Citigroup is holding an Analyst/Investor Day briefing tomorrow for its Global Consumer business.

Ray Martin of CBS Marketwatch.com has some advice for credit cardholders who find themselves on the receiving end of a significant jump in the interest rate on their outstanding balances.

Most consumers agree that hiking interest rates like this seems unfair, but the credit-card companies say they are being prudent to raise interest rates for customers when they think the risk of being repaid had increased. The card issuer's position is that if a customer appears to be a higher risk category -- i.e. they may not pay their bills on other accounts on time -- then the card company needs to protect itself by charging higher rates.

Business Week reports on the increasing tendency of consumers to tap home equity loans or lines of credit to pay off their credit card outstandings.

Growth in credit-card receivables -- what card holders owe -- has slipped to low single digits for issuers in the last couple of years, and some industry watchers think the trend is here to stay.

"The logic of borrowing at 3% to 7% on a home-equity loan compared to 13% on a credit card is too powerful to ignore," says Morgan Stanley analyst Kenneth A. Posner.

Note: Tom Brown of Bankstocks.com includes a link to Posner's report on home equity lending (done in conjunction with Betsy Graseck) in this weblog posting

Commerce Bank has announced a new Visa Gift Card now available for purchase at its branches with no additional fee.

"The new Commerce Visa Gift Card enables our customers to have choice and convenience, and naturally, we offer it for free and in a unique and memorable way - all the things Commerce is known for," said Dennis DiFlorio, President of Retail Banking and Operations, Commerce Bank.

Theresa Carey reports in eWeek on a panel at Oracle's OpenWorld session that concluded that banks must move beyond just moving money and consider managing the information embedded in payments.

American Express Incentive Services has announced the Housewarming Gift Card, a gift card designed for the real estate industry.

"The Housewarming Gift Card was designed to let consumers choose something nice for their new homes, while taking the guess work out of the gift giving process for the real estate industry," says American Express Project Manager Phil Gorman.

According to a Realtor Magazine poll, 77% of all Realtors gave their clients a housewarming gift last year. Of those 77%, 44% gave gift cards. Those numbers should increase this year with the increasing popularity of gift cards.

Griff Witte reports in the Washington Post on the Fed's recent report that in 2003 the number of electronic payments exceeded the number of paper check payments.

The increased popularity of electronic payment, however, has spawned questions about whether the systems for processing transactions adequately protect consumers and whether they're fair to retailers.