Category: American Business News

RBI Restricts Business Card Use and Data Sharing

RBI-Restricts-Business-Card-Use-and-Data-SharingRBI imposes limits on business card usage and restricts the sharing of customer data

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has recently issued new rules for credit and debit cards meant for business accounts, to enhance the security and efficiency of card transactions. The new rules, which came into effect immediately, cover various aspects of card issuance, conduct, and data sharing The RBI has also ordered Visa to stop using an unauthorized route to make business-to-business card payments, which involved fintech companies as intermediaries in this article, we will discuss the main features and implications of the new rules, as well as the reasons behind the RBI’s actions.

The new rules issued by RBI are as follows:

Monitoring the end use of funds:

The RBI has directed the card issuers to put in place an effective mechanism to monitor the end use of funds by cardholders, especially for large-value transactions. The card issuers should also ensure that the card transactions comply with the applicable laws and regulations, such as the Foreign Exchange Management Act, of 1999, the Prevention of The Income Tax Act of 1961 and the Money Laundering Act of 2002.

 Restricting data sharing:

The RBI has made it illegal for card issuers to provide any outsourced partners with consumer card data unless the partners must perform their duties. The card issuers should also obtain the explicit consent of the cardholders before sharing their card data with any third party. The card issuers should also ensure that the storage and ownership of the card data remain with them and that the card data is not compromised or misused by any party.

Supporting tokenization:

The RBI has allowed card issuers to support the tokenization of card data, which is a process of replacing the actual card number with an

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CFPB Bans Excessive Credit Card Late Fees, Lowers Typical Fee from $32 to $8

WASHINGTON, D.C. – The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) finalized a rule today to cut excessive credit card late fees by closing a loophole exploited by large card issuers. The rule will curb fees that cost American families more than $14 billion a year. The CFPB estimates that American families will save more than $10 billion in late fees annually once the final rule goes into effect by reducing the typical fee from $32 to $8. This will be an average savings of $220 per year for the more than 45 million people who are charged late fees.

“For over a decade, credit card giants have been exploiting a loophole to harvest billions of dollars in junk fees from American consumers,” said CFPB Director Rohit Chopra. “Today’s rule ends the era of big credit card companies hiding behind the excuse of inflation when they hike fees on borrowers and boost their own bottom lines.

Concerned that credit card companies were building a business model on penalties, fee harvesting, and bait-and-switch tactics, Congress passed the Credit Card Accountability Responsibility and Disclosure Act of 2009 (CARD Act). The law banned credit card companies from charging excessive penalty fees and established clearer disclosures and consumer protections.

In 2010, the Federal Reserve Board of Governors voted to issue a regulation implementing the CARD Act, which made clear that banks could only charge fees that recover the bank’s costs associated with late payment. However, the rule included an immunity provision that allowed credit card companies to sidestep accountability if they charged no more than $25 for the first late payment, and $35 for subsequent late payments, with both amounts to be adjusted for inflation each year. Those amounts have ballooned to $30 and $41, even as credit card companies have moved to cheaper, digital business

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Discover Credit Cards: Advantages and Disadvantages

Visa and Mastercard are the two largest credit card companies in the world, so it’s no surprise that people these two names come to most people’s minds when they think about credit cards. Together, these two networks have more than 75% of the global credit card market when it comes to purchase transactions. American Express, which is another popular card network comes in at just under 3%.

While these three names have traditionally dominated the credit card industry, there are other, smaller players that compete. One of these names is the Discover credit card. Although it may not be a household name like the others, it does provide cardholders with some of the same perks and benefits as its counterparts—plus a few of its own. Keep reading to learn more about Discover and how it works.

Key Takeaways

  • Although the credit card network industry is dominated by Visa and Mastercard, smaller players like Discover share a piece of the pie.
  • Discover launched its credit card with cashback rewards and no annual fees in 1986.
  • Its cashback rewards remain among the highest in the industry.
  • The company offers eight major credit cards today, each of which carries different terms and rates.
  • Discover has consistently ranked high in customer service and satisfaction among credit card companies.

History of Discover Card

The Discovery card was developed and tested in the mid-1980s by Dean Witter Financial Services Group, a subsidiary of Sears. It was introduced to consumers in a national ad campaign during Super Bowl XX in 1986 and was officially rolled out that same year.

