Sweden: Cash Versus Plastic Cards": Sweden’s Push to Get Rid of Cash Has Some Saying, ‘Not So Fast’ - by Liz Alderman

Few countries have been moving toward a cashless society as fast as Sweden. But cash is being squeezed out so quickly — with half the nation’s retailers predicting they will stop accepting bills before 2025 — that the government is recalculating the societal costs of a cash-free future.

The financial authorities, who once embraced the trend, are asking banks to keep peddling notes and coins until the government can figure out what going cash-free means for young and old consumers. The central bank, which predicts cash may fade from Sweden, is testing a digital currency — an e-krona — to keep firm control of the money supply. Lawmakers are exploring the fate of online payments and bank accounts if an electrical grid fails or servers are thwarted by power failures, hackers or even war.

“When you are where we are, it would be wrong to sit back with our arms crossed, doing nothing, and then just take note of the fact that cash has disappeared,” said Stefan Ingves, the governor of Sweden’s central bank, known as the Riksbank. “You can’t turn back time, but you do have to find a way to deal with change.”

Ask most people in Sweden how often they pay with cash, and the answer is “almost never.” A fifth of Swedes, in a country of 10 million people, do not use automated teller machines anymore. More than 4,000 Swedes have implanted microchips in their hands, allowing them to pay for rail travel and food, or enter keyless offices, with a wave. Restaurants, buses, parking lots and even pay toilets depend on clicks rather than cash.

Read more at: Sweden’s Push to Get Rid of Cash Has Some Saying, ‘Not So Fast’ - The New York Times

European Banking Industry: EU Commission wants fees cut on cross-border payments and transfers - by Irene Kostaki

Banks in the European Union will have to cut fees on cross-border payments, according to legislative proposals put forward by the European Commission on March 28.

European Commission Vice President for the Euro Valdis Dombrovskis’ plan is to make banks lower their consumer costs in the banking sector. The move is expected to reduce profits mostly for banks outside the 19 Eurozone member states, while the sector suffers from stiff competition from FinTech firms.

The EU’s second Payment Services Directive (PSD2), which came into force at the beginning of the year, lowers charges or has no fees for trans-national payments in euros within the Eurozone. Charges remain higher, however, for cross-border transactions from other EU countries outside the Eurozone.

Currency conversion fees will be capped for three years to put an end to excessive charges when EU citizens withdraw money or use their payment cards abroad or online for payments in or into euros.

“With today’s proposal we are granting citizens and businesses in non-euro area countries the same conditions as euro area residents when making cross-border payments in euro,” Dombrovskis, said on Wednesday.

When EU citizens buy abroad and decide to use the option provided and pay in their home currency, a local bank or other payment service providers will convert the amount of the transaction on the spot in exchange for a fee, a system known as a dynamic currency conversion fee.

“While dynamic currency conversion allows consumers to know immediately how much they have to pay, the use of this service is often more expensive than with their bank,” according to the European Commission.

The lack of necessary information to make the best choice often results in consumers being unfairly led towards the more expensive currency conversion option. The European Banking Authority will be tasked with drafting the necessary Regulatory Technical Standard to implement the new regulations, according to the EU executive

The EU Commission proposes a three-year transition period, after which, banks, credit cards, and other payment services will have to show currency conversion fees to consumers before they pay to allow each customer to determine whether it is cheaper to pay the conversion offered by their bank or the dynamic conversion service.

Read more: EU Commission wants fees cut on cross-border payments and transfers

Banking Industry: Best credit and debit cards to use abroad - Joanna Faith

You don't have to let excessive fees and charges dampen your holiday. Find out which card providers offer the best deal. Taking large amounts of cash on holiday is rarely a good idea which is why most people nowadays use their credit or debit cards abroad.

Cards are quick and efficient to use and can easily be replaced if they get lost or stolen.
But it is important to remember there is nearly always a charge for using your credit and debit cards internationally, so before you step foot out of the country it is worth finding out what you will be charged for and where you will incur charges.

If you are prepared to shop around, there are a number of cards on the market which are free to use abroad.
Holders of the Post Office platinum credit card can use their card for free on purchases made overseas in a foreign currency, even if they are shopping from home, online or over the phone.

