This is the talk page for discussing improvements to the Credit card article.
This is not a forum for general discussion of the article's subject. Put new text under old text. Click here to start a new topic. Please sign and date your posts by typing four tildes (~~~~). New to Wikipedia? Welcome! Ask questions, get answers.	Be polite Assume good faith Avoid personal attacks Be welcoming	Article policies No original research Neutral point of view Verifiability
Archives: 1

This article is within the scope of the following WikiProjects:

WikiProject Business (Rated B-Class, Top-priority) BusinessWikipedia:WikiProject BusinessTemplate:WikiProject BusinessWikiProject Business articles Business and economics portal v • d • e This article is within the scope of WikiProject Business, a collaborative effort to improve the coverage of Business on Wikipedia. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page, where you can join the discussion and see a list of open tasks.  B  This article has been rated as B-Class on the project's quality scale.  Top  This article has been rated as Top-priority on the project's priority scale. WikiProject Numismatics NumismaticsWikipedia:WikiProject NumismaticsTemplate:ExonumianoticeNumismatics articles v • d • e This article about Exonumia is part of the WikiProject Numismatics, which is an attempt to facilitate the categorization and creation of accurate and formal Numismatism-related articles on Wikipedia. If you would like to participate please visit the project page, where you can join and see a list of open tasks to help with. WikiProject Finance (Rated B-Class, Top-importance) FinanceWikipedia:WikiProject FinanceTemplate:WikiProject FinanceFinance articles Business and economics portal v • d • e This article is within the scope of WikiProject Finance, a collaborative effort to improve the coverage of articles related to Finance on Wikipedia. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page, where you can join the discussion and see a list of open tasks.  B  This article has been rated as B-Class on the project's quality scale.  Top  This article has been rated as Top-importance on the project's importance scale.

	WikiProject Echo      (Yiddish)	EchoWikipedia:WikiProject EchoTemplate:FAOLEcho articles
v • d • e Credit card is a featured article on the Yiddish Wikipedia. You may be able to improve the article on this project by drawing content, media or references from that article. To get involved with featured articles in other languages, visit WikiProject Echo or its discussion page.

Archives
August 2005 → January 2008

Contents 1 Two Proposals 2 Accruals 3 Minimum finance charge 4 Missing interesting statistics 5 History of credit cards & South Dakota (moved here from a deleted test page) 6 Credit card profits, debts, penalties 7 Proposed External Link

[edit] Two Proposals

1) I would like to propose a link to Debtors Anonymous-- A nonprofit organization that offers support groups for people with credit card addiction.

Credit card addiction is such a widespread problem that this link would be very relevant both to the article and to those who need help. Plus again they are nonprofit.

The web address (broken up, until approved, is www. debtors anonymous. org ).

2) I also would like to propose that the article have a section on credit card addiction. Millions of people have credit card addiction (not the majority, but a huge minority).

70.209.163.119 (talk) 21:28, 22 November 2009 (UTC)

Pass on the link; that does not seem specific to the topic of the article. Thanks. If you can find reliable sources, please feel free to write a section on credit card addiction; with a preference to clinical sources as opposed to observational ones. Kuru ^talk 22:56, 22 November 2009 (UTC)

[edit] Accruals

The following does not make sense: "However, most rewards points are accrued as a liability on a company's balance sheet and expensed at the time of reward redemption." In accounting, when this type of accrual is made on the balance sheet, it is expensed at the same time (debit expense credit accrual). You can't accrue something and expense it later. I think what the original editor meant to say was that when the banks accrue, they book a liablity, and this liability is relieved upon reward points redemption, at which point the bank would have to pay out cash. Anyway I took it out.

[edit] Minimum finance charge

Today I came to wikipedia to figure out what the term "Minimum finance charge" means. The page redirects to Credit card, which doesn't include this phrase anywhere. Maybe it should? ~ Booya ^Bazooka 04:27, 16 March 2009 (UTC)

That page's history brought up this:

Nearly all credit cards have a minimum finance charge. You'll be charged that minimum if the calculated amount of your finance charge is less than that for any billing cycle. For example, your finance charge may be calculated (as a percentage of your balance) to be $0.35 but if the company's minimum finance charge is $1.00, you'll pay $1.00. A minimum finance charge applies only when you must pay a finance charge--typically*, when you carry over a balance from one billing cycle to the next. It is very important to understand that having a minimum finance charge does not mean that you will have to pay it every month even if you've paid off your balance in full or made no purchases. If you've paid off your balance in full or made no purchases you will not be charged anything. Typically, minimum finance charge is $0.50.