One of the main goals of the Discover card was to set itself apart from the competition at a time when the market became saturated with credit cards. Cardholders enjoyed an option with no annual fee, which was

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Trends and Facts on Newspapers | State of the News Media

Newspapers are a critical part of the American news landscape, but they have been hit hard as more and more Americans consume news digitally. The industry’s financial fortunes and subscriber base have been in decline since the mid-2000s, and their website audience traffic has begun to decline as well. Explore the patterns and longitudinal data of U.S. newspapers below.

Audience

In 2022, estimated total U.S. daily newspaper circulation (print and digital combined) was 20.9 million for both weekday and Sunday, down 8% and 10% respectively from 2021.


Total estimated circulation of U.S. daily newspapers

Total circulation of U.S. daily newspapers

Year Weekday Sunday Weekday (estimated) Sunday (estimated)
1940 41,132,000 32,371,000    
1945 48,384,000 39,860,000    
1946 50,928,000 43,665,000    
1947 51,673,000 45,151,000    
1948 52,285,000 46,308,000    
1949 52,846,000 46,399,000    
1950 53,829,000 46,582,000    
1951 54,018,000 46,279,000    
1952 53,951,000 46,210,000    
1953 54,472,000 45,949,000    
1954 55,072,000 46,176,000    
1955 56,147,000 46,448,000    
1956 57,102,000 47,162,000    
1957 57,805,000 47,044,000    
1958 57,418,000 46,955,000    
1959 58,300,000 47,848,000    
1960 58,882,000 47,699,000    
1961 59,261,000 48,216,000    
1962 59,849,000 48,888,000    
1963 58,905,000 46,830,000    
1964 60,412,000 48,383,000    
1965 60,358,000 48,600,000    
1966 61,397,000 49,282,000    
1967 61,561,000 49,224,000    
1968 62,535,000 49,693,000    
1969 62,060,000 49,675,000    
1970 62,108,000 49,217,000    
1971 62,231,000 49,665,000    
1972 62,510,000 50,001,000    
1973 63,147,000 51,717,000    
1974 61,877,000 51,679,000    
1975 60,655,000 51,096,000    
1976 60,977,000 51,565,000    
1977 61,495,000 52,429,000    
1978 61,990,000 53,990,000    
1979 62,223,000 54,380,000    
1980 62,202,000 54,676,000    
1981 61,431,000 55,180,000    
1982 62,487,000 56,261,000    
1983 62,645,000 56,747,000    
1984 63,340,000 57,574,000    
1985 62,766,000 58,826,000    
1986 62,502,000 58,925,000    
1987 62,826,000 60,112,000    
1988 62,695,000 61,474,000    
1989 62,649,000 62,008,000    
1990 62,328,000 62,635,000    
1991 60,687,000 62,068,000    
1992 60,164,000 62,160,000    
1993 59,812,000 62,566,000    
1994 59,305,000 62,295,000    
1995 58,193,000 61,229,000    
1996 56,983,000 60,798,000    
1997 56,728,000 60,486,000    
1998 56,182,000 60,066,000    
1999 55,979,000 59,894,000    
2000 55,773,000 59,421,000    
2001 55,578,000 59,090,000    
2002 55,186,000 58,780,000    
2003 55,185,000 58,495,000    
2004 54,626,000 57,754,000    
2005 53,345,000 55,270,000    
2006 52,329,000 53,179,000    
2007 50,742,000 51,246,000    
2008
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Capital One Venture X Business Card review: A premium travel card with a reasonable annual fee

Fortune Recommends™ has partnered with CardRatings for our coverage of credit card products. Fortune Recommends™ and CardRatings may receive a commission from card issuers.

Our take: The Capital One Venture X Business offers exceptional rewards, solid benefits and versatile redemption options. However, the annual fee might be steep for those who don’t maximize the travel perks.

