credit cards | Fast Company

Why Extreme Transparency Requires Extreme Trust

BY Don Peppers | 04-26-2012 | 6:00 AM | LEADERSHIP

As technology continues to make our world more and more transparent, companies that are proactively trustworthy will be watching out for their customers’ genuine self-interest, rather than simply exploiting their emotions and biases.READ MORE›

Cell Phone Network O2 Joins The Digital Wallet Game In The U.K.

BY Kit Eaton | 04-26-2012 | 5:35 AM | INNOVATION

News updates all day from your Fast Company editors.READ MORE›

How To End Up Richer Than Your Parents--Even In This Economy

BY Drake Baer | 04-25-2012 | 7:00 AM | LEADERSHIP

There are financial pitfalls aplenty for career-building millennials--be it shoddy planning, outrageous debt, or credit-card quandaries. Fast Company talks to Zac Bissonnette, 23, who has staked his career on untying his generation’s financial tangles. READ MORE›

The Problems With Cash: How To Get Paper Money Out Of Our Lives

BY Ben Schiller | 03-16-2012 | 2:00 PM | THE END OF MONEY

David Wolman thinks a cash-based economy is unfair, slow, and old. But what alternatives are there? In the developing world--growing economies without an entrenched financial and banking system--we’re starting to find out. READ MORE›

Geode: A Scout Ahead Of The Wireless Payments Revolution

BY Kit Eaton | 03-16-2012 | 12:43 PM | INNOVATION

Before wireless payment tech takes off and changes how we shop for pretty much everything, there's room for some improvement in the way you pay for things with existing credit cards.READ MORE›

The Problems Of Cash: Would We Be Better Off Sticking To Plastic?

BY Ben Schiller | 03-15-2012 | 2:00 PM | THE END OF MONEY

In his new book on the future cashless society, David Wolman discusses the litany of problems with physical currency and the benefits of transitioning to a society where money is represented digitally, instead of with paper and metal. READ MORE›

Barclaycard's Ring Calls On Crowd To Build A Better Credit Card

BY Kit Eaton | 03-05-2012 | 10:05 AM | INNOVATION

Barclaycard's new Ring product leverages crowdsourcing and open accountability to make it attractive to a Net-savvy public.READ MORE›

The Google Wallet Hack Is Not The End Of The World (Or Even NFC) As We Know It [Update: Google Reacts]

BY Kit Eaton | 02-09-2012 | 8:28 AM | INNOVATION

In fact wireless payments are, in many ways, more secure than your current plastic card. Here's why.READ MORE›

Follow-Up: MasterCard Is Killing U.S. Credit Card Magnetic Strips, While Pushing NFC Tech

BY Kit Eaton | 01-31-2012 | 8:17 AM | INNOVATION

MasterCard is finally pushing chip-and-PIN credit cards in the U.S. around a decade after the tech took off in Europe. It's the end of the magnetic strip, and the last gasp for your plastic credit card before the revolution comes.READ MORE›

On Creating A More Transparent Financial Services Industry

BY Rod Ebrahimi | 01-19-2012 | 11:03 AM | ROBERT CORDRAY

The new Consumer Financial Protection Bureau hopes to help the average consumer better understand their financial options. But the wrong kind of transparency can be just as confusing as no transparency at all. READ MORE›

Frictionless And Merchant-Friendly, Loyalty Cloud Borrows The Square Model To Keep Customers Coming Back

BY Kit Eaton | 12-07-2011 | 8:51 AM | INNOVATION

The startup Womply recently brought us Groupon-like "effortless offers." Today it launches Loyalty Cloud, hoping to slice through the messy customer-loyalty market with the "simplest loyalty program ever for local merchants."READ MORE›

NFC Contactless Payments And The iPhone 5

BY Kit Eaton | 10-03-2011 | 6:55 AM | INNOVATION

Wave-and-pay is coming to a smartphone near you soon enough, but no one's exactly sure if it'll hit Apple's brand-new iPhones, to be unveiled tomorrow.READ MORE›

PayPal Buys Zong To Ensure Its Mobile-Payments Future

BY Kit Eaton | 07-07-2011 | 12:50 PM | INNOVATION

PayPal has handed over nearly a quarter of a billion dollars to buy Zong, a leading provider of mobile payments. It's safe to say PayPal is serious about future innovations in mobile-pay tech.READ MORE›

Funny Money: Is Bitcoin The Future Of Currency... Or A Total Scam?

BY Kit Eaton | 06-17-2011 | 9:31 AM | INNOVATION

Digital currency Bitcoin is regulated by no nation or bank. Critics say it's used by drug dealers, legislators are threatening crackdowns, and some argue the whole idea is an utter scam. Sounds nefarious--but it's just like the history of "real" money.READ MORE›

iFive: Citigroup Hacked, Apple's Legal Maneuvers, Coupons.com's $1B Value, HP Pressures Oracle, Salesforce Buys Data.Com

BY Kit Eaton | 06-09-2011 | 5:58 AM | INNOVATION

Record heat is gripping the East Coast of the U.S. Also hot? Today's edition of iFive.READ MORE›

Korean Government And Tech Business Go All In On NFC

BY Kit Eaton | 06-07-2011 | 12:05 PM | INNOVATION

NFC tech gets mixed treatment in the media, with some rushing to embrace it, and others dubious about its promise. Korean companies, on the other hand, seem certain: A new coalition is working with the government to attract a billion dollars of business and 5,700 NFC-related jobs.READ MORE›

Google, ISIS Plotting The Downfall Of The Magnetic-Strip Credit Card

BY Kit Eaton | 05-25-2011 | 10:54 AM | INNOVATION

Google is poised to reveal ambitious NFC credit card plans, and ISIS has its own ideas about how to revolutionize payment systems. How the demise of the magnetic-strip card will change the way we pay for stuff. READ MORE›

Visa Is Making The E-Wallet Real

BY Kit Eaton | 05-11-2011 | 8:17 AM | INNOVATION

We've heard a lot about the notion of a digital wallet, but the tech itself seems slow to arrive. Now one credit giant is changing all that.READ MORE›

iFive: Another Sony Hack, Amazon's Tablet Details, Ubisoft's Film Division, Intel As Apple's Factory, Twitter Buys TweetDeck

BY Kit Eaton | 05-03-2011 | 6:23 AM | INNOVATION

Tuesday's already well underway, and here's what's been going on around the world: READ MORE›

iFive: Twitter And Bin Laden, Huge Facebook Income, 10 Million Credit Cards Says Sony, MIT Earns Donation, Time iPad Apps Freed

BY Kit Eaton | 05-02-2011 | 5:45 AM | INNOVATION

It's a fresh week, so get a fresh start on the early news by reading iFive--our summary:READ MORE›