Bank of America Leads in Default Rate Rise

By Matt Phillips

Analysts are picking through fresh credit card data and in search of reasons for optimism buried in otherwise ugly data. There aren’t many.

Dow Jones Newswires’ Ed Welsch looked closely at a research note out from Bernstein Research analyst John McDonald. He writes:

Credit card default rates continued to rise in May, reaching 10.1%, a 0.83 percentage point rise and up 4.58 percentage points y/y. BofA (BAC) saw the largest increase among major issuers, rising two percentage points from April. The average delinquency levels fell slightly to 5.83%, but this isn’t always a positive, Bernstein Research says, as it could just be a reduction in “sloppy payers,” reducing late fee revenue while charge-offs continue to rise. Given continued deterioration in unemployment, and monthly personal bankruptcies remaining at the 120,000+ level set in March, Bernstein says higher losses are in the pipeline for card issuers. Firm forecasts a peak of 11.25% in mid-2010.

At first glance, there did seem to be some bright spots in the data — for instance those delinquency trends to the downside. But Robert W. Baird & Co. analysts weren’t overly excited, writing that they “attribute the improvement to seasonality as consumers’ use of tax refunds to pay down revolving debt. More consistent with the challenging economic environment and employment trends, we expect delinquencies to demonstrate incremental degradation going forward.”

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Credit Cards and You: Credit Card Comparison Tables

Source: http://www.fcac-acfc.gc.ca

Comparison tables	Format	Updated
Standard Credit Cards (low-rate and regular-rate)	546 kB	July 2008
Gold Credit Cards (low-rate and regular-rate)	510 kB	July 2008
Platinum Credit Cards (low-rate and regular-rate)	497 kB	July 2008
U.S. Dollar Credit Cards	403 kB	July 2008
Student Credit Cards (low-rate and regular-rate)	424 kB	July 2008
Secured Credit Cards	441 kB	July 2008
Retail Credit Cards	350 kB	July 2008
Charge Cards	355 kB	July 2008
Credit Balance Insurance	169 kB	July 2008

Pay Online Without a Credit Card

By EricHDoss @ hubpages

PayPal

By far, the easiest option would be to use PayPal by eBay. PayPal is free for personal use. You can go to their website and sign up for a free account. You might be prompted to enter a credit card number, but you don't have to.

Once you have registered for your account, you will need to "Get Verified." This involves linking your bank account to your PayPal account. If you don't want to use a credit card, you will need to link to your bank account. Once you have entered your information, PayPal will make two small deposits into your bank account. It generally takes about 5 days for this to happen. Once you see these deposits, you will log in to your account and enter the amount of the two deposits. This serves to verify your ownership of the account. Once this is done, you will be able to use your PayPal account at any merchant that accepts PayPal by simply entering your PayPal username (your email address) and your PayPal password.

Pre-Paid Credit Card

The second option is more expensive. You can purchase a Visa, MasterCard, or American Express branded gift card. These are generally available at most grocery stores, discount stores, and drug stores. Once you purchase the card, you will need to follow the instructions to register the card. In most cases, you will need to call the card issuer and provide your name, address, and phone number. They will then authorize the card for online use. The drawback to this is the cost of the card. Most of the cards cost at least $6 more than the face value of the card. Also, if your card has a balance, the issuer will generally charge you a monthly fee after the first few months.