Think of your mailbox before the Great Recession. You got bills, grocery store circulars, invitations and magazines, but crowding them all out, we bet, were credit card offers.

Credit card issuers mailed five to seven billion offers a year from 2004 to 2007, according to Mintel Comperemedia, which tracks such things.
But when the economy tanked, [...]

Here’s a trick Citibank pulled before the Credit Card Accountability and Responsibility Act took effect last month in an effort to circumvent the new regulations.

Two of the act’s most important provisions require credit cards to:

Provide 45 days notice before raising rates, and the new higher rate can’t be imposed on existing balances, just new purchases.
Wait [...]

The nation’s largest bank, and biggest issuer of debit cards, is finally doing the right thing.

Bank of America will stop letting customers overdraw their checking accounts so it can zing them with overdraft fees.
Starting this summer, it will decline purchases that overdraw a customer’s checking account and inform them that they’ll have to pay an [...]

Let’s say you get a notice that the interest rate on your Chase credit card is going up.
You send Chase a letter rejecting the increase and close the account so that you can repay your balance at the current, lower interest rate.
You’re done dealing with Chase, right?
Maybe not.
According a lawsuit recently filed in federal court, [...]

The credit card industry has been on a rate-raising, fee-hiking, rule-writing rampage ever since Congress voted to ban its most abusive practices last spring.
But that aggravating snit fit is finally over.
Most of the Credit Card Accountability and Responsibility Act law’s most important new regulations take effect today.
Many of your credit cards most costly and infuriating [...]

The future of credit cards is almost here.
The Citi Forward Visa is probably what it looks like. At least on a good day.
Everything changes on Feb. 22, when most of the Credit Card Accountability, Responsibility and Disclosure Act of 2009 takes effect.
It bans many of the industry’s most abusive practices, and card companies have been [...]

The major credit card companies have succumbed to public pressure and stopped taking a cut of some donations earmarked for Haiti disaster relief.
But they’re only waiving the usual 3% transaction fee for a few specific charities, and only for the next few weeks.
If you want to donate with your credit card, here’s where you can [...]

You’ve got to watch out for all the sneaky ways stores and Web sites are creating to slip recurring charges onto your credit cards.

I fell for the “free magazines” that Loehmann’s clothing stores are offering.
As I was checking out a cashier said I could sign-up for three free months of the magazines being [...]

We certainly know that store credit cards routinely charge higher interest rates and more costly fees than other credit cards.
But we were still surprised by a “change in terms” letter from the bank that provides cards for many stores, including Victoria’s Secret, Avenue, Limited, New York & Co., Abercrombie & Fitch, JCrew, Express, Pottery Barn [...]

Discover Card has promoted its 5% Cashback Bonus on “rotating items” for quite some time.
But never knowing what might be eligible for that hefty rebate a few months down the road aggravated more than a few Discover More cardholders.
Now Discover is publishing a calendar of future offers on the Web page where you must [...]

Watch out for credit cards asking you to “opt in” to over-the-limit fees.
Yeah, it’s seems like a no-brainer to say “no” to that one.
When the Credit Card Accountability Responsibility and Disclosure Act takes full effect on Feb. 22, it will protect consumers from some of the industry’s worst abuses.
Penalties for exceeding your credit limit is [...]

The Discover Motiva credit card has an intriguing bonus for anyone who carries a balance.
Pay at least the minimum due on time for six months and Discover will return your last interest payment.

Once you accumulate $20, you can receive a gift card to use at one of Discover’s 100 brand-name retail partners, or you can [...]

There’s been a lot of discussion since we pointed out that the Chase Freedom credit card has one of the best reward programs.
So let’s see what you think about the new Chase Sapphire credit card. We think it provides an intriguing combination of cash rebates and interest rates.
It charges no annual fee and an annual [...]

We think cash is a better reward than points or miles, and the Chase Freedom credit card has one of the best rebate programs right now.
You get at least 1% cash back on everything you buy.
You get 3% cash back on rotating categories for everyday purchases such as gas, home improvements and department store merchandise. [...]

Here’s a way to earn 3% on some of your money between now and the end of November.
Sears has created what it calls the Christmas Club.
Sign up by Oct. 31 at any Sears or Kmart store, or online at sears.com. No money is required to open an account.

