Swipe fees cost consumers an estimated $578 million on Valentine’s Day: Study
Swipe fees average 2.24% and are often passed on to consumers. (iStock) If a consumer used a credit card to purchase a gift on Valentine’s Day, they likely paid a high price. Swipe fees (fees charged by credit card issuers and issuing banks to retailers for processing debit and credit card transactions) will cost consumers […]
Retail sales rebounded in February, but consumers may be growing more cautious
Brenda O’Connor Juanas, senior vice president at UBS Wealth Management, and Luke Lloyd, investment strategist at Strategic Wealth Partners, discuss retail earnings, interest rate cuts, Bitcoin’s surge to record highs, February CPI and more . U.S. retail spending rebounded in February, but consumers may be more cautious as they continue to face high interest rates […]
High debt is causing more consumers to live paycheck-to-paycheck
Approximately 60% of consumers live paycheck to paycheck, primarily through debt and inflation. (iStock) Many workers are living paycheck to paycheck, with around one in three citing debt as one of the main reasons. According to a PYMNTS study. As of December, 60% of survey respondents said they were living paycheck to paycheck. This is […]
Consumers can’t tell difference between human vs. AI videos
A survey of U.S. consumers shows that a majority of Americans are comfortable supporting government regulations that require labeling of content generated by artificial intelligence. The same consumers surveyed had difficulty distinguishing between AI-generated videos and human-created video content. Americans responded to a HarrisX survey asking whether they would like “US lawmakers to require labeling […]
Durbin-Marshall Credit Card Bill Shifts Costs to Small Businesses and Consumers
The following content is electronic payment federation. Supporters of the new bill in Congress like to tout it as being for small businesses and the American people. But in reality, that’s not what they’re benefiting from at all from the new credit card mandates they’re pushing in the name of increased competition. In fact, Sen. […]
New Legislation Leaves Consumers, Small Businesses Footing the Bill
The following content is electronic payment federation. Supporters of the new bill in Congress like to tout it as being for small businesses and the American people. But in reality, that’s not what they’re benefiting from at all from the new credit card mandates they’re pushing in the name of increased competition. In fact, Sen. […]
Google’s $700M Play Store settlement is bad for consumers: judge
A federal judge also joins critics in approving Google’s controversial $700 million settlement with 50 states over anticompetitive practices in the Android app store, with just a small cash payment to consumers. , noted that it could protect the company from future lawsuits. U.S. District Judge James Donato ruled that the deal with Google, which […]
H&R Block wiped out the tax data of consumers trying to choose a more affordable option, FTC alleges – JC Post
Image provided by: Pixabay Federal Trade Commission Have you ever spent hours entering complex financial information online only to have it deleted? It would be frustrating enough if it was due to a technical glitch, but… According to the FTC’s complaint against taxpayer H&R Block., erasing tax data that consumers had already entered was a […]
Paycheck-to-Paycheck Consumers Could Benefit From Capital One/Discover Deal – PYMNTS.com
In what could be one of the biggest acquisitions of the decade, Capital One recently announced it wants to buy Discover Financial in a deal valued at more than $35 billion. If regulators approve the deal, it will combine two of the largest U.S. credit card issuers to create a global payments platform with 70 […]
Record-high credit card interest rates cost consumers $25 billion in 2023: report
According to one study, the average annual percentage rate (APR) on credit cards nearly doubled from 12.9% in 2013 to 22.8% in 2023, costing consumers about $25 billion in interest fees last year. new analysis By the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB). The average annual interest rate reached a record high late last year, according […]