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This Week In Credit Card News: The Shocking APRs On Store Credit Cards; Are You Losing Your Rewards?

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Average Retail Credit Card's Interest Rate Surges to 26% Despite Fed Cuts

While the Fed recently cut interest rates again in a bid to boost U.S. economic activity by lowering borrowing costs, that easy money mindset is not being shared by issuers of retail credit cards. The average store card's APR is now 26.01%, up 0.37 percentage points from a year ago and almost five whole percentage points higher than the average overall APR on credit cards of 21.1%, according to a report. [CBS News]

Nearly Half of Americans Have Let Their Airline or Hotel Rewards Expire

According to a recent Bankrate Credit Cards survey, 46% of U.S. adults participating in airline and hotel rewards programs have, at some point, let their points or miles expire. Among those who collect credit card rewards, 29% allowed their rewards to expire intentionally. Perhaps the number of individuals not participating in rewards redemption can be traced back to an overall lack of awareness concerning the worth of their loyalty program's rewards: 53% of U.S. adults admit they have no idea how much 10,000 points or miles are worth. [Bankrate]

Credit Card Delinquencies in U.S. on Rise for Smaller Issuers

The spread between the prime rate and the average annualized rate on credit cards widened to a record at the end of August. Many issuers have been competing for new customers with richer rewards rather than lower rates. They may also be maintaining this record spread because risks are brewing, underscored by a pickup in delinquency rates at smaller issuers of cards. Fed data show a growing gap between delinquency rates for the 100 largest banks compared with all others. Delinquent accounts for the largest banks were at 2.44% in the second quarter, while other banks saw the rate spike to 6.34% from 5.73% the prior quarter. [Bloomberg]

Gift Cards: The Gift That Keeps Giving to Lawyers

Gift cards are consistently rated as one of the most sought after presents during the holiday season, and reports predict the global prepaid card market will reach $3.6 billion by 2022. As the popularity of gift cards continues to grow, so have new questions on policies and regulations surrounding them. In fact, prepaid and gift cards have increasingly become subject to scrutiny by federal and state regulators, and are currently regulated by various disclosure requirements at the federal and state level. Retailers are now often seeking legal counsel on what types of disclosures need to be made in connection with gift cards. [Bloomberg Law]

Mastercard Teams With Startup To Get Hourly Workers Paid Quicker

More than half of U.S. employees are hourly workers. Yet the 81.9 million of them are often ignored by the big banks and financial service providers. Many hourly workers enter the workforce unbanked thanks to costly fees and minimum deposit requirements. Some are forced to use check-cashing services or payday lenders that eat away at their earnings. Mastercard is teaming up with fintech startup Branch to provide a free, digital checking account and debit card for hourly workers. Employees who use the debit card get instant advances against their paychecks for free. [Forbes]

Sallie Mae is Expanding from Student Loans to Credit Cards

Sallie Mae, the student loan provider once sponsored by the government, is expanding into credit cards. The company unveiled a suite of three credit cards aimed at college students, recent graduates and young professionals. Its new cards offer rewards for responsible financial behavior. They come 18 months after the company introduced personal loans. The cards have no annual fees and 0% APR for six to 12 months, depending on which of the three you get. [USA Today]

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg Agrees to Testify Before Congress on Libra

Facebook chief executive Mark Zuckerberg has agreed to testify before Congress on the company's plans to launch the Libra cryptocurrency, following pressure from lawmakers. The House Financial Services Committee is expected to grill Zuckerberg with questions on Facebook's impact on both financial services and housing sectors at the Oct. 23 hearing. Lawmakers have previously expressed concerns about Libra and its potential to mask fraud, abuse and money laundering. [The Washington Post]

Robots to Cut 200,000 U.S. Bank Jobs in Next Decade

Technological efficiencies will result in the biggest reduction in headcount across the U.S. banking industry in its history, with an estimated 200,000 job cuts over the next decade, Wells Fargo said in a report. The $150 billion annually that the country's finance firms are spending on tech, more than any other industry, will lead to lower costs, with employee compensation accounting for half of all bank expenses. Back office, bank branch, call center and corporate employees are being cut by about a fifth to a third, with jobs related to tech, sales, advising and consulting less affected. [Bloomberg]

There's An Easy Way to Help Boost Your Credit Score But It Could End Up Hurting You

Credit limit increases are often touted as one way to help boost your credit score. Because a major part of your score is determined by how much of your credit limit you are using at any one time, the thinking is that by having a higher limit, your credit utilization rate will be lower. But when a person's credit limit increases, the amount of credit they use and the amount of credit card debt they carry typically increases in tandem. That means you're potentially digging yourself deeper into debt and paying more in interest to the credit card company each month. [CNBC]

Minor League Baseball Stadium To Offer Cashless Transactions

Standard Cognition has revealed that it will enable cashierless transactions at a minor league baseball stadium. A store with snacks, drinks, and souvenirs at Polar Park in Worcester, Massachusetts will enable customers to shop without scanning or stopping to check out. Instead, they can pay for their purchases via Standard Cognition's mobile app, the Worcester Red Sox app, or in-store cash and credit card kiosks that automatically recognize their purchases. [PYMNTS]

Robinhood Revives Checking with New Debit Card and 2% Interest

Zero-fee stock-trading app Robinhood is launching Cash Management, a new feature that earns users 2.05% APY interest on uninvested money in their account with the ability to spend it through a special Mastercard debit card. It will offer a network of 75,000 ATMs. Robinhood earns money by taking a chunk of the interchange fees from transactions on its debit card run in partnership with Sutton Bank, and from a fee paid by the six banks cash gets swept into. [Tech Crunch]

A UK Bank is Testing Credit Cards Which Use Fingerprints to Verify Transactions

Major U.K. bank NatWest has started a three-month trial of a biometric credit card. The pilot is in partnership with MasterCard and digital security firm Gemalto, and involves 150 customers. If a contactless transaction is greater than £30 ($36.66), the customer's fingerprint can be used to verify the transaction. If the purchase exceeds £100, the card is inserted into a card terminal, with verification again coming from a fingerprint. At ATMs, cardholders will still need to enter a PIN. [CNBC]