This Week In Credit Card News: How To Make Money While You Shop; Amex Paying Businesses To Accept Its Cards

How to Use Cash Back Portals to Make Money While You Shop

Cash back rebates are another way to save when you shop online. Thousands of online stores, from Amazon to Zale's, will pay you to buy from them. To claim your cash, you need to become a member of a cash back portal site and make that purchase using the portal. You can join for free and in most cases, you'll get a sign-up bonus, typically $5-$10. A cashback portal gets paid a commission from an affiliated retailer every time a member clicks through an offer on its site and makes a purchase. The portal splits its commission with the member. [NBC News]

Shopping on a cash back portal site may help you make some money while you shop

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AmEx Is Paying Up to Get Businesses to Accept Its Cards

American Express wants more businesses to accept its cards. So it is paying them, sometimes in amounts approaching a half-million dollars. The company is offering sign-on bonuses to some businesses that don't take its cards in a bid to catch up to rivals Visa and Mastercard. The payments range from under $10,000 to about $450,000. [The Wall Street Journal]

Credit Card Debt Stressing You Out? You Aren't Alone

According to a recent poll conducted by Morning Consult, close to half of American adults have credit card debt. Unfortunately, owing money on a credit card comes with more than just financial cost. The poll found that 60% of adults feel either some stress or a lot of stress about credit card debt, with 30% indicating that they worry a lot about what they owe. But stressing about money can also take a toll on your happiness. [The Motley Fool]

40% of Credit Card Debtors Have Higher Balances Than Over Past Decade

Nearly a third (31%) of credit cardholders hold higher card balances than they've had on average since 2009 amidst the Great Recession, according to the latest survey from Bankrate. The majority of cardholders feel about the same (44%) or less stressed (33%) about debt on their credit card, while only 23% are more stressed. [Bankrate]

Millions Sign Up for Mobile Payments-But How Many Stick Around Long Term?

Observers of mobile wallets have focused attention on user counts as a sign of adoption, but that leaves open the question of how many of these consumers are turning into habitual users. As it turns out, mobile-payments apps have a much harder time retaining users than do banking apps. Globally, just 16% of users on average return to a payment app the day after install, and 30 days later that number has dipped to just under 6%. [Digital Transactions]

Macy's Said Hackers Stole Customers Credit Cards—Again

For the second time in as many years, Macy's customers have been hit by a data breach involving countless numbers of credit cards. In a filing with the California attorney general, the retail giant said hackers siphoned off customers' names, addresses, and phone numbers, but also credit card numbers, card verification codes, and expiration dates by inserting malicious code on its website and quietly sending the stolen data back to the hackers. Macy's said the breach took place between October 7 and October 15. [Tech Crunch]

19% of Americans Don't Know This Crucial Credit Card Detail

In an ideal world, the interest rate attached to your credit cards wouldn't matter because you'd pay your bills in full every month. In reality, however, many Americans routinely rack up credit card debt by carrying a balance. A surprising number of Americans are clueless as to what that rate is. According to Northwestern Mutual's 2019 Planning & Progress Study, 19% of U.S. Consumers don't know what their credit card interest rate is. [USA Today]

USAA Won $200M from Wells Fargo in Patent Fight. Will Others Be on the Hook?

A recent court decision in which Wells Fargo was ordered to pay $200 million to USAA for infringement of its patents on mobile deposit capture technology may have significant ripple effects across the industry. The technology at issue was developed by Mitek and is used by 6,500 other institutions. If the verdict stands, it may mean many other institutions will have to negotiate with USAA to pay additional licensing fees for their mobile deposit tech. [American Banker]

Mastercard Launches Urban Development Insights Tool for Cities

Mastercard is now offering a data-analytics tool it developed in the cities of Dublin, Chicago, London and Helsinki to its full network of more than 40 member cities. City Insights was initially piloted in a handful of cities, including in Dublin where it was used to assess how events and extreme weather could affect the local retail industry. Mastercard's tool is advertised as a way for cities to gain timely insights into how their cities function. [State Scoop]

Your Capital One Card Could Snag a Hot OpenTable Spot

Your credit card could provide better access to restaurants through the real-time reservation network. Capital One has partnered with OpenTable to open the door for cardholders to dining hot spots nationwide through the Premium Access program. The program allocates some hard-to-get tables for cardholders. All Capital One cardholders can use this benefit, but only through the OpenTable app. [U.S. News]

Earn 500 Bonus Points with Your Contactless Chase Visa Card

Chase has come out with a new promotion for its cardholders, offering 500 points to customers who use its relatively new tap to pay feature. You earn 500 points when you use your contactless Chase Visa for three transactions totaling $1.75 or more. The offer is valid from Nov. 20 to Dec. 31, 2019. [The Points Guy]

Increase Your Credit Score With This 1 Trick

This one personal finance trick can help increase your credit score. A new study from TransUnion explored how debt consolidation loans impact consumer credit performance, overall debt load and credit health. TransUnion says that consolidating credit card debt with a personal loan can help increase your credit score by more than 20 points. The 20+ point credit score increase was consistent across the credit spectrum. [Forbes]