Credit card business info
Investing on the dollar?
After the sub prime crisis, the dollar has depreciated further, encouraging all residents in the euro area for some time designing a nice trip to the U.S. or an investment property in stars and stripes. A leap ahead of the euro on the one hand, restrain exports of European products (especially the Italian fashion brands) and the other, makes it more convenient direct purchases in dollars (raw materials, etc…)
At this stage of change, in which the world economy is looking for new settlement and avoids the risk of recession, it could prove advantageous to buy dollars, bonds and investment in U.S. real estate securities Americans clearly favorable for Europeans which, thanks to the strong euro may face any financial plan aimed at U.S. travel by investment through international circuits and means of payment accepted and accredited in the U.S. as American Express and Visa.
Thanks to this favorable exchange rate, the euro is taking on the position of dominant currency in the economic world and also achieving / exceeding the euro-dollar threshold to 1.50 represents a strong psychological impact affects the European economy as well as world, because the U.S. dollar for more than 40 years, has dominated global economic affairs, deeply affecting, while on the contrary, the task was far above the ECB to maintain price stability in the Euro Zone, preventing inflation from grow beyond the limits.
Even if you think the U.S. economy and hardships to move closer to a recession, forcing the Federal Reserve to lower interest rates further, using the strategy of the weak exchange rate to deal with this phase of difficulty ‘economic, investors continue to point to a stable country like the United States.
Despite market expectations weighing on the value of American currency, the decline in the cost of the dollar makes American products cheap and especially Europeans, who are among the largest holders of cash, can avail themselves of the weak dollar and sub prime crisis to to travel to the U.S. to make real estate investments and buy U.S. bonds, thus giving new impetus to the American economy and the future rewards of their investments.
Source: Reuters, Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago
The credit card biometric
Biometrics, secure payment of exact science: the future of credit cards with fingerprint.
Henceforth, it seems that no longer have to fear for their payments because nothing is more certain and secure of their fingerprints, because the characteristics of individual (no individual can have a footprint equal to another) and persistence (do not change over time) make your fingerprint (dermatoglyphics) more secure than any system of Pin codes and signatures.
The payment system is based on biometric fingerprint recognition, which is in fact the only sure identification of human beings, until yesterday was generally used for security, control and immigration, but now will help ensure security payments.
Siemens has introduced in Spain a special credit card with a thickness five times higher than a normal paper because it contains a special technology (an LCD screen and optical sensors 128) that recognize the user by fingerprints and body heat .
The impression is used as irrefutable proof of identity, it is encoded and stored within the card and thanks to biometric authentication, which recognizes the fingerprint, pass the burden of codes, on the contrary impression may be exempted from or copied.
AmericanExpress, Visa, Mastercard are committed to exploring different types of technologies because these new systems of identification based on fingerprint recognition may be the best system to provide maximum security for consumers, as well as being safe, practical and reliable , will free the user from the obligation to store passwords and codes and the obligation to affix signatures on signatures: Just simply the imprint of the finger to make the payments.
Also in the United States was introduced SITEMA Pay By Touch, for retail payments (supermarkets, large chains, etc..) Enabling direct debit your bank account through a POS biometric fingerprint-activated even without even need credit card, also in China, you can pay with just a finger in many restaurants and shops in Shanghai, where an optical reader identifies the fingerprint and sends the charge to the consumer’s account
A Christmas to payments with American Express Blue
Christmas gifts of time it was said once … because that was the time of year when people spend more between parties, lunches, dinners, baskets, panettone, especially travel and gifts.
A couple of years now things have changed significantly and, for want thirteenth increasingly available, either for the increasingly rampant real inflation, either because the cost of living us to the end of the month with “water throat, “we are more or less forced, reluctantly, to withdraw from the shopping list many of the things we used to buy in the past. At Christmas, however, you know, gifts are inevitable. And so, the Italian ‘spendthrift at Christmas “, because of the high cost of living has evolved into one of the few” gifts “and” useful gifts.
Even trying to save But the math facts, including spending on lunch and dinner, 24 of 25 (not to mention traditional families that do not give up being together not even 26), 31, and New Year gifts, money not enough though, especially guilt prices ever higher … So then, especially at this time, the use of a revolving credit card can do the job. The fact revolving cards are credit cards that contain a loan used to purchase anything and repayable in installments (usually with a minimum installment amount not less than 5% due). This means that (if used with care, remembering always that, like any loan, you must also pay interest on credit actually used) the revolving can be a valuable aid in times like this when spending is inevitable.
This year, on the occasion of Christmas spending, American Express, with its Blue card, launched a new promotion: Blue American Express Not only is free for life, but will refund you 1% on all your purchases forever. Blue Inspired By then, the section dedicated to shopping, blue American Express also offers the opportunity to buy your gifts online easily by offering attractive products and exclusive.
Do not give your Christmas gifts, discover all the advantages of Blu American Express in the section of our site.
Mobile Payment: phone or credit card?