Halifax Clarity and Lloyds Bank Choice Rewards and Avios Rewards credit cards are also fee-free for use worldwide. The Lloyds Avios card also allows you to upgrade up to Business Class when you spend £7,000 a year.

Nationwide's Select card offers unlimited commission-free purchases abroad but you will need to be a Nationwide current account customer to apply.

And for the over-50s, Saga's Over 50s Platinum Visa charges 0% on foreign currency fees for transactions worldwide.

If you decide to use your debit card for purchases in shops or restaurants, be warned that fees for foreign use range from 2-3%. For example, Nationwide charges 2% with its FlexAccount. This is a good account for travelling as it includes a Defaqto 5 Star Rated travel insurance policy if you meet the monthly terms of the account.

However, one exception is the Norwich and Peterborough Building Society's Gold Light Current Account which allows holders to use their card for debit card transactions overseas with no charges.
Metro Bank customers can use their cards for free in Europe but from 18 March 2014, there will be a charge for transactions made in the rest of the world.

Here are four essentials tips for travellers from Matt Sanders, banking and credit card spokesperson at Gocompare.com:
• Use credit cards rather than debit cards if you must use plastic abroad as there are more available without foreign transaction fees. If you do use a credit card though, stick to purchases and not cash withdrawals as you may often find a higher APR on cash withdrawals on credit cards.
• If you insist on using your debit card, elect to convert the transaction at the point of sale or withdrawal. This will avoid the non-sterling transaction fees which range from 2 - 3% on many high street accounts.
• Inform your bank that you're travelling and will be using your card abroad to avoid having it blocked and having to waste time, and possibly money, on the phone to get it rectified.

Read more: Best credit and debit cards to use abroad - YourMoney

Global Economy: Banks and Financial Institutions Are Bailed Out But Still No Real Relief For Consumers In Financial Trouble

Some time ago US News carried an article by James Rickards noting that the tyranny of credit scores and bank intransigence still stands in the way of a fresh start for millions of people in the US and Europe.

Not much has changed or happened in the meantime.

"Many people can still not  sell their homes because their mortgages are greater than the home value and banks will not provide relief. Those able to move cannot even get apartments, let alone buy homes, if their credit scores are impaired. Employers increasingly use credit scores as a screening device in the hiring process so that millions of perfectly honest and reliable workers cannot get jobs if they have experienced temporary distress.

The labor system has become more rigid and sclerotic—specially  in Europe—and will remain so until debt relief and some kind of fresh start on personal  credit scores can be implemented.

Even on moral grounds, it seems difficult to put the entire burden of adjustment on the debtor. For every imprudent debtor there is an overzealous and reckless lender. To suggest that creditor greed for profits and bonuses had nothing to do with the spread of unpayable debt in recent years is naïveté and not realistic

Banks are not willing to reduce mortgage principal because they want to retain lucrative mortgage servicing fees. This behavior is no less reprehensible than that of the most calculating debtor.

So far in this ongoing global economic crisis, government has facilitated the doomed behavior of creditors by propping up banks with taxpayer funds and propping up asset values with printed money.

This levitation act will end with even more disastrous consequences than if the problems had been confronted candidly from the start.

Interestingly this economic problem is not new. In fact, it is ancient. The Bible's book of Leviticus provides that every 50 years all mortgage debt is to be forgiven. This occurrence was called the Jubilee Year. This may seem like a shocking imposition on creditors and a free ride for debtors. Yet, consider the behavioral feedback loops. In the 10th year after the last Jubilee, lenders might lend freely for a 20-year term. By the 45th year it seems likely that long-term credit would have dried up because the lenders were as aware of the coming Jubilee as the debtors. This was a self-regulating system that deleveraged itself before credit bubbles grew out of control and threatened a widespread collapse. It was an orderly deleveraging that seems enlightened in comparison with the disorderly and draconian deleveraging our economy is experiencing today.

Maybe our post-modern policymakers and economists should take a lesson from the ancient Israelites. It's time for a Jubilee. !  "

EU-Digest

Credit Cards soon obsolete? Canada leads world in digital wallet tech, so what’s the holdup?

