News
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Visa Gift Cards Scams – Be Alert
We all handle a lot of gift cards and we sometimes hear about stories where people try to use a gift card and find out that the balance is $0.00 instead of $200 or $500. We’ve covered such stories in the past but it looks like there’s new scams that are surfacing. Cashiers pocketing gift cards…
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Phoenix Best City For Retirees, NYC Second Worst
If you’re retired, or planning to retire soon, then you should check out Arizona. The Phoenix metro area came out on top in a ranking of the best cities for retirement in the United States, mainly due to its high well-being score and weather. The five worst places for retirement are Little Rock, New York City, New…
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Unloading GCs at Walmart to Become More Pleasant
There is no new memos or policy changes, let’s get that out of the way. Wal-Mart Stores Inc gave some raises recently and now they have relaxed the dress code and are raising the temperature at its stores as part of an effort to improve working conditions at its 4,555 U.S. locations. So you might…
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Amex MR Points Devaluation, 250 = 200 British Airways Avios
Starting October 1st, your American Express Memebership Rewards will be less valuable when transferring to British Airways and Iberia. In fact they will be 20% less valuable. Instead on the current 1,000 Membership Rewards = 1,000 British Airways / Iberia Avios, the new rate will be 250 Membership Rewards = 200 British Airways / Iberia Avios.
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FIFA Officials Stacking Up Amex MR Points
You may have heard about the FIFA corruption scandal in the last few days. Before all this started, Chuck Blazer pleaded guilty in 2013 after a 10-count charge that included racketeering, wire fraud, money laundering and income tax evasion. From April 1990 until December 2011, Mr. Blazer served as general secretary, or second in command, of the soccer…
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PayPal to Pay $25M in Refunds & Fines to Settle Allegations
PayPal will have to pay $25 million to settle allegations it illegally signed up tens of thousands of customers for unwanted credit, U.S. regulators said. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau said that PayPal advertised benefits of its PayPal Credit online credit product that it failed to honor, signed up customers for the credit without their…
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Theft of Debit-Card Data From ATMs Soars in 2015
Criminals are stealing card data from U.S. automated teller machines at the highest rate in two decades, preying on ATM users at independently owned cash kiosks and even at bank ATMs. From January to April 9, 2015, the number of attacks on debit cards used at ATMs reached the highest level for that period in…
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45 Million Americans Don’t Have a Credit Score
We all try to stay on top of our credit history and FICO score. We also try managing our balances, limits and other factors in order to increase our score. But while many of us worry about our credit rating not being high enough, a new report finds that 26 million Americans have no credit rating at…
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DOT: Airlines Not Required to Honor Mistake Fares
We all get excited when we see a mistake fare deal and many times we book with the uncertainty of whether it will be honored or not by the airline. Well now it will be much harder to hold on to that mistake fare booking. The DOT has changed their stance on the matter.
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Don’t Close your REDcard Just Yet! Find Out What Can Still Be Loaded
If you have Redbird (Target Prepaid REDcard), then you probably already know that it can’t be loaded with a credit card. That change went into effect on May 6th when Target sent out a memo to all its stores. So the new nationwide policy is simple, no credit cards can be used for loading Redbird. Here…
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The END of REDcard CC Loads is Real, Reports Coming In
As you probably know by now, Target was supposed to halt all credit card loads for the REDcard today. There was a memo that would go out nationwide, but there were still many unknowns unless there were data points. Well, this morning there’s a few of those, and they’re not good. Credit card loads have been…
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BREAKING! Target to Halt Credit Card Loads for REDcard
REDcard has been one of the most useful tools for MS this year for me. Although credit card loads are hard to come by in NYC, I have been able to load tons of gift cards, especially Amex, at various Target locations throughout the tri-state area. It has been tough since March, but yet it…