• Is the paid balance in full exclusion from finance charges a characteristic of ALL credit cards?

I don't think it's important, so I won't be adding it to the article.--Elvey (talk) 18:56, 14 May 2009 (UTC)

Just to note, this information is exactly why I came to this page also. Fortunately google now sends you here. Probably worth including. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 68.125.32.150 (talk) 18:51, 31 August 2009 (UTC)

[edit] Missing interesting statistics

I came to this page anticipating some insight into how many credit cards there are (within the U.S. and worldwide), what percentage of the population own credit cards (since obviously some people own none and some people own many), and what portion of credit cards have carried over balances. That last fact is of particular interest to me, I would like to know if many people use credit cards simply as a convenience rather than as a means of achieving debt. I don't even see any suggestion of this sort of information in the See Also portion of this article.

[edit] History of credit cards & South Dakota (moved here from a deleted test page)

I believe it would be helpful if the article included something of the history of credit cards. At one point in time many States had usury laws which would have prohibited most of the interest rates charged today. My recollection is that sometime about the '60's, South Dakota sold its soul. The laws were changed and a large credit card company moved into the State. Since the Supreme Court has ruled that the laws of the State where the company is located apply, cardholders across the country became subject to South Dakota's new law.

I have been looking for additional information to verify my recollection, but have found precious little so far. If someone has more information I would love to hear it. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Richard13423 (talk • contribs)

Your recollection is correct. Maybe PBS.org has reference material on a documentary they did on it.--Elvey (talk) 18:58, 14 May 2009 (UTC)

[edit] Credit card profits, debts, penalties

Here are some interesting facts (with additional references) from a April 23, 2009 Boston Globe article that could be verified and included in this article. Source is: www.boston.com/news/politics/politicalintelligence/2009/04/obama_calls_in.html

"Below is some background on the impact of credit cards on American families:

Prevalence of credit card debt

· Credit Card Debt has increased significantly in the past decade. Credit card debt has increased by 25 percent in the past 10 years, and reached $963B in January 2009. (Federal Reserve 2009)

· More than three-quarters of families have credit cards and close to half carry a balance. Seventy-eight percent of U.S. families have a credit card, and 44 percent of families carried a balance on their credit card. (Nielsen 2008, Federal Reserve 2008)

· Families carry significant credit card debt. The average amount of credit card debt among families with a balance was $7,300 in 2007 (the median was $3,000). (Federal Reserve, 2008)

· Delinquency rates have increased by more than a third since the end of 2006. The number of accounts more than 30 days late has increased from 3.9% in the fourth quarter of 2006, to 5.6% in the fourth quarter of 2008. (FFIEC, 2008)

Credit card fees and interest rates are extremely high

· Issuers collect $15B annually in penalty fees. Penalty fees on credit cards are around $15 billion annually, an estimated 10 percent of total credit card industry revenues. (Calculation based on GAO 2006 and Federal Reserve 2009)

· One-fifth of those carrying credit card debt pay an interest rate above 20 percent. Ninety-percent of issuers assessed variable rate cards and an estimated one-fifth were charged interest rates above 20 percent (GAO 2006)." 172.163.138.76 (talk) 09:20, 2 May 2009 (UTC)

[edit] Proposed External Link

I would like to propose adding the Frontline: secret history of the credit card link to the external links section of the article. Frontline —Preceding unsigned comment added by Pspadaro (talk • contribs) 20:17, 8 June 2009 (UTC)

The link looks good in that it is apparently not promoting anything, but I couldn't really tell from the blurb what the one hour video would add to this article. I've only arrived here recently, but my guess is that there would be some resistance to adding links without good reason because it just invites another round of "me too" links. Is there a good reason? Johnuniq (talk) 23:43, 8 June 2009 (UTC)

I want to engage —Preceding unsigned comment added by 41.98.23.90 (talk) 10:53, 5 October 2009 (UTC)