Capital One Venture X Business

Intro bonus


Earn up to 300,000 bonus miles:150,000 bonus miles if you spend at least $20,000 within 3 months of your
rewards membership enrollment date and an additional 150,000 bonus miles if you spend at least $100,000 within 6 months






Annual Fee $395
Purchase APR Balance is due monthly
Foreign Transaction Fee None


Capital One Venture X Business Card Overview

Card type: Business

The Capital One Venture X Business Card offers an appealing blend of rewards, flexibility, and travel perks. With a generous rewards structure, cardholders earn up to 10X miles on purchases through Capital One Travel bookings, making it a dream for businesses with large travel expenditures. The 2X miles on all other purchase ensures that every business expense contributes to a growing stash of miles. 

The card’s $395 annual fee is reasonable compared to other premium cards, thanks to recurring benefits like a $300 Capital One Travel credit, comprehensive airport lounge benefits and 10,000 bonus miles every card anniversary. 

One of the standout features is the card’s versatility in redeeming rewards. Beyond the standard travel purchases, cardholders can redeem their miles for statement credits, offering a straightforward way to offset expenses. For those seeking a bit more value, the option to transfer miles to various airline and hotel loyalty programs opens up more premium travel opportunities. Overall,

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How the Media Industry Keeps Losing the Future

If the career of Roger Fidler has any meaning, it is this: Sometimes, you can see the future coming but get trampled by it anyway.

Thirty years ago, Mr. Fidler was a media executive pushing a reassuring vision of the future of newspapers. The digital revolution would liberate news from printing presses, giving people portable devices that kept them informed all day long. Some stories would be enhanced by video, others by sound and animation. Readers could share articles, driving engagement across diverse communities.

All that has come to pass, more or less. Everyone is online all the time, and just about everyone seems interested in, if not obsessed by, national and world happenings. But the traditional media that Mr. Fidler was championing do not receive much benefit. After decades of decline, their collapse seems to be accelerating.

Every day brings bad news. Sometimes it is about recently formed digital enterprises, sometimes venerable publications whose history stretches back more than a century.

Cutbacks were just announced at Law360, The Intercept and the youth-oriented video site NowThis, which laid off half its staff. The tech news site Engadget, which comprehensively tracks tech layoffs, laid off its top editors and other staff members. Condé Nast and Time are shedding employees. The continued existence of Vice Media, once valued at $5.7 billion, and Sports Illustrated, in another era the most influential sports publication, is uncertain. The Los Angeles Times and The Washington Post eliminated hundreds of journalists between them. One out of four newspapers that existed in 2005 no longer does.

The slow crash of newspapers and magazines would be of limited interest save for one thing: Traditional media had at its core the exalted and difficult mission of communicating information about the world. From investigative reports on government to coverage of local

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What Happens If You Can’t Pay Your Business Credit Card?

In a perfect world, you can always pay your business credit card. But in reality, businesses can face inconsistent cash flow — and many ultimately fail.

If your company hits hard times and can’t pay its business credit card, you’ll have to deal with late fees and higher interest rates. Failing to pay a business credit card can also significantly damage your business and personal credit scores because almost all business cards report serious delinquencies to consumer credit bureaus.

Refinancing the debt or leveraging a balance transfer business credit card, can give you space to pay down the balance without penalties if you act at the first sign of trouble. But if the problem lingers and you don’t pay the debt, you could have to forfeit your personal assets.

Why? Because nearly all business credit cards require a personal guarantee that says, in short, if your business can’t pay the bill, you will.

What is a personal guarantee for business cards?

Think of the personal guarantee as akin to co-signing a credit card for your business. Ideally, the business will take care of its bills, but if it doesn’t, you have to. Business owners can be personally sued by credit card issuers over unpaid business card debt if the business shuts down or goes bankrupt.

This provides some assurance to the credit card company that charges on the card will be paid regardless of what happens with the business. After all, about half of all small businesses fail in the first five years, according to data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

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Saving local journalism is in everyone’s best interest

Office building of the Journal-Eureka, located at 405 E. Main St. in Anamosa. local newspaper
Office building of the Journal-Eureka, located at 405 E. Main St. in Anamosa. CREDIT ANNIE BARKALOW

Local journalists, and the publications that they contribute to, are currently standing at the base of a mountain. The mountain represents the onslaught of industry-defining innovations that continue to shape, and sometimes erode, the very definition of journalism.

We can learn to tame these innovations, or we can let them consume us, but at the end of the day, local journalism — in its basic form — will always be essential to a community’s success.

