Credit Card Offers

Unless you never turn the TV on, odds are, youve seen at least a few of the latest Capital One credit card commercials with either Alec Baldwin or Jimmy Fallon. These two funny men are proudly selling debt to consumers around the nation.

But do celebrities actually influence our consumer choices, especially those associated with our finances? Actually, most celebrities tend to steer clear of putting their names on anything that has to do with such an important aspect of ones life.

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For most people, the only difference between the gas they buy at the station down the street and the one that’s all the way across town is the price. Because gas is a commodity, retailers work hard to inspire long-term loyalty through perks and rewards.

Gas rewards cards are one way that companies seek to win you over — but not all cards are created equal. Some don’t offer a single reward, while others pile on hefty discounts, rebates, and special deals. Store cards are often the easiest credit cards to get, while co-branded cards (the result of partnerships between retailers and networks such as Visa and MasterCard) often offer better interest rates and rewards than their store card counterparts.

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Square, the mobile payments company started by Jack Dorsey of Twitter fame, has just launched a new app that turns an iPad into a full-fledged point-of-sale (POS) terminal. Register, as the app is called, can give even the smallest of merchants credit card acceptance capabilities and business management tools that were, until now, available only through high-end, clunky and expensive POS terminals. It is a really, really cool and versatile product.

Now, before this begins to sound too much like a press release (or is it too late?), let me offer a caveat: Square Registers pricing is not competitive for even the smallest of merchants, excluding the one- or two-person operations or for that matter any business that would only accept a couple of thousand dollars or so on credit and debit cards a month.

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Writing in The Philadelphia Inquirer on Feb. 19, Jeff Gelles told the sort of tale that leaves many peoples blood boiling. It concerned Bill Losse, whos now retired but used to be a corrections officer in New Jersey, and a call he received one day from a company that offered him a financial lifeline. Like many who were contacted by telemarketers working for that company, Bill had recently applied for a payday loan. When he took that call, he desperately needed new tires for his car, but had no way of paying for them.

The telemarketer told him about the Platinum Trust Card, which, she said, was comparable with an American Express card.

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Bailiffs chasing debts may be able to increase the fees they charge some debtors from £42.50 to £305 if government proposals come into force.

The coalition has opened a consultation it said was designed to “provide a major legal overhaul of the bailiff industry”, but Citizen’s Advice said the proposals do not go far enough and could even cost some debtors more.

The proposals, which aim to make minor amendments to the yet-to-be implemented Tribunals, Courts and Enforcement Act 2007, proposes bailiffs be allowed to charge householders an enforcement fee of £305 in the case of unpaid council tax.

Council tax bills in arrears is by far the biggest category of debt chased by bailiffs. Ci

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When a doctor spotted a lump on Alisha McNamaras lungs earlier this year, she and her husband Michael started panicking.

The couple had gotten rid of their health insurance when sales at their Fayetteville, Ark. pizza shop, Bariolas Pizza, started sliding last year.

For two months, they agonized over how they were going to afford the MRI and other tests that the doctor said Alisha needed, until they remembered their stash of “Trade Dollars,” a local currency used in the Fayetteville area.

The currency, issued by a company called Local Trade Partners, allows local business owners to exchange goods and services without using U.S. dollars.

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