Get a MerchantExpress.com Merchant Account!

While most other merchant account providers will charge you as much as $300, you get a free Authorize.Net setup with each Internet merchant account from Merchant Accounts Express. Authorize.Net is the number one payment gateway available on the market, and is pre-integrated with most every shopping cart. Authorize.Net provides all your processing needs – you do not need a separate transaction terminal or processing software. A FREE Authorize.Net Secure Order page is included for you to take orders over the Web – so there is no need to buy your own secure certificate. Plus you get a FREE Authorize.Net Virtual Terminal for manually processing credit card orders!

You get all three methods of processing transactions through the system:

1. Virtual Terminal – allows you to manually process mail and telephone credit card transactions, as well as issue credits, just like a real physical terminal, but with the added flexibility of letting you access it from any Internet connection in the world.

2. Simple Integration Method – allows you to link your web site to the system in order to accept credit card payments from customers in real-time with complete automation.

3. Advanced Integration Method – provides a mechanism to link more complex web sites with the transaction gateway server, requires custom programming.

Electronic Check Withdrawals are also supported on the Authorize.Net system through eCheck service. eCheck is an optional item available with additional fees.

Top 10 Reasons to Get Authorize.Net Now:

Access all your orders, transactions, and reports from any computer in the world with Internet access. Free Secure (SSL) order page for you to take orders over the Web – no need to buy your own certificate! Perform manual transactions with Virtual Terminal. Real-time online transactions from your website with Simple Integration Method. A more advanced way of submitting transactions from your website with Advanced Integration Method. Accept checks over the Internet via additional eCheck service. Recurring billing performed through Batch Upload. Protects against fraudulent transactions with the Address Verification Service (AVS). Supports an unlimited number of users simultaneously with no additional license fees. Daily auto settlement of transactions emailed to you, and tech support via Virtual Support Rep, e-mail and a toll-free support number.

Get a merchant account – Merchant Accounts Express sets up your business to accept credit cards and checks securely online.

Last week, FICO lost their federal lawsuit against the credit bureaus (all but Equifax) and VantageScore Solutions. The lawsuit claimed, among other things, trademark infringements and unfair competition. Now FICO has to decide whether to continue their battle with two of the three credit bureaus or pick up the pieces and move on. According to statements made by FICO's CEO, Mark Greene, it looks like the company will appeal the verdict.

It's been my experience, as someone who has been a part of a fair share of lawsuits, that neither party is really as happy or as upset as they may seem by reading their respective press releases. FICO still maintains a dominant position in the credit scoring market and still has legal options in their federal lawsuit. The credit bureaus (minus Equifax) and VantageScore Solutions still have to defend against those continuing legal maneuvers, and Vantage still enjoys a paltry 5.7 percent of the credit score market, according to legal documents filed previously.

And if you completely ignored any speculation this verdict has brought up in the world of credit score sales, one thing remains crystal clear: the barriers to adoption for any new credit score are the same today as they were last week before the verdict. The GSEs (Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac) still haven't endorsed any other score besides FICO. In fact, on September 10, 2009, Freddie Mac reminded their customers to be sure to use FICO scores from each of the three credit bureaus. Point being, this verdict helps VantageScore, but work still remains if they want to take any serious market share away from FICO.

John Ulzheimer – Credit scoring and credit reporting expert and author, John is the President of Consumer Education for Credit.com. Formerly with Equifax and Fair Isaac, John shares his unique insight of the inner workings of credit scoring models and the credit reporting industry on CreditBloggers.com.

For years, I have recommended a PBS Frontline special, "The Secret History of the Credit Card," which  exposes what went terribly wrong with the industry.

Tonight (Tuesday, Nov. 24th) a long-overdue new piece, The Card Game, airs at 9 pm Eastern Time. I haven't seen it yet, so I can't share my opinion yet, but if it's anything like the first one, I'll likely be recommending it for years to come. I'll be tuning in, and will share my observations with you tonight on Twitter and tomorrow on this blog.

