WBOTM

It appears the class action lawsuit is only for customers in CA, FL, MD, MA, NV, NH, PA and WA who made telephone calls during a certain time period. Here is a link for more info: https://www.greenbergclassactionsettlement.com/

In Texas, we "invest" in guns.

I agree that predatory lending is a shady practice, but placing 90% of the blame on the banks seems high to me. Who's fault is it if the borrower does not read the paperwork? Who's fault is it if the borrower does not know how to calculate his/her principal and interest payments? Who's fault is it if the borrower overpays for a home? Who benefits if the borrower underpays for a home?

Do you think lending standards would be "better" for consumers under a full-reserve monetary or gold standard system? I don't. I think it would be worse for consumers. Home ownership rates would probably drop significantly from 67%. Loan defaults (of all types) would probably have a greater impact on the economy. Imagine trying to sell a home in Riverside County (CA) or Broward County (FL) in today's real estate market, if the buyer had to obtain a loan from a bank with a full reserve requirement. The underwriting standards would be far tougher since the bank has less room for error with each loan. Should we eliminate derivative instruments and the use of leverage/margin as well?

"Free market economy"? Sorry. I have to snicker a little at that one. I wasn't aware that there were still people who actually believe such slogans. Don't get me wrong, I have been up, down and in-between on the concept and understand the zealotry behind the ruse, but it doesn't exactly take a triple PhD to realize that the "market" is gamed from the top through currency manipulation. When you figure this out, begin to understand how liquidity is created, works to effect employment AND subsequently influences purchasing behaviors, then you may start to get a little glimpse of what is going on and why. IF the whole basis for the worker-economy- and some would argue citizen-society- contract is based on currency manipulation as opposed to actual production and value (intellectual or labor), then we have no "free market" in the sense that you are attempting to apply it here. And besides, this is long since past washing out those nefarious numbskulls that you refer to. This is now SOLIDLY in the laps of the middle-upper-middle class who DID put their money down and did everything correctly. This is a rising flood, not a downpour. Conspiracy and currency manipulation? Okay, if you say so. According to the NY Fed, the national 90+ days delinquency rate for Prime loans is 4.2% and current Prime loans at 88.6% (with several states above 95%). I guess the market manipulators just dislike certain states, regions and cities more than others? http://data.newyorkfed.org/creditconditions/ Are certain middle and upper-middle class consumers affected? Yes, but were those home buyers forced into buying property? What about the 33% of US residents that are renters? While I may not like certain government and bank policies, I firmly believe consumers have choice.

That opinion would be fine were it not for the fact that it completely ignores the injection of paper liquidity into the economy by banks and their governments. They created the money bubble, not the public. In any free market economy, there are buyers AND sellers. The public was absolutely part of the bubble. Not everyone of course, but certainly some people did participate by taking advantage of the low rates or creative financing (Interest Only ARMs, No Doc, etc) to buy MORE home than they might otherwise in a"normal" interest rate environment. Some people were focused on monthly payments rather than the home price and total loan amount. Banks and the government did not force borrowers to take out loans.

so these networks exist as not-for-profits? providing a service often means charging for that service. what is next? merchants bullying politicians to get them free internet access? Networks are not free, but I do find it interesting that banks typically assess "foreign" (non-customer) ATM fees of $2-$4 (other than in certain "clubs" or casinos) while a credit/debit swipe can cost a merchant 2-4% plus. The two types of transactions are processed in a very similar manner. I do not think there should be regulations on rates, but MC/Visa operate in a monopolistic market environment. MC/Visa are not parties to merchant agreements but are able to set the rates/rules for all merchants. One option might be to allow a merchant to opt-out of accepting selected cards. Right now, merchants must accept all cards or none. As a consumer, I would continue to shop at merchants that accept my rewards cards.

Do you have a Citi issued credit card? Most Citi cards (including the AT&T Universal Card) allow you to generate a one-time use virtual credit card number (Tools & Services -> Get a Virtual Account Number).

Below is a link to the State of New York merchant rates: http://www.tax.state.ny.us/evta/ http://www.tax.state.ny.us/evta/documents/nys_global_contract_appendix_d_11-1-09.pdf 28 pages of merchant rates and fees. . . The interchange rates listed above represent substantially all of the card association's US Region interchange rates (as of the date of the most recent pricing update, 4/1/2009). An effort has been made to ensure that the rates listed above present accurately the rates that the associations will assess. In the event that the association rate differs from the rates listed above, or are not included in this schedule at time of Merchant billing, the association's rate prevails. So even if the merchant rates in the written agreement are wrong or misquoted, the merchant has no recourse and must pay the higher fees.

