Posted by Peter Brady on Mon 10th July 2006 at 09:00 AM, Filed in Student Credit
It seems that along with pay as you go phone cards we about to see pay as you go credit cards aimed at poor students with reckless spending habits.
Apparently the cards will look virtually identical to a normal credit card, but will only be good for the amount loaded up on it. The idea is that they can be topped up at various destinations such as banks, building societies, shops and post offices. I quite like this idea because there is a danger while at university of racking insurmountable debts and incurring a severely unfavourable APR for your pains. Advanced Payment Solutions, the principal cash card provider forsee’s this becoming an ideal option for children studying in some god foresaken university.
The card will be part of the Master Card system and the intention appears to be that there will be a joining fee of £9.95 plus monthly charge of £4.95. But what on the surface of it appears to be a good idea is quite frankly given the kiss of the death by the fact that the card statements will be sent to parents not the students themselves.
Umm the guy who came up with the last bit obviously has never been to university. Just imagine 25 crates of beer, 10 mucky magazines and a night in a disreputable establishment popping up on your statement! Exactly. Unfortunately, because of that it will never get off the ground.
Posted by Peter Brady on Fri 7th July 2006 at 09:00 AM, Filed in Fraud
Card not present fraud is fairly self explanatory. It generally occurs when neither the card nor its holder are present at the point of transaction, whether it be by telephone, mail order or internet transactions.
The fraud is perpetrated by utilising fraudulently obtained card details to make a purchase. The most common way for details to be taken are from discarded receipts. As with counterfeit fraud, the legitimate cardholder may not be aware of the fraud until a statement is received.
According to industry insiders “The UK card industry has made available to merchants, an address and card security code checking system, to fight this type of fraud.”
I think the message here is to destroy your receipts, preferably by using a cross shredder or incineration.
Posted by Peter Brady on Thu 6th July 2006 at 09:00 AM, Filed in Fraud
There has been an explosion in counterfeit card fraud in recent years. This predominantly involves the ubiquitous “skimming” or cloning the data contained within a card’s magnetic strip, without the cardholder knowing.
Skimming of a card can take place in a variety of places including ATM’s (make sure the slot you put your card into is not covered by an elevated device), bars (beware the drunken night out - this is an ideal time for your card to be skimmed for obvious reasons) restaurants and petrol stations (where corrupt employees sell on data to criminals). The belief is that the more sophisticated chip and pin cards will wipe out this sort of fraud, but there is already talk of criminals coming up with ever more inventive scams.
It will be interesting to see how this battle of wits pans out in the years to come.
MBNA Rewards American Express Credit Card - phew what a mouthful! Why couldn’t they just call it the MBNA credit card?
Anyway, the design of this card is ok. Not exactly inspiring like the black amex or as interesting as the multiple design choices offered by Capital One Platinum reviewed here. More of a functional look.
This credit card offers the following features:
- Balance transfer rate of 0% p.a. until March 2007.
- Variable rate thereafter of 16.9% APR - this APR is marginally higher than some of the cards we have reviewed.
- Fraud protection including internet with no excess - quite a nice feature but fairly standard on most cards nowadays.
- Rewards equate to one point for every pound spent. These points can be exchanged for high street shopping vouchers, once in a life time experiences, entertainment, dining holidays or cash.
Credit Card Cool view this as not a bad little card but it’s not going to offer much that’s different from your run of the mill reward based cards.
Credit Card Cool award a ** ranking out of a potential ***** star ranking for the MBNA Rewards American Express Credit Card.
We called this the naked Barclay Card because the design is pretty bear/bland/naked of any features. It’s appearance is pretty lacklustre and really has nothing to distinguish it from the thousands of other cards out there.
Nonetheless it does offer some interesting features:
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