This is why we’ve been thrilled to see several recent examples of preserving local newspapers in the Corridor.

In January, the University of Iowa’s Daily Iowan announced that it had acquired the Mount Vernon-Lisbon Sun and the Solon Economist, two weekly newspapers located near Iowa City.

The acquisition marks the first of its kind for the student publication. 

According to a news release, the recently-acquired publications — previously owned by Dubuque-based Woodward Communications — will be jointly operated by UI’s School of Journalism and Mass Communication, giving student journalists experience with local reporting and the chance to contribute their own work while rubbing shoulders with veteran reporters.

Perhaps the best news to come from this acquisition is that the current staff at the Sun and Economist will remain and the papers’ local editors will continue to lead the editorial direction of their respective papers.

Not only will this acquisition mean the preservation of two local publications, but it will also inspire young journalists who are poised to be the future of the Corridor’s local publications. This fact excites us for the future of our own newsroom.

Another Woodward Communications-owned local newspaper, the 167-year-old Anamosa Journal-Eureka, was recently saved thanks to a last-minute acquisition by Nelson Media Company.

And by

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The 8 Best Amex Business Credit Cards [2024]

American Express is a known leader when it comes to business credit cards, with many great options for business owners.

Finding the perfect Amex business credit card that brings the most value to your business operation may seem challenging. So we’re here to walk you through various choices and help you determine which card fits your business best.

Why Should You Get an Amex Business Card?

Put simply, American Express offers some of the best business credit cards on the market. Additionally, Amex offers a variety of business cards that fit many different business needs.

This includes business owners looking for a premium solution like The Business Platinum Card® from American Express, business owners looking to maximize large expenses with the American Express® Business Gold Card, and those looking for a simple, no-annual-fee card like The Blue Business® Plus Credit Card from American Express (rates and fees).

Beyond the benefits specific to each card, many Amex business cards offer helpful business tools that may include a pay-over-time option, no preset spending limit, the ability to add employee cards for a reduced or no additional fee, easy connection to partners like QuickBooks and Bill.com, and more.

No preset spending limit means your spending limit is flexible. Unlike a traditional card with a set limit, the amount you can spend adapts to factors such as your purchase, payment, and credit history.

The Best Amex Business Cards

Amex Business Card Comparison Table (2024)

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Amex Business Platinum Card (Best for Travel and Lounge Access)

OUR BEST OFFER

$2,640

19.49% – 27.49% Variable

Good to Excellent (670-850)

The Business Platinum Card® from American Express is a premium travel rewards card tailored toward business owners who are frequent travelers with

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Best Phone Systems for Dental Offices in 2024

Dental practices can benefit immensely from a reliable and HIPAA-compliant phone system with advanced calling features. Potential headaches are reduced with HIPAA-compliant accounts that have functionality guardrails to protect sensitive patient information. With available integrations, small practices can spend more time on patient care by setting automated reminders for regular checkups scheduled months ahead of time. Larger practices with multiple office locations can implement interactive voice response menus and advanced routing features to ensure patients, vendors and insurance companies can reach the right person quickly.

Small practices looking for a simple but effective phone system will likely find all of the calling features they need with an entry-level plan. Most plans at this level include basic calling features like caller ID, extension dialing, call menus, music on hold and unlimited domestic calling. It’s important to note that many features including SMS, verbatim audio capture and some chatbots and messaging channels are not HIPAA-compliant.

HIPAA Compliance

Fines for using non-HIPAA-compliant VoIP range from $100 to more than $1 million for the most serious offenses. To ensure you’re protecting sensitive patient information during communications, it’s important to find a HIPAA-compliant phone service provider. Most business phone service providers and all of the ones we’ve reviewed offer HIPAA-compliant services. Many have BAAs for medical and dental offices as well as limited functionality to ensure secure communication. This legal agreement outlines the service provider’s knowledge and responsibility to protect all patient data. Feature limitations may include disabling visual email, voicemail and texting.

Software Integrations

The ability to integrate your phone and CRM platforms opens a world of new opportunities to improve customer outcomes. Next to legal compliance, integrations are arguably the most valuable part of a modern phone system. Front office staff can provide personalized service to inbound callers thanks to immediate access to

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