“I said to my friends, ‘We did an addition to this guy’s house a while back,” said Krayeski.

At his office, he compared the signature to contracts in his files.

Sure enough, the brown-and-white card belonged to Jack Jacobs, a Delray Beach caterer.

Jacobs’ wife told Krayeski that they never had a card from JC Penney, but later Jack Jacobs called and said he’d lost that card 25 years ago, before he was ever married! However, he had no idea how it ended up a mile out at sea.

“I told John I’m going to drop another credit card in the ocean and he has 25 years to find it.”

“Make it a gold American Express and I’ll find it a lot sooner,” Krayeski said.

Link -via Fortean Times

(Image credit: Libby Volgyes/Palm Beach Post)

Survive the urban jungle – carry this multi-functional Credit Card Survival Tool from the NeatoShop that’s slim enough to fit in your pocket.

The stainless steel tool has 11 separate functions, tthough for the life of me, I can’t find out why you’d need the sun compass.

Don’t leave home without it! Link | More Fun Geeky Stuff

INTEREST RATES

THEN: Banks could raise the interest rate on an account at any time, including the rate on an existing balances, even if you weren’t late on payments.

NOW: The rate cannot be raised in the first year after an account is opened unless an introductory rate has come to an end. After that, cardholders must be notified 45 days in advance of any rate change.

For existing balances, rates can’t be raised unless the account is at least 60 days past due. If payments are made on time for six consecutive months, the original rate must be restored.

There’s still no cap on rates. [...]

SERVICE FEES

THEN: Banks could charge as much as they wanted. They could assess annual fees, activation fees and other fees. This was mostly a problem for subprime cards marketed to those with poor credit scores. One popular card, for example, the Premier Bankcard, charged $256 in first-year fees for a $250 credit line.

NOW: Service fees, such as activation and annual fees, will be capped at 25 percent of the credit limit during the first year of use. After that, there is no cap.

Link

Nowadays you can customize your debit or credit card with a (non copyright-violatin’ or pornish) photo you send to the card makers at your bank.  When Flickr user Tony Webster saw that, he naturally chose an LOL Cat.  Find out more about “badging” your debit or credit card to make it more personal at creditcards.com

via CatLadyDiary Photo: Tony Webster

In New Hampshire, Josh Muszynski said he swiped his debit card at a gas station to buy a pack of cigarettes and when he later checked his account online found that he had been charged the 17-digit number — a stunning $23,148,855,308,184,500.

In North Texas, Jon Seale saw the same 17-figure bill on his credit card statement, presumably for a meal July 13 at a restaurant owned by celebrity chef Wolfgang Puck, NBC affiliate KXAS TV reported.

"For that amount of money, I could actually own Wolfgang Puck himself," Seale said.

Link