In online gambling battle, Antigua wins a small pot from U.S.

Antigua won a round over the United States Friday in an international battle over online gambling. The pot turned out to be much smaller than the Caribbean island nation had hoped for, but it contained something highly unusual -- the right to piracy.

Persistence pays! Got a refund on expired rebate gift card

I was in a perfectly good mood before I called to find out the balance on a Visa rebate gift card from Cingular, now AT&T. The gift card was a rebate that I got after buying a Motorola V3i Razr cell phone from Cingular in January 2007. At the time, I didn't notice the fine print on the back of the card: It would expire in June 2007. I was too busy thinking that a rebate sent in the form of a Visa card with $50 on it meant that I would actually get to spend the money, no matter what.

Congresswoman circulates far-reaching credit card bill

Congressional heat on the credit card industry just got turned up a notch. Rep. Carolyn Maloney, chairwoman of the House Financial Services Committee's financial institutions and consumer credit subcommittee, is floating a bill that would abolish many of the card issuers' practices that consumers find most offensive.

Get smart about credit: Stop. Think. Save

While it's mostly impossible to get by in modern-day American life without a credit card, there is no required education on credit. Many consumers find themselves in deep debt merely because they weren't taught how to manage money . That's why I was delighted to hear that the Family Credit Counseling Service based in Rockford, Ill., has launched an educational campaign called Stop. Think. Save!

Reuse and recycle those old credit cards

What do you do with your credit cards when they're worn, expired or no longer fit in your wallet? Salt Lake Tribune writer Robert Kirby offers a suggestion in his column that made me laugh, then think. He uses old credit cards to scrape and chip ice from his car windows. Hmmm. A credit card ice scraper for the car windshield. Not a bad idea. Although I'm a Southern girl, I've spent 15 winters in the north (Chicago, New Jersey and Detroit). I've probably scraped enough ice from windshields to fill an igloo.

Tax rebates: Even those who saved ended up spending

President George Bush made tax cuts an important part of his 2000 campaign, and delivered one in 2001. About two-thirds of U.S. tax-filers received tax rebates, typically $600 for couples and $300 for singles, for an average gain of about $500 per recipient household. What do you think people did with it, spend or save? In a newly released paper from the Philadelphia Federal Reserve, three economists have an answer: both.

Shifting environment in fees, security breeds Revolution

Credit card customers are awash in choices, able to pick from any number of customized rewards programs, affiliations, fee structures -- even the images decorating the front. But an upstart player is taking on the card network giants, hoping that its innovative features and security -- combined with a deal it hopes merchants can't refuse -- can cut through the noise to find a home in your wallet and on your computer. Revolution, the investment company launched for $500 million by AOL founder Steve Case, has introduced a new credit card to compete against the behemoth card associations Visa and MasterCard, and, through its Revolution Money unit, an online payment system to compete against eBay's PayPal. Revolution's founders know they can't get a foothold looking or acting the same as everyone else in a crowded market. For security, the card doesn't have the cardholder's name or account number, either on its face or stored in the magnetic stripe -- all transactions are PIN-based rather than signed. The company aims to disrupt the big card associations' fee structure by charging merchants just 0.5 percent of a sale, compared with an existing 2-3 percent. As fights over those fees roil behind the scenes between retailers and credit card companies, RevolutionCard may face an enthusiastic reception from merchants -- and a serious challenge to reach a critical mass of consumer cardholders.

Cure the debt hangover, shed credit card debt in '08

During the holidays, you showered your loved ones with gifts, whether you could afford it or not. You would have felt guilty if you couldn't give them what they wanted.That's what a credit card is for, right? Unfortunately, now that the holidays are over and the bills are arriving, your new year may be off to a rough start.

Citi offers virtual account numbers to wary online shoppers

For the first time since the advent of the Internet, online shopping expenditures funded with credit cards are projected to exceed those of brick and mortar stores this holiday season. Maybe it's being driven by people's desire to avoid the crowds at the shopping mall or perhaps American's have just become more comfortable with using their credit cards for online shopping.

Balance transfer can lessen post-holiday blues

The first few months of every new year bring bad tidings in the form of credit card bills. While the holidays are a time of free spending and frivolity, January and February are often the hangover after the big party. But there are options for those who find themselves in the high-interest hot seat.