Credit Card

Financial companies are again stuffing mailboxes with credit card applications at a pace not seen since the last recession began four years ago, a sign that banks are relaxing their lending. Promising everything from cash back to airline miles to zero percent interest for nearly two years, credit card companies mailed out an estimated 4 billion offers nationwide last year, nearly triple the amount delivered in 2009 and the most since 2007, according to Synovate, a unit of French market research firm Ipsos.

An arbitrator upheld the NFL's salary cap reductions on the Dallas Cowboys and Washington Redskins for this season and next. Stephen Burbank ruled Tuesday in favor of the league and dismissed the grievances by both teams. The Redskins lost $36 million over two years. The Cowboys lost $10 million for overloading contracts during the uncapped 2010 season despite league warnings about such maneuvering. The Cowboys and Redskins, who filed their grievances against the league and players' association, said in a joint statement they would "abide by the arbitrator's decision to dismiss.

What would you do if you received a court summons indicating that you were being sued for debt on a credit card you had no recollection ever applying for or using? Many people would ignore the court notice. And many of those people would probably end up with a default judgment and be forced to pay the debt. In 2010, a unit of Asset Acceptance Capital Corp., a consumer debt buyer, sued Tim Bond to collect $7,247.09 for charges and interest on a credit card he says he can't remember applying for. Asset Acceptance had bought the rights to...

Republican Sen. Marco Rubio has close ties to a colleague accused of questionable financial dealings. The freshman senator from Florida once was enmeshed in a controversy over the use of the state party's credit card for his personal expenses. Rubio has faced increased scrutiny over his personal background since bursting onto the national scene, including conflicting details of his parents' immigration from Cuba and his ties to the Mormon faith. Will issues like those hold back one of the GOP's fastest-rising stars?

BASEBALL Red Sox give Maine minor league dealThe Red Sox signed righthander John Maine to a minor league contract that does not include an invitation to major league spring training. Maine, 30, won 25 games for the Mets from 2007-08 and had a 4.02 earned run average. He has made only 24 starts in the majors since, none since May 20, 2010. He had shoulder surgery that season and last year was 1-3 with a 7.43 ERA for Triple A Colorado Springs. He quit the team in June, saying he might retire.

What happened at the Life Focus Center of Charlestown looks like another scandalous case of nonprofit-gone-wild. But it's also a tragedy for 140 men and women with disabilities. To them, the center was a lifeline, whatever the financial transgressions of executive director Jack Millerick. Millerick earned over $200,000 a year, and his wife, daughter, and brother-in-law were also on the center's payroll. A report issued by state Auditor Suzanne Bump highlighted questionable credit card charges that Millerick ran up. After scathing headlines in the Boston Herald, the Rev. Daniel Mahoney,...

WASHINGTON -- The number of consumers behind on their credit card bills, after hitting an all-time high a year ago, declined in the final three months of 2005. The American Bankers Association reported yesterday that the percentage of credit card accounts 30 or more days past due slipped to 4.27 percent in the October-December quarter. That was down from 4.74 percent in the July-September quarter. That level had in turn been an improvement from a record high of 4.81 percent set in the April-June quarter of 2005.

Apply for a store credit card and get an instant 20 percent discount on your purchase. It sounds like a no-brainer, especially during the holidays when you're making big purchases. The sales clerk will also tempt you with promises of advance alerts on special promotions and year-round deals. Yet opening a store credit card can come with repercussions and it's a decision that shouldn't be made in the spur of the moment. Before you start shopping, here are three aspects of store credit cards to consider: Higher Interest Rates The interest rates on retail credit cards...

NEW YORK - Steady improvement in the rates of credit card defaults and late payments have stalled after about 18 months. The top six credit card-issuing banks posted mixed results for their customers' payment behavior in October, with three reporting small increases in default rates and three reporting slight declines. Similarly, four of the banks reported drops in the rates of payments late by 30 days or more, known as delinquency in the industry, while two reported small upticks.

