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Credit Card - A credit card system is a type of retail transaction settlement and credit system, named after the small plastic card
issued to users of the system. A credit card is different from a
debit card in that the credit card issuer lends the consumer money
rather than having the money removed from an account. It is also
different from a charge card (though this name is sometimes used
by the public to describe credit cards) in that charge cards
require that the balance be paid in full each month. In contrast,
a credit card allows the consumer to 'revolve' their balance, at
the cost of having interest charged. Most credit cards are the
same shape and size, as specified by the ISO 7810 standard.
Credit cards in ATMs - Many
credit cards can also be used in an ATM to withdraw money against
the credit limit extended to the card but many card issuers charge
interest on cash advances before they do so on purchases. The
interest on cash advances is commonly charged from the date the
withdrawal is made, rather than the monthly billing date. Many
card issuers levy a commission for cash withdrawals, even if the
ATM belongs to the same bank as the card issuer. Merchants do not
offer cashback on credit card transactions because they would pay
a percentage commission of the additional cash amount to their
bank or merchant services provider, thereby making it uneconomical.
Many credit card companies will also, when applying payments to a
card, do so at the end of a billing cycle, and apply those
payments to everything before cash advances. For this reason, many
consumers have large cash balances, which have no grace period and
incur interest at a rate that is (usually) higher than the
purchase rate, and will carry those balance for years, even if
they pay off their statement balance each month.
Card Security Code - The Card
Security Code (CSC), also called Card Verification Value or Code (CVV
or CVC), is a security feature for credit card transactions. Most
credit cards have two card security codes. The first, often called
CVC1 or CVV1 is encoded in the magnetic stripe of the card and is
used for in-person transactions. The second card security code,
known as CVV2 or CVC2 is used to secure transactions occurring
over the Internet, by mail, or over the phone. It is a 3 or 4
digit value printed nowhere except on the card, and can
theoretically be used to verify that the buyer has the card in
their physical possession, giving merchants protection against
credit card fraud. Cardholders do not need to worry about fraud
thanks to zero-liability policies from major card issuers.
Unfortunately, the primary way that criminals get credit card
information for use in online (or phone) fraud is via phishing
scams, which also will result in the capture of the CSC codes for
the compromised credit card. This fact of life has reduced the
real-world effectiveness of the CSC codes as an anti-fraud device.
Credit History - Credit
history or credit report is, in many countries, a record of an
individual's or company's past borrowing and repaying, including
information about late payments and bankruptcy. The term "credit
reputation" can either be used synonymous to credit history or to
credit score. When a customer fills out an application for credit
from a bank, store or credit card company, their information is
forwarded to a credit bureau, along with constant updates on the
status of their credit accounts, address or any other changes you
may have made since the last time they applied for any credit.
Credit
Repair is also inportant. This information is used by lenders such as credit card companies
to determine an individual's or entity's credit worthiness; that
is, determining an individual's or entity's means and willingness
to repay an indebtedness. This helps determine whether to extend
credit, and on what terms. With the adoption of risk based pricing
on almost all lending in the financial services industry, this
report has become even more important since it is usually the sole
element used to choose the APR (annual percentage rate).
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