Now figure out how much you can smartly [...]

Bank of America, JP Morgan Chase and other banks have announced plans to rein in the outrageous overdraft fees they’ve been charging debit card customers.
They’re not doing this out the goodness of their hearts. They’re trying to stop Congress from cracking down on their abusive practices.
But lawmakers shouldn’t be fooled by the modest voluntarily changes [...]

Credit cards spent the summer imposing draconian terms and higher interest rates before all of the consumer-friendly rules Congress passed last spring can take effect in February.
But we may be getting our first glimpse of what life under the Credit Card Accountability, Responsibility, and Disclosure Act might really be like — and it’s kind of [...]

If you have excellent credit, this is the balance transfer deal for you.
The Capital One Platinum Prestige credit card offers 0% financing on balance transfers and purchases through September 2010.
That’s twice as long as the six months offered by the best deals from other credit cards, such as the Discover More card.
When the introductory rate [...]

The Discover More card is promoting one of the best balance transfer deals around.
It will charge no interest on balance transfers for six months and on purchases made until the last day of the billing period ending in March 2010.
(Yeah, we know some cards used to offer 0% for 12 months, but those deals [...]

Well, you can’t say they didn’t warn us.
The banks threatened to go on a rate-raising, fee-hiking, rule-writing rampage if Congress approved the Credit Card Accountability and Responsibility Act of 2009.
It did, and the result has been an unending stream of letters from my credit cards making good on that threat.
But I still find it ironic [...]

If you’re heading back to campus this month, you need a credit card with the lowest possible interest rate and minimal fees.
With lots of expenses and not much income, you want to spend as little as possible to get the credit you need.
In a perfect world you’d pay off your balance every month and [...]

If you can qualify for a Citi Secured MasterCard, you can take advantage of a great CD.
How great?
How about 4.07% APY for an 18-month certificate of deposit at time only a few credit unions are paying that much on 60-month CDs.
Secured credit cards are often thought of as a way for dinged-up consumers who can’t [...]

Failing to pay your credit card bill on time can cost you more than a late fee.
You could also forfeit all of the reward points or miles you earned that month — and every month until you catch up.
Sometimes those points or miles are gone for good.
Most cards also forbid customers from redeeming any of [...]

Almost every credit card agreement requires consumers to settle disputes through binding arbitration.
But that may not be the case for much longer.
Earlier this year, Minnesota Attorney General Lori Swanson filed suit against a major arbitration firm, the National Arbitration Forum, alleging that it had deceived credit card customers.
In July 2009, the NAF and another [...]

Credit card companies are lowering credit limits, and even closing the accounts, of some of their best customers.

It seems an idiotic way to treat cardholders who have always paid their bills on time.

But they weren’t chosen at random for this surprising treatment.

Credit card companies are using data profiling, which looks at everything from where customers [...]

If you have a Citi credit card, you can get $5 tickets to hundreds of summer and fall concerts.
Just go this special page at Live Nation, the big concert promoter, and enter the following code: “citi??,” where “??” are the first two digits of your Citi credit card number.
That takes you to a complete listing [...]

Some of the nation’s biggest credit card companies are switching customers from fixed to variable interest rates.
Bank of America, J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. and Discover acknowledge that they’re doing it.
But they won’t say how many customers they’re forcing to accept variable interest rates because it’s a potentially costly change for those cardholders.
About two out [...]

Delta Air Lines is battling as hard for credit card customers as it is for business travelers.
It’s determined to get anyone who holds a Northwest Airlines credit card through US Bank to switch to a Delta SkyMiles card from American Express by the time the merger of the two carriers is complete.
But US Bank won’t [...]

Fred took a different approach to paying off his credit cards. He deliberately missed a couple of payments, then called the credit card companies and asked them to slash his balances.
Bank of America, Discover and Citibank all said yes, offering settlements from 40 to 60 cents on the dollar. No arguing, no fighting, no [...]

When credit card companies were fighting a new federal law to curb some of their worst abuses, they threatened to raise other fees and interest rates if it passed.
Well it passed, and now we’re watching to see if the credit card companies will start squeezing money from their customers in other ways.
Or, as Capital One [...]