Thousands of Canadian retailers already have equipment in place to let customers pay for purchases with a swipe of their mobile phones, putting the country in the lead in developing a system that could one day make cash obsolete.

All that's needed is an agreement between banks, credit card companies and telecoms, and that appears to be coming soon, promising to transform how Canadians pay for everything from their morning coffee to a tankful of gasoline.

If consumers embrace the system – and that's still a big “if” – clip-and-save coupons, transit passes, library cards and perhaps even driver's licenses could become things of the past.

“It is truly ground-breaking and revolutionary,” said Stephen Gardiner, a managing partner for strategy at Accenture PLC, a consultancy that advises companies on mobile commerce.

Canada is not the first country to try such a project. Phone companies, credit card providers and banks in Britain, Japan and South Korea have tried to set up mobile payment systems, but none have yet lived up to the hype.

For more: Canada leads world in digital wallet tech, so what’s the holdup? - The Globe and Mail

Credit Cards: soon to become obsolete with the introduction of NFC enabled smartphones

Today, more than 10,000 credit card transactions take place every single second -- and the total value of goods and services purchased with them totals more than euro 1.92 trillion ($2.5 trillion)  per year. But the domination of the plastic credit and debit card might soon be over.

Given that we now use smartphones to do everything from checking the weather to sending emails to watching YouTube videos to getting directions to making restaurant reservations, it only makes sense that we would use them to pay for things, too.

With so-called "near field communication" (NFC) technology we may soon be able to do just that.

This technology allows two NFC-enabled devices placed within a few inches of each other to wirelessly swap data -- meaning you can simply touch your NFC-enabled smartphone to an NFC reader any time you need to pay your bar tab, buy a plane ticket, or even get groceries.

This revolution in payments is already beginning to take shape. In Britain mobile provider Orange has already teamed up with a number of companies including MasterCard and Barclaycard to offer NFC payment options at roughly 50,000 locations around Britain -- including fast-food chains like McDonald's and Subway.

Nokia, Sprint, and Research In Motion are all reported to be working on building NFC-enabled smartphones -- and it is widely rumored that NFC technology may well be a prominent feature of the next iPhone.

Imagine how our daily routines will change if everything works out like the technology's supporters hope it will.

• We'll never have to worry about feeding coins into parking meters or vending machines ever again.
• We won't need tickets to board a train or get into a ball game.
• We won't be asked for our license and registration when we get pulled over, a passport when we cross the border, or an ID when we go to the gym.
• We won't use keys to unlock our cars, our offices, or even our front door.
• Stores and restaurants will no longer give us printed receipts, and business cards will become a thing of the past.

Unfortunately there is one problem with this new technology. What happens to the older folks who can't use a smart phone for a variety of reasons and poor people who can't afford them ? 

EU-Digest

How to Avoid Credit Card Problems Abroad - by Michelle Higgens

Like many Americans who have tried to use their credit cards in Europe, Elliot E. Porter, a historian from San Francisco, has encountered his share of payment headaches. Perhaps the most aggravating occurred a few months ago at Amsterdam Centraal Train Station, where he learned only after waiting in line to purchase train tickets that none of his credit cards, which include a MasterCard, Visa and American Express, would be accepted. The problem? They rely on magnetic-strip technology rather than embedded microprocessor chips, which are becoming increasingly common outside the United States.

For more: How to Avoid Credit Card Problems Abroad - Practical Traveler - NYTimes.com

ABC: Credit card companies continue rip-off of consumers - Obama to Congress: Send Me the Credit Card Reform Bill - by Sunlin Miller

For the complete report from ABC click on this link

Credit card companies continue rip-off of consumers - Obama to Congress: Send Me the Credit Card Reform Bill

President Obama today called on Congress to pass a credit card reform bill so he can sign it into law by Memorial Day. “The abuses in our credit card industry have only multiplied in the midst of this recession, when Americans can least afford to bear an extra burden,” President Obama said in his weekly address. “It is past time for rules that are fair and transparent. That is why I have called for a set of new principles to reform our credit card industry. Instead of an ‘anything goes’ approach, we need strong and reliable protections for consumers.” The president highlighted abuses in the credit card industry -- including Americans getting ripped off by sudden rate hikes, unfair penalties, hidden fees and fine print that all too often hides the truth.

