In the latest round of credit-card reforms, issuers and retailers are both playing the consumer-friendly angle. Currently lawmakers are debating whether to cut interchange fees, the tab that merchants pay to card issuers each time a customer uses plastic. While retailers claim they would pass the savings on to shoppers in the form of lower prices, card companies argue the legislation will make credit less convenient and more costly--and they may be right.
Merchants have long complained about interchange fees. They say the costs, which amount to roughly 1.6% of every transaction, erode already razor-thin margins. Last year retailers, the main supporters of three bills now working their way through Congress, forked over an estimated $ 48 billion in card fees. "We can’t keep absorbing these fees," Kathy Miller, a grocery store owner in Elmore, Vt. , testified at a congressional hearing in early October.
In their quest to win over lawmakers, retailers
| A credit card is a plastic card (or its
equivalent) to be used upon presentation by the cardholder to obtain money,
goods, or services, possibly under a line of credit established by the card
issuer. The cardholder is billed for any outstanding balance. Credit card customers are given a credit limit on the credit card account and can buy goods and services up to this amount. Normally, banks will set different credit lines to the different groups of cardholders. Every time cardholder uses a credit card for purchasing, he/she must sign a sales slip in the presence of the seller, and the signature is then compared to the signature on the card. Copies of the sales slips have the details of the card and they also show the details and amount of the sale. Each month the cardholder receives a statement from the bank which details all the trans- [单项选择]
Credit Card Only Works When Spoken To A credit card that will not work unless it hears its owner’s voice could become an important weapon in the fight against fraud (欺骗). The card requires users to give a spoken password that it recognizes using a built-in voice-recognition chip. The idea is to prevent thieves using a stolen card or fraudsters using someone else’s credit card details to buy goods online. A model built by engineers at Beepcard in Santa Monica, California, represents the first attempt to pack a microphone, a loudspeaker, a battery and a voice-recognition chip into a standard-sized credit card. They are not quite there yet: the card is the length and width of an ordinary credit card, but it is still about three times as thick. The company now plans to make it thinner. The voice card is based on an earlier Beepcard technology designed to prevent fraud in online transactions. This earlier card has no microp A. it can be made cost-effectively. B. it can leave voice messages. C. it makes online shopping easy. D. it makes fraud difficult. [填空题]A credit card is a card-sized piece of plastic. It was invented in the United States. People use credit cards for two main reasons. First, credit cards are easier and safer to carry than large amount of money. Second, people can use credit cards to buy the goods and services they want now and pay for them later. At the end of each month, people can pay all of what they owe or they can pay partly. However, some people do not like credit cards because the cards make it too easy for people to buy things they do not need and spend money they do not have.
You can get a credit card if the Credit Card Company or bank believes you earn enough money. On the card are your name, a special number and the name of the institution that offers the card. You can use a credit card like money to buy almost anything you want. The Credit Card Company or bank pays the store for the goods. Later you must pay the company or the bank. Topic: (46) Advantages of using credit cards 我来回答: 提交
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