Most of the practices deemed "unfair" or "deceptive" by the Federal Reserve have disappeared from new credit card offers since federal passage of the Credit CARD Act last year, according to a new report by the Pew Health Group's Safe Credit Cards Project. "Yet new trends have emerged that could cost cardholders significantly."

The report finds that issuers have eliminated practices such as "hair trigger" penalty rate increases (disproportionate charges for minor account violations), unfair payment allocation, and raising interest rates on existing balances. However, Pew's research also highlights a sharp rise in cash advance fees, continued widespread use of other penalty interest rates and an emerging trend of credit card companies failing to disclose penalty interest rates in their online terms and conditions.

Barclaycard US has announced an exclusive multi-year agreement with the National Football League to market credit cards bearing the NFL shield logo and the logos of each of the 32 NFL clubs.Fans may obtain these credit cards from Barclaycard starting in September via the web, at stadium displays, through in-bound telephone applications and via email and direct mail invitations." READ MORE »

In an article titled "Hurdle Emerges for Stores Pitching Credit Cards", Robin Sidel writes for the Wall Street Journal about concerns that some major retailers have with proposed Federal Reserve regulations that would "force retailers to gather more financial information from customers— including how much they earn— before giving them credit."

In an article titled "Turning to Premium Credit Cards", Alex Mindlin writes for the New York Times how US credit card issuers are focusing their solicitation efforts on premium cards - including the MasterCard World and Visa Signature cards.

In an article titled "Final Semester for Credit Cards Aimed at Students?" in this morning's American Banker, Maria Aspan writes about the new rules affecting marketing of credit cards to anyone under 21 that take effect next February as part of the Credit Card Accountability, Responsibility and Disclosure Act. Between now and then, Aspan writes, "some industry members expect to see issuers conduct business as usual when marketing and issuing to students — if not accelerating their efforts."

Last week, the Pew Charitable Trusts’ Safe Credit Cards Project released a set of standards "designed to prevent deceptive and dangerous credit card practices and called for legislation to outlaw such practices. Developed in partnership with the Sandler Foundation, the Safe Credit Card Standards seek both to protect consumers and preserve banks’ ability to manage risk when extending credit." READ MORE »

New data from Mintel Comperemedia shows that only 5.4 billion credit card direct mail offers were sent to Americans in 2008. According to the company, this is the lowest annual total the firm has reported since 2000. READ MORE »

Maria Aspan writes for the American Banker that US credit card issuers have not only been cutting back on direct mail solicitations but, beginning in November, most of the major US issuers have reduced their efforts to source new accounts from online lead generation sites and online advertising.

CardPartner, a New York-based company that works with nonprofits and other groups to offer branded Visa credit cards, has announced 12 new affinity credit card programs this week. This is in addition to more than 100 launched in the last nine months for nonprofits as diverse as Gilda’s Club New York City and Guide Dogs for the Blind. READ MORE »

comScore has announced results of a study of the online credit card industry, based on both passively-observed online behavioral data as well as a survey of more than 2,000 Internet users conducted in September 2008. "Study findings revealed that for the first time in the five most recent quarters, the total number of credit card applications submitted online at the top ten credit-card issuer sites declined, dropping 6 percent in Q2 2008 versus the same period in 2007." READ MORE »

Continuing its series titled "The Debt Trap", Brad Stone writes in today's New York Times about how some credit card issuers target potential borrowers - including those who may have just exited bankruptcy - by using personal data provided by a number of information providers. Stone writes that "this marketplace for personal data has been a crucial factor in powering the unrivaled lending machine in the United States. European countries, by contrast, have far stricter laws limiting the sale of personal information."

US households will receive approximately 5.3 billion offers for new credit cards during 2007 according to Mail Monitor, the credit card direct mail tracking service from global market research company Synovate.

In an article titled 'For-Credit Course", Rob Walker writes for this Sunday's New York Times Magazine about Chase Card Services "+1" credit card - offered primarily by way of a sponsored group setup on Facebook called Chase +1. Chase limits access to the group so that only Facebook members who are part of college networks can join. Chase also has a Chase Credit Education group on Facebook that is open membership.

Barclays has announced that its U.S. credit card business has passed the $5 billion mark in credit card receivables, calling itself "the fastest growing major credit card issuer in the United States."

Robert Schroeder reports for MarketWatch that the US Senate Banking Committee is planning to hold a hearing this Thursday titled “Examining the Billing, Marketing, and Disclosure Practices of the Credit Card Industry, and Their Impact on Consumers.”

Experian and First Manhattan Consulting Group have announced the launch of Financial Personalities, a segmentation and scoring system for specific types of financial services, including credit card, home equity and mortgage. According to the companies, "Financial Personalities provides marketers of lending products with a unique set of tools to improve customer and prospect targeting, better align products and offers and tailor messaging to appeal to prospects.

Austin Ventures has announced the recapitalization of CreditCards.com, an online destination for consumers to search, compare, and apply for credit cards. Additionally, Elisabeth DeMarse, former CEO of Bankrate, the Internet's leading aggregator of financial rate information, was named CEO of the company.