In the meantime, here are the details from the producers:

Your readers might be interested in hearing about our new FRONTLINE report “The Card Game” which airs on PBS stations across the country tonight Tuesday, Nov. 24, at 9 p.m. Our veteran correspondent  Lowell Bergman, in a joint report with the New York Times, investigates the massive consumer loan industry and regulators’ attempts to make potentially historic changes in the consumer credit business.



“Newsday” gave this report an ‘A+’ and “Time” calls it ‘Must-See Recession-Era TV.’



Credit cards, banking fees, and personal finance issues are top-of-mind with consumers now as they gear up for “Black Friday” and the holiday shopping season, and “The Card Game” gives viewers an insightful glimpse into the practices of the financial services industry. 



This report also comes at a crucial time when industry insiders, regulators, politicians, and consumer advocates are all squaring off in Washington over attempts to reform the way the industry has done business for decades and how best to protect consumers.

 

WiseBread has a story about Jeff Ledford, a fellow who overdrew his Bank of America checking account by $10 and was hit with $175 in overdraft fees. As WiseBread points out, that amounts to a 1,750 percent penalty.

In order to extract as much money out of Ledford and other loyal customers, banks manipulate the time order of withdrawals -- processing the largest transaction first -- to get customers' accounts into the red as quickly as possible so they can issue more overdraft fees.

When a CBS News affiliate asked Rod Brown, a representative of the California Bankers Association, about this sneaky trick, Brown gave a lame excuse: "Consumer research indicates that those larger transactions are of greater importance to the consumer." That makes no sense, of course. The real reason they do it is because it's not against the law for them to rip off customers that way.

Incidentally, after reading this story, I went out and collected my mail from the mailbox. One letter was junk mail from Bank of America that said, "Bank of America: Your Lender for Life." Was that a promise, or a threat?

Mark Frauenfelder – Editor-in-chief of MAKE magazine and the founder of the popular Boing Boing weblog, Mark was an editor at Wired from 1993-1998 and is the founding editor of Wired Online.

Ramit Sethi of the terrific blog I Will Teach You to Be Rich has a semi-regular feature called The Money Diaries in which he posts a diary written by an anonymous person who has personal finance problems. They are an intimate glimpse at individuals' relationships with money. His readers offer tips on how the diarist can make changes to improve his or her financial situation.

The most recent Money Diary was written by a 25-year-woman from Honolulu who is a single parent of a special needs child. Her diary is fascinating and sad. She writes checks that she know will bounce, and is hooked on cigarettes, candy, and Coke. She goes to bars and talks guys into buying her drinks and hot dogs. She knows these are bad habits, but her life is out of control, and it seems like she is "self medicating" with sugar, caffeine, and nicotine.

So far, 110 people have offered advice to the anonymous woman. Comment #20 from a woman named Susan Su was the most insightful:

She doesn’t feel like – or act like – an agent in her own life. As a result, things 'happen to' her; but she does not play an active role in making them happen... In psychological terms, this woman has high external locus of control and low self-efficacy. She is stressed, possibly depressed, and does not believe that her actions (earning more, saving more, exercising control over spending) have the power to REALLY change her situation.

Ken H. in Comment #41 offered the best advice:

[F]ind discipline in yourself to give yourself the initial boost in self-esteem. There are certain things that cost nothing but always helped me when I was down about my situation — go to bed at the same time every night, make tomorrow’s lunch at the same time, wake-up at the time every morning. ALWAYS be punctual for all appointments! These things are free and go a long way to feeling better about ourselves.

I agree. The woman's "bad habits" really aren't the problem, as they don't cost that much compared to her other expenses. Making a schedule and sticking to it would give her self-esteem a boost and put some much needed order in her life. The fact that she was able to maintain a diary for a week shows that she can muster up the discipline needed to take steps to gain more control over her life. I wish this woman well in her steps towards gaining the confidence she needs to manage her money and her life in a more responsible way.