Telephone companies around the world have become part of the credit system and have made mobile phones an effective means of payment, transforming the phone into a credit card that offers a safe and fast world of ‘e-banking.
Even in Italy, for several months, you can make payments directly from your phone, using it as an electronic wallet, because thanks to the ‘evolution of the SIM card (with excellent storage capacity) can now perform all the operations, an accessible only by computer time. Each holder of an account will enable payment services on mobile phones at your bank (if equipped with this service), combining their mobile number to a credit card or a prepaid card.
The SIM card chips are having the digital versions of their credit cards, as well as the authorization of payments, sending an SMS (via secure channels), can be accessed from web pages of the phone, a wallet containing the full range of their credit cards.
Obviously, to protect the security of transactions, as with all operations telematics, you must enter the personal codes, pins and passwords generated with the token use it, by typing on mobile phones.
Moreover, as already happens for normal credit cards, the customer will receive SMS with all the information on transactions carried out, the balance of his cards, etc..
The technology applied to payment systems via mobile phone is constantly strides and NFC (Near Field Communication) is a further demonstration of this progress, with this system you can simply pay via mobile phone near a receiver, this technology works at high frequency and is based on wireless communication (wireless), between the phone and the reader of the NFC device, enabling secure data exchange.
The experiments on the NFC technology that allows you to use your mobile to pay for transport, tolls, etc.. are already well advanced and the benefits listed in the Mobile Payment is added to the phone instrument that is used as a real credit card (without having to crawl like a card without signing a receipt) can simply bring the phone the POS, the turnstiles parking, entrances to public transport, cinemas, sports events and music etc.. to pay in full freedom with the phone and immediately climb the debt from personal credit.
The phone is the technological tool most widely used and versatile that lets you communicate, surf, work, contain entertaining features (photos, video, MP3, etc.). From now on also offers the opportunity to get rid of wasted time for payments subsidies, taxes and bills, the evolution of this instrument could lead to not need even a bank account and therefore could lead to lower costs to zero, greatly influencing the banks so far have always treated both the ‘ hardware and software of various payment systems.
Eye to vishing!
Phishing, boxing, trashing, sniffing all the different practices with a common goal: to defraud unsuspecting users. The greater the fraud, users become more cautious, more divers and their techniques evolve.
And here comes the Vishing, widespread practice since 2006 online. Only now the problem affects all those who have activated a service of sending SMS to control expenditure by credit card. This technique is indeed sending text messages on mobile phones that notify an expenditure made by credit card, containing a phone number (almost always VoIP) that call to block the card. It may happen that the person who receives the sms phones to this number out of fear, anxiety or panic, with the intention to block the card and be asked to enter the card number itself to lock it. From this moment the data is saved and paper, instead of being blocked, will be used by fraudsters until the victim no one will notice and stop really.
Remember to always be wary of ambiguous communications and to keep on hand the “official numbers” to block your credit card.
SMS Alerts: always in touch by phone with your card!
Most banks and payment card issuers, offer Now an interesting service alerts via SMS – SMS Alert – has significant advantages in several respects.
The concept behind the service is that of reachability in real-time user / owner of the card. This immediate reachability allows the holder – but also issuing institution – a immediate control over expenditure, which translates into greater flexibility and security.
How does this work? Simply following the activation of
service, you receive a text message to your phone every time you use the
payment card.
The “short message” is received in real time for each transaction (purchase,
cash advance, etc..) carried out with the paper.
Warning! Institutions issuing the credit card deliver FREE
this service, so it is absolutely distrust any charge or
payment request for the SMS alert service.
The SMS sent almost simultaneously with the use of payment card indicates
the type of transaction, amount, date, location and name of the operator.
Therefore, you can verify the amount charged on the card, noting
errors immediately at the time of such a double
debit or debit wrong. Indeed, the “short message” as well as for
purchases made in your presence – and therefore more controllable
personally – is usually sent when:
* Withdrawal from ATMs in abroad
* Internet transactions
* Transactions by mail or telephone
* Operations are not accepted
This way you can avoid unpleasant surprises and fraudulent use
the credit card, but above proceed in real time
card lock.
Some tips for assessing the quality of the SMS alert service offered by your bank / issuer:
* Absolutely free service;
* Check if there is a minimum amount provided for sending dell’SMSed, possibly, how much;
* Make sure the time service activation (usually activated within 48 hours of request, then you want to receive the SMS in anticipation of a trip abroad should be required to activate the service on time);
* Make sure of service in real time for use abroad.
To activate the service simply apply for the bank /
issuer when the card is issued, or in response to the agency,
by phone by calling customer service or via the Internet by connecting
the official website of the issuer.
Upon request to activate the notification service via SMS,
will be provided to the mobile number on which you want to receive
SMS, with one wisely: the phone number provided to the issuer
must always be made payable to the cardholder.
It ‘important to remember that the notification service via SMS is progressively
increasingly available on debit cards – debit cards.