Michelle Singletary writes a great column for the Washington Post clearing up the distinction between changes to the US bankruptcy law about to take effect and unrelated changes to credit card minimum payments resulting from pressures on credit card issuers from financial regulators.   » Continue Reading

Jonathan Epstein reports for the Buffalo News on contactless payments.

Such "contactless" payments are the newest effort by banks, credit card companies and merchants to extend the reach of plastic payments and reduce Americans' reliance on cash. The goal is to make it possible to pay for small-dollar purchases by using credit or debit cards where they haven't been used before, but without tying up the consumer and merchant.

Joe Light reports for the Boston Globe on how easy it is to get personal information.

If I chose, not only could I drain her bank account and rack up charges on the Visa, but with her Social Security number, I could probably open new credit cards -- maybe even a mortgage -- long before she discovered a problem. Ultimately, she would likely not be responsible for the charges, but it might take days -- or months -- to rectify her credit.

Margaret Webb Pressier reports for the Washington Post on how credit card companies are benefiting from the increased price of gasoline.

So a year ago, when gas prices averaged $1.87, banks involved in credit card processing made about $12.5 million a day on fees. Now, with prices averaging $2.75 nationally, the credit card companies are raking in $18.4 million a day. That is $183 million more a month, or nearly $2.2 billion dollars on an annual basis in extra money paid to the nation's banking giants just because of rising gasoline prices.

Katherine Heine reports for the Cox News Service on the evolution and future of mobile commerce and mobile payments.

The benefits are obvious: being able to make quick transactions from anywhere and customizing repeat purchases. But the number of businesses and banks equipped to deal with mobile wireless transactions is limited because of the relative newness of the technology in the States. And the technology used to convert Internet pages into user-friendly images on a cell phone screen is still being worked on.