Yes, we’re barely past Labor Day, and it’s already time to think of your customers’ shopping habits as the holiday season approaches. Indeed, you may have been thinking about such things before the last 4th of July sparkler was lit.
Category: AVP Solutions News and Events
Card Use Slows in Summer, Yet New Ways to Spend on Horizon
We always like when two seemingly unrelated bits of news emerge to make a pattern, or perhaps two points on a related map. On the one hand, we have another report from the Fed that, as Reuters puts it, “growth in U.S. consumer credit slowed for the second straight month in July, held back by a decline in a measure of credit card usage that hinted at a mood of caution among consumers.”
Checks, Charges, and Changes
We always like it, here at the AVPS blog, when pieces of “separate” financial news combine to make a single, bigger story, or to provide a trendline.
That’s happened again this summer, when a story about checks — and then another — caught our eye. The first was an article written in anticipation of an upcoming report from the Federal Reserve, which charts consumer payment habits.
Late Card Payments Decline — New Customer Use Patterns Emerging?
In increasing signs of a perking — or at least, stabilizing — economy, comes the news that late payments on credit cards are at a 20-year low. According to an AP article, the credit reporting bureau TransUnion is reporting “ the second-lowest recorded since the second quarter of 1994, when the rate was 0.56 percent, and it’s running ahead of the historical average of 1.03 percent. The firm’s records go back to 1992.”
Credit Card Tips for When “Back to School” Means “Off to College”
We’re probably as surprised as you that it’s already “back to school” time in so many places, for so many students. Aren’t we still a few weeks away from our Labor Day barbecues!?
Plastic Sleeves and Radio Chips: Simple Protections for RFID Cards
As the news keeps making clear, changes are coming to what exactly it means when a customer says “charge it!” There are smart wallets, phones-as-credit cards, and more.
AOL Business Article: Accepting Plastic “Outweighs the Cons”
We were struck by a long and thoughtful article recently posted on AOL Business, with the headline “Can You Afford to Run a Cash-Only Business?” The first section dealt with some of the admitted advantages from a “cash on the barrelhead” approach — every penny that comes in stays with the business, and you are also absolved from any worries about security breaches, hacks, banks raising fees, etc.
Happy Small Business Week!
Here at AVPS solutions, we salute all our customers celebrating National Small Business Week! Started in 1963 by President Kennedy, “one thing that hasn’t changed,” according to the latest White House statement, “is America’s entrepreneurial spirit and the important role that small business owners play in our economy and our communities.”
EMVs and Travel
As noted in this space before, new EMV (Europay/MasterCard/Visa) security standards are slowly coming to credit cards in America. Basically, the card relies on a chip, rather than a magnetic stripe, for its pertinent information, and its information is harder to clone, or hack.
