Credit Card

Roberto Pagan-Franco didn't have a bank account for decades. His employer paid him in cash or with a check that the Baltimore resident took to a check-cashing store. A few years ago he lost his job after a severe illness and for a time was homeless. Not exactly the type of customer you'd expect a big bank to court. But Pagan-Franco enrolled in a PNC Bank program that targets consumers who otherwise might be shut out of the banking system. And today, the 54-year-old has checking and savings accounts at PNC and is in the process of getting a credit card.

A theft this month of 311 gallons of gasoline from a station in Baltimore is one in a series of similar incidents, according to the station's owner, who says people have been disabling pumps and allowing friends and relatives to fill their tanks for free Mehdi Rezakhan, who owns BP stations in Remington and East Baltimore, said each businesses has been hit once, and stations owned by friends have been taken several times, one for 1,800 gallons of...

MBNA America Bank yesterday introduced a premium credit card with a limit that can give consumers who qualify enough cash to put a hefty down payment on a house.The nation's second-largest bank card issuer behind Citibank is offering the no-fee MBNA Platinum Plus Visa or MasterCard, which has a credit limit of up to $100,000.The new card should be in consumers' hands within four to six weeks, said Peter Osborne, a spokesman for the Wilmington, Del.-based company."We are constantly surveying our customers and this is something they told us they wanted," he said.

A 32-year-old Germantown woman pleaded guilty Friday to using a government credit card for personal use, buying 119 iPads, a mattress set and house cleaning services, according to the Maryland U.S. attorney's office. Tamia M. McCoy, a former employee for the National Institutes of Health, faces up to 10 years in prison at her sentencing in Baltimore's U.S. district court, set for July 26. In all, she stole between $70,000 and $120,000 prosecutors said. “McCoy brazenly sought to profit at the behest of tax payer dollars.

CardHub.com, the credit card comparison site, gave these cards top marks for new college and high school graduates: For college student, CardHub likes: Journey Student Rewards from Capital One - No annual fee, and 1 percent cash back for all purchases. Make your payment on time and your cash-back rate is bumped up to 1.25 percent. Citi Dividend Platinum Select MasterCard for College Students - No annual fee, and 5 percent back on purchases at certain merchants, such as gas stations, supermarkets and convenience stories for first six months.

Five of the six largest credit card issuers reported higher delinquency rates --- payments late by at least 30 days --- in September, according to Bill Hardekopf of lowcards.com . These rates had been declining recently, which could mean that consumers are once again struggling to make ends meet. But the issuers were also reporting that charge off rates --- debts deemed uncollectable --- are lower.  I wonder how these data might correlate with the jobless rate , which has been creeping up in Maryland since May. American Express The delinquency rate increased to 1.5 percent in September from 1.4 percent in August.

American credit cardholders are known for running up debt. Now they are also spending billions of dollars annually to make sure their monthly bill gets paid even if they lose their jobs or some other hardship strikes. But a new government report shows that the price consumers pay for this debt protection may be too much for the benefits they receive. The Government Accountability Office reports that consumers shelled out about $2.4 billion in 2009 to the nine largest credit card issuers for debt protection products.

The credit card reform signed into law a year ago by President Barack Obama is not only causing the industry to change but scaring some consumers straight. Under the law, credit card statements must disclose how long it will take to pay off a balance if you make only the minimum payment. For Norma Kaplan of Baltimore County, it would take her 13 years to pay off the $9,000 balance on her card, and over that time she would pay about $4,200 in interest. That has inspired her to pay more.

Update Kenneth Clayton, chief counsel of the American Bankers Association responds to CFPB's report: “There are more than 383 million credit card accounts in the U.S., and less than one-tenth of one percent of those have submitted a complaint to the Bureau. This is a strong record, and one the industry will work to build upon. "   The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau today released its first report on credit card complaints. The federal agency began accepting credit card complaints on July 21 - when it officially opened for business - and received 5,074 complaints in the first three months.

First, there was Bank Transfer Day, a Facebook campaign that encouraged consumers to switch from a big bad bank to a credit union by Dec. 5. Now, there's Balance Transfer Day, a Facebook campaign encouraging consumers to switch their credit card debt by Dec. 11 to a lower-rate card. But questions are being raised about a conflict of interest by the Balance Transfer Day founder, Michael Germanovsky. According to the Associated Press , Germanovsky is “editor-in-chief of a website that profits off credit card applications.” Germanovsky told the AP that his online campaign has nothing to do with his role at Credit-Land.com.

