**Credit Card Alert**

[peledre]

Just wanted to let you guys know that for those of you who carry a balance month to month on your credit cards there are some industry wide changes taking place that will change the way your payments are calculated. In the first quarter of this year, because of a lot of regulatory pressure, most of the major CC companies are restructuring the way your minimum due is calculated so that you'll pay off a portion of your principal each month.

As an example, previously, if your balance was over $1000, your minimum due was just 1/48 of your outstanding balance. Under the new rules, your minimum due would be 1% of your outstanding balance, plus any fees or finance charges incurred for the month. For those with higher interest rates, you could find your minimum due going up by a significant amount in the coming months. For those with lower interest rates (less than 10%) your minimum due actually may go down. There are different variations of this payment plan w/in the major companies, but essentially the changes are fairly similar across the board. Watch your statements and watch the mail for information from your companies.

[Sachin]

Fun with credit cards:

http://www.zug.com/pranks/credit_card/

Sachin

[Chicago1871]

Fun with credit cards:

http://www.zug.com/pranks/credit_card/

Sachin
That was funny.

[Ian Lozada]

Fun with credit cards:

http://www.zug.com/pranks/credit_card/

Sachin

I have the flu and my ribs hurt every time I cough. Apparently when I laugh, too.

[striker]

At grocery stores, I always sign my credit card slips with just a circle. It has worked so far.

[Delsocfan]

Fun with credit cards:

http://www.zug.com/pranks/credit_card/

Sachin

Hilarious,

The reason why merchants don't bother to check signatures is that in the vast majority of cases the issuing bank pays for the fraud which occurs on a swiped transaction. The fact of whether or not the signature matches the cardholder's is not something that factors into the decision as to whether the merchant or the bank pays for the fraud.

Of course the other main reason is that the cashier being paid $6.50/hr probably couldn't care less.

[peledre]

Hilarious,

The reason why merchants don't bother to check signatures is that in the vast majority of cases the issuing bank pays for the fraud which occurs on a swiped transaction. The fact of whether or not the signature matches the cardholder's is not something that factors into the decision as to whether the merchant or the bank pays for the fraud.

Of course the other main reason is that the cashier being paid $6.50/hr probably couldn't care less.
This is true, and it's funny that he blames the CC companies about them not checking his sig. but really, it's ther merchants responsibility to check it (it's in their merchant agreement as well), not the bank.