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.   » Continue Reading

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."   » Continue Reading

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.”   » Continue Reading

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.   » Continue Reading

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.   » Continue Reading