Susan Chandler writes for the Chicago Tribune about the potential spill-over effects of the mortgage crisis on the ability of consumers to repay their credit card debt. She quotes Harvard law professor Elizabeth Warren: "Families have been making up the shortfall with credit and someday, perhaps someday very soon, the credit music will stop."

In article titled "Credit Cards Rates Rise for Some With Poor Credit", Scott Mayerowitz reports for ABC News that "several credit card companies in recent weeks have started to jack up rates for some customers, and other lenders are tightening standards for auto and personal loans."

Obopay's BillMonk has introduced what they call "debt shuffling" - but it's really all about computing a net settlement position for social debts owed to a network of friends.

M.P. Dunleavey reports for the New York Times on payment cards being marketed "squarely at teenagers". A recent survey is cited concluding that "less than half [the teenagers surveyed] said they understood how a debit or credit card worked."

APACS has announced telephone, Internet banking and eCommerce figures for 2006 revealing that "in the past five years the greatest proportion of new internet banking users are in the over-55 age group. The five-year growth statistics for online banking show that the number of adults in the UK using online banking has increased by 174 per cent from 6.2 million in 2001 to 17.0 million last year. This includes a 350 per cent increase in usage amongst the over 55s."   » Continue Reading

• UK: Monitise aims to make mobile banking ubiquitous