I was just beginning my career at The Sun when the paper (and, yes, it was just a paper then) marked its 150th anniversary. Everything seemed startlingly new to me, and the festivities around May 17, 1987, were a heady part of that. Twenty-five years later, I'm honored to be running the newsroom as we turn 175. Readers may not know it, but we're older than The New York Times , The Washington Post and The Boston Globe . Leafing through the magazine published to commemorate the 150th, I was struck by how many companies that advertised in it no longer exist in the Baltimore area.

CardHub.com, the credit card comparison site, gave these cards top marks for new college and high school graduates: For college student, CardHub likes: Journey Student Rewards from Capital One - No annual fee, and 1 percent cash back for all purchases. Make your payment on time and your cash-back rate is bumped up to 1.25 percent. Citi Dividend Platinum Select MasterCard for College Students - No annual fee, and 5 percent back on purchases at certain merchants, such as gas stations, supermarkets and convenience stories for first six months.

Alas, sisters, a study by the FINRA Investor Education Foundation finds that men are better users of credit cards. The survey, which polled about 500 people in each state and D.C., found that Maryland men are less likely to carry a balance, pay only the minimum or owe late or over-the-limit fees than women here. For example, 55 percent of women polled in the state carried a balance on their cards, compared with 47 percent of men. Thirty-four percent of men paid the minimum due; compared with 41 percent of women.

The Wells Fargo bank in the unit block of West Chesapeake Avenue, Towson, was robbed at 3:30 p.m., April 20. According to police reports. Police said a man passed note to teller demanding money and stating that he had a gun. The man was given money, then fled out back door of the bank. In addition to this incident, the following are compiled from police reports from the Towson and Cockeysville precincts. Our policy is to include descriptions when there is enough information to make identification possible.

The Harford County Education Association (HCEA) and Freedom Federal Credit Union have announced that HCEA has endorsed Freedom as a financial services and benefits provider for its 2,070 members, including the county's public school teachers and employees. "Freedom is very proud to have been chosen by Harford County Education Association (HCEA) as the credit union of choice for their member base of Harford County Public Schools educators," Rose Ann Lambert, president/CEO of Freedom, said.

A Bulgarian citizen, who was involved in an international conspiracy to skim debit and credit card information from bank and other ATMs, including at least one in Bel Air early last year, was sentenced to 32 months in federal prison by a judge in Baltimore Federal District Court Friday. In addition to receiving a prison term, Hristo Georgive Kostov, 29, who had been living in Howard County, was also sentenced to two years of supervised release by U.S. District Judge Catherine C. Blake.

What's the deal? British Airways has a promotion to entice people to sign up for a new Visa Signature affinity credit card. First-time cardholders with new accounts will earn 50,000 miles with their first purchase and another 50,000 miles for spending $2,000 in the first three months after the account is opened. That's 100,000 miles, enough for two coach round-trip tickets or one business-class round trip to parts of Europe, including Belgium, France, Germany, Ireland, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Switzerland and the U.K. You also can redeem miles for flights on codeshare partner American within the continental U.S., and to Canada, Hawaii and Mexico.

The last of the credit card reforms kicked in just two months ago, but get ready soon for reform version 2.0. The Federal Reserve last week released proposed amendments to the Credit Card Accountability Responsibility and Disclosure Act to clarify language and close a loophole that could allow subprime lenders to charge high, upfront fees. "The CARD Act, ever since it was introduced, has needed clarity," says Curtis Arnold, founder of CardRatings.com. "There are a lot of gray areas.

For too long, Republicans have possessed a very narrow agenda for selecting their candidates. Basically, it has been a requirement of candidates to promise that they would not increase taxes. ThenGeorge W. Bushcame along, topping the "no tax increases" promise with huge, multitrillion-dollar tax cuts for the rich. And Mr. Bush delivered. The U.S. national debt has now ballooned up to $15 trillion. Then came loud calls to lower the deficits. Nothing was held sacred. Not Medicare, the main health insurance for the elderly and the severely disabled.

An assistant principal at a Howard County high school is on paid administrative leave after she was charged with stealing credit cards from colleagues and admitted using one of them to buy Christmas presents for her family, according to charging documents. Patricia Kelly Murray, 40, is facing more than a dozen counts, according court papers in three separate cases. All three people identified as victims also work for the county's public schools. Murray's attorney, Todd A. Mohink, declined to comment on the charges.