Credit Card

Customers at Towson Hot Bagels usually pay with credit, not cash, when buying a bagel or a bottle of water, triggering fees the merchant must pay to process each transaction. Now, the shop's owner and retailers across the country may recoup "swipe" fees as a result of a preliminary settlement with Visa, MasterCard and major banks. When a consumer pays with a credit card, retailers can tack on a surcharge or "checkout fee" of up to 4 percent of the purchase to cover processing. But there's no rush among merchants to start charging this fee. Independent shop owners, national chains and retail trade groups insist they have no desire to pass credit card fees along to consumers so directly.

The Acting County Executive for Anne Arundel County, John Hammond has announced that he is a candidate for the County Executive position, which has recently become vacant through the forced resignation of John Leopold. He was featured a number of times on Friday being interviewed by reporters about his announced candidacy. It was mentioned that should he become county executive, he would have to take a $30,000 a year pay reduction. He addressed that issue primarily by making fun of his wife's spending habits.

It's like a recurring bad dream. March: Hackers allegedly steal the credit card numbers from 1.5 million Visa and MasterCard customers by breaking into the computer systems of the company's payment processor in New York. The thieves stockpiled the stolen credit card numbers for months before beginning to use them. August: Cyber attackers disrupt production from Saudi Aramco, the world's largest exporter of crude oil, taking out 30,000 computers in the process, according to press reports.

A second person charged in connection with a credit card skimming scheme that operated in Harford County pleaded guilty to mail fraud in U.S. District Court in Baltimore Friday. Tri Tran, also known as "Tony," 35, a citizen of Vietnam unlawfully in the country and living in Maryland, skimmed credit card account data and re-encoded onto different credit cards used to buy merchandise at retail stores, according to the statement of facts in his plea agreement that was entered into court Friday.

The O'Malley administration is all for enforcing infractions on state residents - but holds itself to an entirely less stringent moral and legal standard. The push to double E-ZPass fines is a case in point. The Maryland Transportation Authority (MdTA) would like to increase late fees for E-ZPass infractions to $50 and potentially suspend vehicle registrations for nonpayment in legislation yet to be introduced this session. For starters, the proposed punishment far exceeds the crime.

You're excited about your team being in the Super Bowl, but don't let your guard down. The Better Business Bureau of Greater Maryland is warning of a variety of ways that fraudsters are taking advantage of football fans. For starters: Beware of counterfeit goods that steal a team's trademarked logo to put on merchandise. The items are poorly made and don't hold up as well as the real thing, the BBB says. Plus, you could open yourself to identity theft dealing with these shady merchants.

For the last dozen years, Vince Talbert has focused on one thing: Bill Me Later. The 45-year-old Baltimore native co-founded the online payment company with three partners in 2000. The company helps Internet shoppers buy stuff online without a credit card. In 2008, PayPal, an eBay subsidiary, bought Bill Me Later for $945 million. Talbert, a marketing professional, and his partners made a lot of money and went to work for the bigger online payment company. Lately, Talbert has developed a deep interest in supporting educational technology startups in the Baltimore area.

If this is December, then there are a lot of Orioles fans who are wondering the same thing. Why is it that every year at this time, the other American League East teams do their holiday shopping at Lord &Taylor and the Orioles seem to do most of theirs at the dollar store? It's a fair question, considering that the Toronto Blue Jays are on a spending spree of such magnitude that it might impact the currency exchange rate between the United States and Canada, and the Boston Red Sox are buying up average players for $13 million apiece per season.

People who are sad are more likely to seek instant financial gratification, even though it means losing out on more money later if they had just waited. That's according to researchers at Harvard and Columbia universities, and the University of California Riverside's School of Business Administration. When sad, people have less patience and are more likely to seek immediate financial rewards. That's similar to when people go shopping to lift their spirits, something called retail therapy.

I'm writing in response to an opinion article in the Nov. 22 Laurel Leader by Gwendolyn Glenn titled "Voters' Determination on Election Day Overcomes Frustrations at the Polls. " I appreciate Ms. Glenn's opening statement regarding the importance of every single ballot being counted. Then she mentions that leading up to the election, laws were pushed to make it harder for people to vote in some states. I'm guessing Ms. Glenn is referring to attempts to have a law passed that requires voters to provide an ID. Some people do not support voter ID because they believe it is racially motivated.