San Francisco Consumer Action has released the results of its 2005 Credit Card Survey (PDF) focusing on the use of universal default by card issuers to increase interest rates on revolving balances based upon changes in their credit profile as reported monthly to the issuers by credit bureaus.   » Continue Reading

Caroline Mayer reports for the Washington Post on the growth in the number of firms specializing in collections.   » Continue Reading

Jim McKay interviewed security technologist Bruce Schneier for Government Technology.

It's simply too easy to use identity information to commit fraud. Someone shouldn't be able to complete a form in a magazine and open a credit card in my name. Someone shouldn't be able to guess my password and make large monetary transfers in my name.

Financial services needs to slow down and take security more seriously. Europe is a good model here -- identity theft is less of a problem because it's harder to use personal information to commit fraud.

Of course, banks and credit card companies are going to oppose any limits on their business. They like the fact that it's trivially easy to get a credit card. But they're not bearing the full costs of identity theft.

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