Hyatt Hotels has teamed with Chase Card Services in a multi-year alliance to offer a new Visa branded credit card, linked to the hotel chain’s Gold Passport rewards programme.

The new Visa credit card will be the first carrying the Hyatt Hotels name. According to the press release announcing the new partnership, the card will provide members of the Gold Passport loyalty programme additional ways to earn rewards points that can be redeemed for travel and travel-related services. read more..

Everyone by now knows that many major airlines slap on a surcharge for travellers who pay with their credit card. But now some airlines are introducing “cashless cabins,” forcing travellers to purchase drinks and meals with a swipe rather than currency.

Which may cost a fee.
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Federal Labor MP Craig Thomson is threatening the leadership of the Health Services Union with a $1 million claim for damages following allegations of credit card misuse during his years as the union’s national secretary.

The allegations, reported by the Sydney Herald in 2009, claimed that Mr. Thomson’s bad behaviour with the HSU-issued credit card included cash withdrawals of at least $100,000 during the five years he served with the national executive board, as well as funding his campaign for the Dobell electorate and transactions with a brothel and escort services. read more..

For consumers searching out a new mortgage or credit card, now’s a good time to shop. A recent survey amongst loan officers with Australia’s major and regional banks found an expectation that loan standards would tighten as 2010 progresses.

The survey, conducted in December by investment bank UBS, shows that credit underwriting standards are likely to be tightened in the first six months of the year, particularly for home loans, consumer loans, and small to medium-sized businesses. Loan standards for large corporations are not expected to change.
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Some people simply can’t keep a secret. Neither can some credit cards, once they’ve been signed up for Blippy.

Blippy is Twitter for plastic. It’s an online social networking website, linked to one’s credit cards, which thereafter displays the details of one’s shopping habits for all your online “friends” to note and discuss. For those who love retail therapy and live to spend, it’s a brilliant idea, an instant mass communication inviting others to share your fun. For the rest of us, it’s an oddity, at best. read more..