Amex Giving $50 To Customers; Big Cutback In Balance Transfer Offers

Credit Card Industry Reins In Balance Transfer Offers As Banks Fear Defaults

Balance transfer offers, which typically entice borrowers to move their debt to a new lender in exchange for a temporary 0% interest rate, have been sharply reduced at banks. American Express took the most drastic step, dropping the product altogether. Banks were burned in the 2008 recession when users of balance transfers defaulted at among the highest rates in the industry. Now, credit card lenders are being more selective about who they make no-interest offers to, favoring customers with higher credit scores and other advantages. [CNBC]

Amex Giving Cardmembers $50 Each To Spend With Small Businesses

Since businesses need our support more than ever following the pandemic, Amex is bringing back its previous small business statement credit incentive. Through Sept. 20, Amex cardmembers will be eligible for $5 statement credits whenever they spend $10 or more at small businesses. Customers will earn statement credits up to 10 times, for a grand total of $50 per cardmember. All U.S. Amex consumer, business Serve and Bluebird cards are eligible. [The Points Guy]

Demand For Stolen Credit Cards Has Dropped In The Pandemic

Marketplaces, even cybercriminal ones, are subject to the laws of supply and demand. Purveyors of stolen goods have been hit by the coronavirus pandemic. As Covid-19 ravaged the world this year, forcing businesses to close and people to stay at home, demand for stolen credit card data has dropped on dark web shops. [Fortune]

Apple Card Adds 3% Cash Back At Exxon And Mobil Gas Stations

Apple Card holders now earn 3% Daily Cash (which is essentially cash back, but issued at the end of every day) when you use the Apple Card with Apple Pay at Exxon and Mobil stations.  Plus eligible Exxon and Mobil purchases include more than just gas; car washes and convenience store transactions also earn 3% back. [CNBC]

Venmo Begins Piloting ‘Business Profiles’ For Small Sellers

Venmo is going after small businesses, piloting a new feature called Business Profiles, which offers small sellers and other sole proprietors the opportunity to have a more professional profile page on its platform. By adopting a Business Profile, sellers will be able to raise awareness about their business through Venmo’s social feed and search. The profiles give smaller sellers a way to do business without having to necessarily establish a larger web presence. [Tech Crunch]

FICO Just Launched A New Score To Make Borrowing Money Easier For People With Low Credit Scores

FICO has taken measures to make borrowing money a little easier during these uncertain times, introducing a whole new score: The FICO Resilience Index. This new analytic tool is designed to accompany FICO Scores to help identify those people “that represent higher resilience.” Right now, those are people who seem likely to get through this economic downturn with minimal negative impacts on their finances; they’re likely to continue to manage their finances responsibly. [Real Simple]

Chase Sapphire Cards Add New Instacard Credits, Plus Gas and Streaming Bonus Categories

Many credit card issuers remain proactive about maintaining the value of their travel credit cards, and Chase is no exception. From now through Sept. 30, the Chase Sapphire Preferred and Reserve cards will earn between 3 and 10 bonus points for every dollar spent on purchases at gas stations, on select streaming services and on Instacart grocery delivery and pickup orders. Cardholders will also get up to $50 in statement credits toward an Instacart Express membership. [CNN]

Chime Launches Credit Builder, A Credit Card That Works More Like Debit

U.S. challenger bank Chime, now valued at $5.8 billion, is entering the credit card market with the launch of a new card designed to help consumers build their credit history by way of everyday transactions. With the Chime Credit Builder Visa
V
Credit Card, users can control how much they want to spend by transferring funds from a “Spending Account” to their Credit Builder Secured Account, and can then charge up to this amount wherever Visa is accepted. This makes the card feel more like a debit card. [Tech Crunch]

InComm Launches American Express Virtual Reward Card

Payments company InComm has announced the launch of the American Express Virtual Reward Card, a flexible solution for any rewards program designed to assist businesses in engaging customers or rewarding employees. With this digitally delivered prepaid reward card, recipients can access their rewards instantly rather than waiting for a physical product to arrive. For businesses, the virtual reward card offers a safe, reliable network for instant delivery and redemption across the country. [The Paypers]

As Coronavirus Cancels Vacations, Should You Cancel Your Travel Credit Card?

A recent poll from CreditCards.com found that one in five people who have a credit card that charges an annual fee think they’re getting less value out of their cards during the pandemic. Some credit card issuers have broadened the benefits associated with their top-tier rewards cards. Many of these cards tended to focus their rewards on travel purchases, but issuers have begun rewarding cardholders for spending at restaurants and grocery stores to keep them as customers. [MarketWatch]

Mastercard To Buy Financial Data Provider Finicity For $825 Million

Mastercard has signed a deal to buy Finicity, a provider of real-time access to financial data, for $825 million. The addition of Finicity’s technology and its 500 employees worldwide will strengthen its open banking platform to allow and safeguard more financial services choices. Open banking gives people and businesses more control over their financial data. It provides third-party financial service providers access to consumer banking, transaction and other financial data from financial institutions through the use of application programming interfaces. [PYMNTS]