repay their debts and it happens to those whose credit histories are stellar. The point is we simply dont know what the future holds. Its the unpredictability of life that gets us every time.
If youve found yourself in a world of financial trouble, there are options and its important to remember youre not alone. There are four options most consumers generally consider.
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19 Mar, 2012
Interestonly Mortgages Mortgages
Nationwide building society has slashed the maximum loan-to-value (LTV) ratio on its interest-only mortgages from 75% to 50%, leading to fears that interest-only deals will eventually disappear, and leaving thousands of “mortgage prisoners” unable to switch to new deals.
The rule change means borrowers will have to stump up a deposit of £80,773 to afford an average home in England and Wales on an interest-only basis.
The lender, which lowered the LTV for interest-only borrowers from 85% to 75% in April 2011, said the policy was a response to similar changes by other lenders.
Industry insiders said Santander’s decision in February 2012 to reduce its maximum lending on an interest-only basis to 50% LTV led to borrowers flocking to Nationwide for interest-only deals.
Martyn Dyson, head of mortgages at Nationwide, said: “A number of major lenders have recently restricted their criteria for interest-only mortgages, and Nationwide needs to be able to manage application levels in a prudent and sustainable manner.
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