NEW YORK — Late payments on credit cards have dropped to rates seen before the recession, and defaults are also heading close to normal levels, reports from the nation’s top six issuers show. A series of regulatory filings yesterday showed that May payment rates for most of the biggest card issuers were down to rates seen before the economic downturn. In the case of industry-leading American Express, the rate of payments late by 30 days or more is far better than before the crisis, at 1.6 percent of balances on an annualized basis for May. JPMorgan...

LOS ANGELES - US credit card users are getting better about making their payments on time, even as banks are increasingly issuing cards to borrowers with less-than-stellar credit. The rate of payments at least 90 days overdue dipped in the first three months of 2012 to 0.73 percent, credit reporting agency TransUnion said Wednesday. That was down from 0.78 percent in the fourth quarter of 2011 and 0.74 percent in the first quarter of last year. While the rate increased in the second half of last year, the broader trend has seen delinquency rates decline steadily since the...

LOWER DELINQUENCY RATE: Credit reporting agency TransUnion says that the rate of payments at least 90 days overdue dipped in the first quarter to 0.73 percent. That's down from 0.78 percent in the fourth quarter and 0.74 percent in the first quarter of 2011. MORE DEBT: While late payments are down, cardholders are carrying more debt. On average, card balances grew 6.1 percent to $4,962 in the first quarter versus a year earlier. SUBPRIME CARDHOLDERS: Banks are increasingly issuing cards to borrowers with less-than-stellar credit.

U.S. credit card users are getting better about making more timely payments, even as banks are increasingly issuing cards to borrowers with less-than-stellar credit. The rate of payments at least 90 days overdue dipped in the first three months of the year to 0.73 percent, credit reporting agency TransUnion said Thursday. That's down from 0.78 percent in the fourth quarter of 2011 and 0.74 percent in the first quarter of last year. While the rate increased in the second half of last year, the broader trend has seen delinquency rates decline steadily since...

Cash, coins and credit cards are so Twentieth Century. At least, that's the opinion of the electronics manufacturers, phone companies, banks and credit card issuers that expect cellphones to be the main way consumers pay for purchases in the not-so-distant future. The trouble is, that vision-of-tomorrow is somewhat blurry, as evidenced at the U.S. cellphone industry trade show held this week in New Orleans. There are a lot of ideas, but little agreement. The stakes, however, are high.

Police in Brazil say an American tourist was detained for several hours after trying to leave Rio de Janeiro without paying his hotel bill of more than $7,000, including $3,000 for "caipirinhas" — Brazil's national cocktail of sugarcane rum, lime, sugar and ice. Police inspector Marcio Mendonca says 63-year-old Robert Scott from Murietta, California, was detained Wednesday night at Rio de Janeiro's International Airport. He says Scott claimed he could not pay the hotel bill because his credit card had been cloned.

We could have used Celestron's reTrace Deluxe on a recent trip to Auckland, New Zealand, when we "misplaced" our rental car in the unfamiliar city and spent ages trying to find it. The palm-sized device, small enough to hide behind a credit card, helps travelers retrace their steps so they can locate their car, hotel, ship's dock, or any location they mark on this GPS pocket navigator. Use it to remember rendezvous points while traveling, or mark trailheads or campsites while hiking.

Q.I have $100 in Piccadilly Pub gift cards. The chain abruptly shuttered its restaurants earlier this spring. My attempts at contact have met with no success. My latest attempt of an e-mail to their posted e-mail address was returned as undeliverable. Can you help? Or is there no hope? Richard Morin, Hudson A. Several readers have written in recently about problems with restaurant gift cards. The problem is always the same: The restaurant - or the company issuing the gift cards - went out of business.

Elaine Legendre photos The Melrose High School Drama Club proudly presents "Legally Blonde, The Musical" on Thursday, May 10, Friday, May 11 and Saturday, May 12 at 7:30 p.m. The play will be performed at the state of the art Melrose Performing Arts Center located at 350 Lynn Fells Parkway. This is one of the first high school productions of this play in Massachusetts. Tickets for the play are $15 for adults and $10 for seniors and students and are available for purchase online at melrosehighschooldrama and at the door.