Finance Globe

Before swiping their card at any credit or debit card terminal, such as an ATM, DVD rental kiosk, or gas station, consumers should take a moment to inspect the machine to check if it’s been tampered with. Card skimming is becoming more common, the Better Business Bureau warned on Friday. Skimming is a criminal practice that involves stealing the information from a credit or debit card’s magnetic strip using a small electronic device. Once the information...

New home permits and starts dipped slightly in July after showing some signs of strength the month before, according to a government report released on Tuesday.Permits for new homes - an indicator for future building activity - fell 3.2% after a small increase in June. Housing starts - which represents current building activity - dipped 1.5% in July after a large increase the month before, the Commerce Department’s U.S. Census Bureau reported. Economists had expected a...

As the new school year kicks off, most parents consider their student’s basic needs such as book bags, clothes, and writing supplies to be just another of the many expenses in raising kids.But teenagers and parents generally have different ideas about exactly how much money parents are going to spend on these supplies, according to an annual survey released by Capital One Bank on Monday. For the survey, kids aged 11-17 are considered to be “teens.”While...

Capital One Bank announced on Wednesday that it has plans to acquire HSBC’s $30 billion domestic credit card business. The McLean, VA-based bank will pay a premium of 8.75% over the value of the loans, which was estimated to be approximately $2.6 billion at the end of June 2011. Capital One expects to realize cost synergies of approximately $350 million and incur restructuring costs of approximately $420 million in connection with the deal. "The acquisition of...

Credit reporting agency Standard & Poor’s announced on Friday that because Congress didn’t do enough to fix the country’s debt problem, they dropped the stellar AAA credit rating of the U.S. down by one notch to AA+ with a negative outlook. S&P had warned in April that a downgrade was likely if Congress didn’t deal with the debt ceiling and fixing the budget. The downgrade can increase the cost of borrowing for the U.S., which would...

Overall employment changed little in July as the nation added jobs in health care, retail trade, manufacturing, and mining - but lost jobs in government employment, according to a release by a government agency on Friday.Employment rose by 117,000 last month and the unemployment rate fell 0.1 percentage point to 9.1% after a 0.1 percentage point increase in the month before, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics said in its monthly report. The unemployment rate was...

Though microchip-embedded smart cards are issued and accepted in 130 countries around the world, the U.S. has been slow to adapt. Americans traveling overseas have been frustrated and annoyed when it comes to using their old-fashioned credit card with a magnetic stripe, also called a mag-stripe.Magnetic stripes on credit cards have been around since the 1960’s, and at the time were a big security improvement over manual imprints of the number on the card face. But...

Home builder sentiment remains at low levels in June, falling 3 points to a reading of 13 on the NAHB/Wells Fargo Housing Market Index, the National Association of Home Builders reported on Wednesday. The last time the index was this low was in September of 2010. "Builders are being squeezed by the continuing weakness in existing-home prices – against which they must compete -- as well as rising material costs," said NAHB Chairman Bob Nielsen, a...

Retail sales fell for the first time in 11 months, mostly pulled down by a sharp decrease in auto sales, according to a government report released on Tuesday. The Commerce Department reported that total retail sales slipped .2 percent in May - better than analysts’ expectations of a .4 percent decline. Excluding vehicles and auto parts sales, retail sales increased .3 percent. The stock market responded positively to the report and had its best day so...

After reviewing the performance of the ten largest mortgage servicers participating in the Home Affordable Modification Program (HAMP), government officials have decided to halt payments to three top U.S. banks that are not doing enough to prevent foreclosures, the Treasury said in a report on Thursday.Bank of America, Wells Fargo Bank, and J.P. Morgan Chase were identified as needing “substantial improvement” in their handling of home loan modifications for last quarter and will lose out on...