Payments/Credit/Debit

Consumers gearing up for the holiday season may have received a reason to think twice about using their credit or debit card at a retailer this year after the popular CBS news program 60 Minutes aired a story about retailers and card security.

FedComp Inc. is offering its client base of nearly 1,300 small credit unions the services of Fiserv EFT through a non-exclusive partnership, the companies say.

Last year Black Friday, the Friday after Thanksgiving, was the busiest day for holiday shopping last year in the top five traditional gift-buying categories with more than one-third of MasterCard payment transactions occurring before 10 a.m, according to this year's MasterCard Worldwide Holiday Shopping Insights Report.

JPMorgan Chase, the second largest card issuer in the country, has announced that its "clear and simple" cards will abandon the practice of hiking the interest rates of card holders whose credit scores decline.

Credit union card portfolio analysts and brokers report that NCUA's data shows CU card performance continues to rise this year as CU card portfolio sales have continued to drop.

With consumer interest in gift cards continuing to heat up, retailers want consumers to know that the cards they can buy and give from retail stores are often a better deal than those issued by banks and credit unions.