Credit card news roundup

Written by Geoff Williams
Posted On: November 18, 2011

Have you ever noticed how certain bloggers, when unsure of what to write about, will just throw a bunch of information out there, and hope something interests the reader? What a lazy, completely transparent trick.

Hey, in other news, here's a look at what's been going on recently in the credit card universe.

American Express goes to China

As The Wall Street Journal, MarketWatch and a host of other outlets have been reporting, Bank of China Ltd. is going to be offering customers American Express cards, according to an announcement from both financial institutions earlier this week. This is a big deal for American Express, given that credit cards have had difficulty getting a foothold in the country due to all of the government regulations.

Of course, hopefully this will be a big deal for Chinese consumers, too, those who are able to successfully apply for the card, anyway. Some of the perks on the American Express cards? Users will be able to move faster through immigration and security lines at some airports, and they'll receive discounts on travel, among other things.

New rules for carrying prepaid cards across borders

Reuters reports that the U.S. Treasury is proposing that international travelers file reports when carrying prepaid cards and devices that have a ton of money on them. So if you have a prepaid card, a gift card or possibly even a cell phone loaded with digital money, you'd have to fill out a Currency and Monetary Instrument Report.

It's a law designed to make it more difficult for money laundering and tax evasion. I'm guessing most people are going to be like me and not give this a second thought. I should be so lucky to have a prepaid card with $10,000 on it.

Chase, Discover enhance rewards

Chase is now allowing its users to transfer points from its Ultimate Rewards program and shuttle them over to United Airlines MileagePlus accounts, according to . So if you have a Chase Sapphire Preferred card, a Chase Ink Plus or a Chase Ink Bold with Ultimate Rewards card, this new development should give you more choices in how you pay for, and get rewarded for, your travel.

Discover now allows consumers to redeem cash back rewards towards anything they buy on Amazon.com.

Disney World restaurants to charge no-show fees

The Walt Disney World Resort has a new policy this week that may affect your credit card, reports Jim Hill Media, which reports on all things Disney. If you cancel within one day of your reservation, or you don't show up at all, a cancellation fee of $10 per person will be charged to the credit card that was used at the time of the booking.

It's a policy designed to prevent people from booking at several restaurants at once, when they plan out their vacation ahead of time. Apparently a lot of people were doing that, to give themselves flexibility, and then going to one restaurant but leaving the others with empty tables.

More ads targeted at credit card users

A recent Wall Street Journal article has a lot of privacy advocates concerned. Credit card companies, particularly MasterCard and Visa, are reportedly working on improving how they reach customers. MasterCard specifically was attempting to make it so that if you purchase something in a store, your online ads will be targeted at your tastes, although they told the Journal that the plan had been scrapped (at least for now) because was too invasive.

(Wow, when a multi-billion-dollar international conglomerate admits they're being too invasive, it makes you wonder what they were really thinking…)

Visa, meanwhile, is reportedly looking into analyzing how customers buy products and services by location. So if, for instance, there are more dog owners than cat owners in a specific neighborhood, that neighborhood might get more dog-related products advertised to them than cat products. At least, that's what it sounds like Visa is going for.

All of this sounds a lot like credit card companies have been taking cues from social networking sites, mostly Facebook, in how they aggregate data. I, for one, am pretty used to the idea of targeted ads and marketing bureaus on Madison Avenue knowing everything about me. I don't know about the rest of you, but as long as they don't try to advertise to me in the shower or invent a way to reach me while I'm asleep, I don't find any of this too unsettling. What do you think?