WSJ: Europe: Credit Card Fraud Ring Funnels Data From Cards to Pakistan - by Siobhan Gorman

For the complete report from the WSJ.com click on this link

Europe: Credit Card Fraud Ring Funnels Data From Cards to Pakistan - by Siobhan Gorman

European law-enforcement officials uncovered a highly sophisticated credit-card fraud ring that funnels account data to Pakistan from hundreds of grocery-store card machines across Europe, according to U.S. intelligence officials and other people familiar with the case. Specialists say the theft technology is the most advanced they have seen, and a person close to British law enforcement said it has affected big retailers including a British unit of Wal-Mart Stores Inc. and Tesco Ltd. The account data have been used to make repeated bank withdrawals and Internet purchases, such as airline tickets, in several countries including the U.S. Investigators haven't pinpointed the culprits. Early estimates of the losses range of $50 million to $100 million, but the figure could grow, said the person close to British law enforcement.

Peoples Defender: US Economic Meltdown - Credit card crises now looming in America: - by Danny Bubp Ohio State Representative

For the complete report click on this link

US Economic Meltdown - Credit card crises now looming in America: - by Danny Bubp Ohio State Representative

"Credit card companies have dozens of reasons, I should call them excuses, for raising our interest rates. I have read that these large banks have formulas for their computers to automatically raise rates when they can determine that a family is trapped in a debt too large to handle. Some of these large banks are as bad as loan sharks. When the banks' computers detect that a consumer is near the maximum on his card and is only making the minimum payment, the rates are raised. Why would credit card companies push someone who is already in trouble into deeper trouble? Because they can. These large banks are now protecting themselves just like they did with the sub-prime mortgage fiasco. They are transferring their risk on bad credit card loans to insurance companies. We could very easily find ourselves in another national financial crisis. And this crisis would be handed to the taxpayers, just like the mortgage crisis was. However, the gigantic banks that control most of our banking systems are only interested in short-term profits and are working against the long-term health of the US economy."

Seattlepi.com: US elections - An ailing America awaits Bush's successor - by Robert L. Jamieson Jr.

For the complete report from seattlepi click on this link

An ailing America awaits Bush's successor - by Robert L. Jamieson Jr.

Whichever candidate eventually wins the White House faces a world of woe, courtesy of a Bush administration that can't exit stage right fast enough. Leftover trouble will come at the next president -- "at 100 miles per hour, like a cannonball to the chest," said Congressman Jim McDermott of Seattle, who made the rounds in town last week.On Jan. 20, 2009, the fresh quest begins -- a new president's push to cure America on its sickbed.

www.bbj.hu :EU - Credit card use on the rise in CEE

For the complete report from the www.bbj.hu click on this link

EU - Credit card use on the rise in CEE

A report reveals that the number of credit cards in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) more than tripled in the two year period up to the end of 2006. Credit card holders in CEE numbered 27 million in 2006. The total number of payment cards (including debit, charge and credit cards) has grown by 64% to 187 million in 2004-2006.

According to the report, debit cards are the most widely held type of payment card in the region, representing 83% of all cards in issue against 52% in Western Europe. However, debit cards share of the market has decreased from 90% in 2004 to 83% by the end of 2006. This was caused by the increase in credit card, which more than tripled between 2004 and 2006, reaching 15% of total cards in the region. In all 13 markets, the number of credit cards grew from 8 million to 27 million between 2004 and 2006.

Poland, Russia and the Ukraine account for about two thirds of these cards and for much of the new growth over this period. The report says there are on average 74 payment cards per 100 adults in CEE, compared to 203 in Western Europe.

WIStv.com: PayPal customers in Europe number near 35 million

For the complete report from WIStv.com click on this link

PayPal customers in Europe number near 35 million

PayPal, the online payments unit of auction website eBay Inc. (EBAY.O), said on Tuesday it has nearly 35 million customer accounts in Europe, about a quarter of all its accounts. In 2006, PayPal processed 6.3 billion euro of payments in Europe, representing around 22 percent of its worldwide total of euro 28.41 billion.

According to Forrester Research, 23 percent of European online shoppers prefer PayPal to paying with credit cards or other payment methods.