Credit Card

At a time when Baltimore City agencies are under scrutiny regarding the wise use of taxpayer dollars, you'd think top school administrators would think twice before racking up hundreds of thousands of dollars in questionable expenses on their department-issued credit cards. But apparently some educators still don't get it. The fact that they could even contemplate lavishing large sums on meals, hotels and out-of-town trips suggests just how out of touch they must seem to ordinary city residents.

Despite tightening school budgets and a perpetual rallying cry for more funding, Baltimore school administrators spent roughly $500,000 during the past year and a half on expenses such as a $7,300 office retreat at a downtown hotel, $300-per-night stays at hotels, and a $1,000 dinner at an exclusive members-only club, credit card statements show. City school officials defend the majority of the credit card expenditures - outlined in statements and receipts obtained by The Baltimore Sun through a Maryland Public Information Act request - as "the cost of doing business," saying only a handful of "outliers" show questionable judgment or disregard for taxpayer money.

Students across the country are headed back to college, and millions of them will get financial aid disbursed on a debit card. The cards are convenient and save money for the schools. But these debit cards can be expensive for students, who could see their financial aid eaten up by fees. This month, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. announced it had ordered the nation's largest player in campus debit cards — Higher One — to return about $11 million to roughly 60,000 students related to fees the company charged for insufficient funds.

It is inexplicable that in an article about merchants bemoaning credit card interchange fees, the cost to businesses of processing cash and check purchases is never discussed ("Fee to pay with credit card could be in offing," Aug. 14). I worked in retail for many years, and I know that accepting cash or checks costs merchants time and money. There's the issue of counterfeit bills, mistakes in making change, employee pilfering and bad checks that can require the merchant's appearance in court as a consequence.

One of the largest business expenses for Santoni's Supermarket in Highlandtown is interchange fees — what the grocer pays a bank to process customer's credit card transactions. Even so, Santoni's has no plans to charge shoppers more for paying with plastic. "That would be retailer suicide," says Rob Santoni Jr., the grocer's chief financial officer. Merchants haven't been allowed to add a surcharge to credit card purchases, but that would change under a proposed settlement announced last month to resolve a seven-year legal battle over interchange fees.

The FBI is alerting the public to a sneaky, new virus being distributed over the Internet that that claims to be an alert issued by federal investigators who allege the computer user visited child porn sites or engaged in other illegal activity. The virus, which locks up and freezes the user's computer, then demands $200 payment via a pre-paid credit card in order for the user to regain control of the computer. “We're getting inundated with complaints,” said Donna Gregory of the Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3)

In a perfect world, there's a parking space next to your destination and it's free. For an imperfect world where parking is scarce and must be paid for, there's Dani Shavit, who wants to turn your mobile phone into a parking lot cashier's window. Shavit holds the U.S. license for Pango, an app-driven mobile parking service that is big in Israel and Europe but just getting started here. Since opening its headquarters in Baltimore last year, Pango Shyyny USA LLC has signed deals with Latrobe, Pa.; a private garage in the heart of New York City; and CityScape, a retail and office complex with 2,500 spaces in Phoenix.

"Lady, like I I've been trying to tell you, this ain't your gnocchi. " For the Little Italy Open Air Film Festival premiere of "The Godfather," Amicci's is offering door-to-chair service. All you gotta do is this. 1. Pick up a menu at the Film Festival, 2. Call Amiccis with your damn order. You can pre-pay with your credit card or have exact amount in cash 3. Tell Amiccis where you're seated and they will bring your order to you. The full menu is on ammici.com, and bottled soda and water will also be available.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has been accepting consumer complaints about credit cards for close to a year. Today, the agency made a database of those complaints available online. You can see the names of the card issuers griped about, the gist of the complaint and company's response and the consumer's zip code. The CFPB says it has received 16,840 credit card complaints, with the most common complaint involving billing disputes. The agency sent 84 percent of those complaints to the card issuers, while the rest went to other regulators or were incomplete.

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...