Evolution Benefits has announced that is has been granted a patent for its technology used in the substantiation of health benefits debit card transactions. The company’s patent, U.S. Patent 7,174,302 titled “System and Method for Processing Flexible Spending Account Transactions,” refers to the system and method EB developed for real time substantiation of card transactions prior to authorizing payment.

Burton Group has announced a new research report with "a list of recommendations to help merchants and payment service providers get the most out of the payment card industry (PCI) data security standard (DSS) compliance work."

Gerri Willis writes for CNN Money about techniques consumers can use to increase their credit scores - "the best way to improve your credit score in the short term is to pay off the high balances on your credit card - that can raise your FICO score 60 to 70 points overnight."

Opportunities still exist for small businesses to grow, despite an overall slowdown in the economy, according to Wayne Best, senior vice president of Business and Economic Analysis for Visa USA. According to Visa, "Best struck a note of cautious optimism in his keynote presentation at the Microsoft Small Business Summit, based on his analysis of macroeconomic trends, Visa spending data and small business studies."

The Get Rich Slowly blog has an interesting post titled "What’s It Like to BORROW Money with Prosper?" written by Tricia (who also writes her own blog titled Blogging Away Debt) describing her experiences as a borrower using Prosper.com to find other folks willing to lend her money. She describes her experience seeking to borrow $3,500. She posted a starting interest rate she was willing to pay of 12%. As it turns out, lenders competed for her business and she ended up getting an interest rate of 9.9% from a group of 13 Prosper lenders.

Ellen Roseman reports for the Toronto Star about changes that Canadian credit card issuers have been adopting that increase the fees and interest charged on credit cards in Canada.

Zopa has announced that Douglas H. Dolton, formerly CEO of Chela Education Financing, has joined the company as Global CEO. In addition, Zopa has secured additional investment of $12.9 million from its venture backers, in a Series C round led by Bessemer Venture Partners.

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