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The controversy revolving around international media site Wikileaks is escalating quickly as supporters sent a shot across the bow to Mastercard, successfully taking down the credit card company’s website. The cyber attack was a direct retaliation of the credit card company refusing to process donations to Wikileaks. However, Mastercard isn’t alone. The “hacktivists,” operating under the group label “Anonymous,” also targeted transaction processing site Paypal just a few days prior for the same reasons.

While these attacks may only last for a few days or even hours, the financial and economic ramifications are much more pronounced for these companies, which are often times some of the largest corporations in the world. Consumers and taxpayers may not realize it, but beneath the surface, the rising threat of cyber attacks, computer viruses and identity fraud is costing them billions.

Wikileaks vs. Mastercard

Wikileaks is an international internet news site that publishes classified documents and “leaks” provided by anonymous submissions.

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Tags: Mastercard, Mastercard Economic

Citibank is introducing the Citi ThankYou Premier Card with a large signup bonus upfront: 20,000 ThankYou points after you spend $1,000 within the first 3 months. That’s enough points to redeem for $200 in gift cards or other rewards.

In addition, some of the card’s other benefits include:

• No foreign exchange fees
• Earn points for the miles you fly when you purchase a ticket with your Citi ThankYou Premier Card.
• Earn an anniversary bonus based on the number of points earned from purchases every year. The longer you remain a cardholder, the larger your bonus percentage will be.
• Receive a complimentary domestic companion ticket each year

The Premier Card does carry a $125 annual fee which is waived for the first year.

Tags: Bonus, Premier Card, Thankyou Premier, Thankyou Premier Card

Q: How long should I wait in between opening new credit cards? I don’t want to hurt my credit.

A: You should be conservative in the number of times you open a new credit card account for a number of reasons. To begin with, each time you do so it shows up on your credit history as a new, open account. Even if you never use the card you have just recently applied and been approved for, it is still going to show up this way.

Also, applying for and opening new credit accounts do not make your credit history look better. In fact, it may have little, if any, positive impact on your FICO score, and may even serve to lower it, for the same reason mentioned above. If creditors feel that you have too many open accounts, this may affect their decision in extending you more credit or raising a line of credit amount.

Applying for and opening new credit card accounts is not a way to make you look less like someone just building a credit history. Again, creditors will not necessarily see this; what they will see is all those open accounts, and, again this may affect their decisions concerning loan opportunities.

Only apply for and open new credit accounts as you need to. I

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Tags: Card Account, Credit, Credit Card, Credit Card Account

It is a common question among those who write for travelers: Are frequent flier miles worth the hassle? Like most broad questions, the answer depends on who is doing the asking. Certainly if you have unlimited money, the answer is no, they are not worth the hassle–don’t bother to give out your frequent flier number, don’t track your points and don’t jump through hoops to redeem frequent fliertickets.

Then again, those with unlimited money probably don’t fly commercially, they tend to stick with private jets. For the rest of us, frequent flier miles are given out for free when we purchase an airline ticket and often when we check into a hotel or rent a car. So, what’s the answer for everyday people?

The Hassle of Miles Rewards

First, you need to enroll in a mileage program. That takes about five minutes, tops. Then, you need to give out your frequent flier number when you travel. Ideally, you should follow up with your account to make sure the mileage is credited properly. If it is not, you must then pester the airline to give you the miles you earned.

You must also make sure to have some activity in your account occasionally so that your miles never expire.

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Tags: Hassle, Miles Worth

Mistakes happen. Sometimes they happen to your credit card billing statement.

If you’re like many people, the first thing you do when you find a billing error is call your card’s customer service. While there’s nothing wrong with this approach, especially if it gets the problem solved, the creditor isn’t legally required to respond to disputes made by phone.

The Fair Credit Billing Act, the federal law that lets you dispute credit card billing errors, requires you to dispute these types of errors in writing. Sending your dispute in writing gives you a papertrail to use if the creditor doesn’t properly respond to your dispute.

Read How to Respond to Credit Card Billing Errors to learn more about the FCBA and the right way to dispute errors on your credit card statements.

More Credit Card Resources:

• Reporting a Lost or Stolen Credit Card
• 5 Principles of Making Credit Card Payments
• Common Fees and How to Avoid Them

Tags: Billing Error, Card Billing, Credit Card Billing, Error