Chase, the consumer banking brand of JPMorgan Chase, has announced the rollout of 1.8 million Visa debit cards with blink technology in New York, New Jersey and Connecticut - saying it is the first Visa issuer to offer contactless payment capability on its debit cards.

The Payment Card Center of the Philadelphia Federal Reserve Bank has posted an employment opportunity for a Payment Cards Industry Specialist. A detailed job description is available at the bank's web site.

BB&T has announced it will begin offering free international money transfers throughout its banking network for clients who have a checking account, savings account or payroll card with BB&T.

On Sunday, the Buffalo News ran the first story in a four part series by staff reporters Rob Watson and Jonathan Epstein about the "high cost of being poor." The story introduction commented "every day, the working poor face a kind of Alice-in-Wonderland reality where those who can afford the least pay the most." A must read.

Mary Hunt of Everyday Cheapskate writes about her colleague's strategy to accept zero interest balance transfer offers from card issuers, write himself a convenience check that's included with the offer, deposit it into his bank account, wait for it to clear, transfer it to his high yield Emigrant Direct savings account - and proceed to earn high interest on the proceeds while making minimum payments at zero interest for a year. He says this strategy yields him about $430 in interest income over the course of a year on about $15,000. She says he's a financial daredevil for playing this game.

Citi Cards has announced that its college savings contributions to Upromise members have reached $100MM in contributions in under five years. Upromise is a service that allows families to save a percentage of their everyday spending as college savings with more than 450 participating companies. READ MORE »

The UK's Office of Fair Trading has "consented to the Competition Appeal Tribunal (CAT) setting aside the OFT's September 2005 decision concerning MasterCard's historic interchange fee arrangements. The OFT will now focus its resources on tackling both MasterCard's and Visa's current UK interchange fee arrangements, leaving it to affected third parties to contest the lawfulness of the old arrangements, if they choose to, in private court actions."

Experian has announced that VantageScore from Experian is now available to consumers.

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• AP: Merchants in Kansas face restrictions on gift cards next year
  
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