pryan67, below is a link to the State of Texas agreement: http://www.window.state.tx.us/procurement/cat_page/cat_920_m1_0910.html http://www.window.state.tx.us/procurement/tools/StateofTexasSelectAgreement_111309.pdf http://www.window.state.tx.us/procurement/tools/StateofTexasSched_A.pdf Even with the great rates negotiated by the State of Texas, the agreement includes the following boilerplate: 1 Acceptance Of Certain Payment Instruments In offering Visa and MasterCard payment options to your Customers, you may elect any one of the following options: (i) accept all types of Visa and MasterCard Payment Instruments - including consumer credit and debit/check cards, and commercial credit and debit/check cards; (ii) accept only Visa and MasterCard credit cards and commercial cards (if you choose this option you must accept all consumer credit cards (but not consumer debit/check cards) and all commercial card products, including business debit/check cards; or (iii) accept only Visa and MasterCard consumer debit/check cards (if you choose this option you must accept all consumer debit/check card products (but not business debit/check cards) and will not accept any kind of credit cards). The acceptance options above apply only to U.S. domestic Visa and MasterCard Payment Transactions and, as such, they do not apply to Visa or MasterCard Payment Instruments issued by non-U.S. banks. In other words, if your Customer presents a Visa or MasterCard Payment Instrument issued from a European or Asian bank, for example, you must accept that card just as you would any other card (provided you receive a valid authorization and confirm the identity of the Customer, etc.), regardless of the acceptance option choice you have made and even if you have elected not to accept that type of Payment Instrument from U.S. issuers. If you choose to limit the types of Visa and MasterCard Payment Instruments you accept, the following rules apply to you: (i) you must display appropriate signage to indicate acceptance of the limited acceptance category you have selected (that is, accept only debit/check card products or only credit and commercial products; (ii) if you elect limited acceptance, any Transaction Data submitted into interchange outside of the selected product category will be assessed the standard interchange fee applicable to that card product and may also have additional fees/surcharges assessed; and (iii) additional Visa and MasterCard Rules that may be applicable to you may be viewed on their respective websites. 9.2 Price Changes. You acknowledge that your pricing is based on your annual volume of Transactions, method of processing, type of business, and interchange qualification criteria as represented to us in your Application and restated on Schedule A. To the extent your actual volumes, method, type, and criteria differ from this information, we may modify the pricing on Schedule A with 30 days' prior written notice. In addition, we may change our fees, charges, and discounts resulting from (i) changes in Payment Brand fees (such as interchange, assessments, and other charges); (ii) changes in pricing by any third party provider of a product or service used by you; or (iii) fees which are added by a Payment Brand or card issuer. Such new prices will be applicable to you as of the effective date established by the Payment Brand or third party provider.

pryan67, below is the typical boilerplate language: Merchant agrees to follow the Card Acceptance Guide which is incorporated into and made part of this Merchant Agreement, and to be bound by the operating regulations and rules of American Express, Discover, MasterCard, Visa, and any other card association or network organization covered by this Merchant Agreement, as any of the above referenced documents may be modified and amended from time to time. Merchant Processor may change the fees and/or discount rates upon thirty (30) days written notice to Merchant in the event such changes are as a result of changes instituted by the card association(s) or network organization(s). Merchant agrees to pay any additional fees incurred as a result of Merchant’s subsequent acceptance of transactions with any product that it has previously elected not to accept. It is rare (if not impossible) to have a merchant agreement that will not have the above language (or similar). The last line is a "catch all" for new product types with new rates.

What you describe would clearly not work, and I did not mean that every merchant would/should have a custom agreement/rate with MC/Visa. Even AmEx only enters into a few "custom" pricing agreements (typically for large corporations and state governments). I am definitely for free capital markets, and they are working hard for their shareholders. As I posted before, I think they have a fantastic business model and are operating no different than other industry leaders like Intel, Microsoft, Ticketmaster to dominate their respective markets. I have no problems with MC/Visa (and AmEx) setting their own prices. I just do not like the fact that they can increase the "pass through" pricing through the processor without being a party to the existing agreement AND set industry rules. Will things change? Probably not.

Under the AmEx merchant rules (Section 11), a chargeback in favor of the cardholder only restricts the merchant from re-submitting a charge for the disputed transaction. It does not prevent the merchant from pursuing other remedies. https://www209.americanexpress.com/merchant/singlevoice/USEng/FrontServlet?request_type=navigate&page=merchantPolicy

I can see that as a solution...however...would you want to pay the increased fees that would likely be a consequence of increasing the cost to Visa/MC? Sure, you may be able to negotiate a lower fee than a mom and pop shop could if you're a large company....but chances are it would still be higher, since Visa/MC would have higher expenses involved... pryan67, that is a risk I would be willing to take. At least MC/Visa would be a party to the agreement and there would be a negotiation. In April/October of each year, MC/Visa introduce new and change interchange fees, non-qualified surcharges and assessments without being a direct party to the agreement. In my opinion, these merchant fees should be to pay for the transaction risk (fraud, chargebacks and returns) taken by MC/Visa and the card issuer. Instead the fees have morphed into a way to pay for rewards programs, cash rebates and in some cases offset cardholder repayment risk. Years ago, there were about 30 or so interchange rates. Now there are more than 200 interchange rates. It is like playing whack a mole. The merchant negotiates a good set of rates and then wham, a new interchange or surcharge pops up that was not part of the original agreement. With the Visa networks processing 39.9 billion transaction in FY2009 (Visa annual report), you would think there would be some economies of scale. The top 50 ACH financial institutions only originated 13.5 billion transactions last year according to NACHA. If a bank can offer $0.02 per ACH transaction ("flat pricing"), I think there is room for improvement for MC/Visa. By the way, I think MC/Visa have fantastic business models (40%-50%+ operating income; 20%+ net income) aside from the potential litigation and regulatory risks.

I have never been to the Dallas location only the one in Houston. Sorry about the AVG alert. I just went to the website, and Symantec Endpoint Protection did not flag anything.