Word: mastercards
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PUMP IT DOWN To relieve the sting of recent gas hikes, think about ditching your oil-company credit card for a gas-rebate card. Today almost all major oil companies offer co-branded cards with Visa or Mastercard that promise rebates of 1% to 5% on gas and gas-station purchases. Considering most of the cards have no annual fees, it's not a bad deal--unless you carry a balance. With APR rates as high as 24.4%, those who don't pay promptly will get less mileage out of their dollars...
...easy to think of America's two major credit card companies as competitors in a classic tradition: Yankees vs. Dodgers, Coke vs. Pepsi, Visa vs. MasterCard. But according to the Department of Justice, that sheen of rivalry may be little more than a carefully maintained illusion. After examining Visa and MasterCard's overwhelming presence in the American financial market (the companies issue roughly 75 percent of the country's credit cards and enlist about 7,000 banks), DOJ lawyers have brought monopoly charges against the credit peddlers. In a case opening Monday in New York's District Court, the Justice...
...under the companies' collective thumb. Most American consumers are familiar with the tag line for Visa's advertising campaign touting the company's omnipresence: After describing some tantalizing vacation spot, hotel or safari, the voiceover intones, "And they don't take American Express." The merchants in question, according to MasterCard and Visa detractors, don't take American Express (or anyone else's card) because they're under considerable pressure not to. In a class action lawsuit distinct from the DOJ case, 4 million retailers have joined in a suit against the companies, charging undue market control. Visa and MasterCard have...
...despite the grim realities of Visa and MasterCard ubiquity, there could be a silver lining in all this for consumers. While the DOJ case could take most of the summer to unfold, the cumulative effects of such intense negative media scrutiny could become apparent much more quickly - Visa and MasterCard customers should keep an eye out for peace offerings (in the form of lowered monthly interest rates or other acts of magnanimity) over the next few months...
...party flyers. These handouts are to raves what graffiti art is to hip-hop and psychedelic posters were to the acid rock of the '70s. They give vision to rave's sounds. Sometimes--much like rappers' sampling old songs--they appropriate corporate logos with ironic visual twists. The MasterCard logo becomes "MasterRave," or Rice Krispies becomes "Rave Krisp E's." Other flyers employ 3-D images and wild metallic hues that draw inspiration from sci-fi films, anime, even the rounded, flower-power imagery of the Summer of Love. "In a lot of ways it's one of the most...