| Frommer: Check bank charges before using credit card overseas
What credit cards should you use if you plan to travel abroad? The mathematics are fairly clear. You start with the fact that all the big banks issuing credit cards charge as much as 3 percent of the total when that card is used for a transaction in a foreign currency. And that expense is over and above the 1 percent charged by Visa and MasterCard for converting the foreign currency payment into U.S. dollars. Visa and MasterCard perform a service in return for their 1 percent charge. The largest credit-card issuers in America -- Bank of America, Citibank, Fifth Third Bank, JP Morgan Chase, Simmons First Bank and Wells Fargo -- all charge 3 percent for doing nothing. American Express charges 2 percent. Wachovia and Washington Mutual charge 1 percent.
Visa plans IPO aimed at raising over $18 bln
Visa Inc, the world's biggest electronic payment processing company, announced on Monday that it was planning an initial public offering (IPO) in the United States, saying it hoped to raise over 18 billion dollars. Visa, which processes payments for credit and debit cards, said it plans to offer just over 400,000 shares for public purchase. It expects its shares to be priced at between 37 and 42 dollars per share. The San Francisco-based company said in a statment that it plans to launch its IPO as soon as possible. Investors will be able to purchase shares in Visa from a pool of 447 million shares of Class A stock the company intends to sell. The company has hired a group of well-known investment banks to support its IPO, including Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan and HSBC Securities (USA) Inc.
Vesdia Launches Innovative Rewards Credit Cards
ATLANTA, Jan. 10 /PRNewswire/ -- Vesdia Corporation, a leading provider of loyalty marketing services, announced today the launch of four new Visa(R) credit cards to support its leading reward programs BabyMint(TM), NestEggz(R), Stockback(R) and FundraiserRewards(R). The card launch in partnership with MXT Card Services provides consumers with additional earning opportunities in the rewards currencies that matter most to them. Consumers can apply for the Platinum Visa cards on the program websites through an easy to use web application, and earn rebates of 1% on any purchase made using the card. The new rewards credit cards offer competitive benefits and no annual fee. Cardholders can earn additional rebates of up to 26% of their purchases at hundreds of retailers in Vesdia's merchant network, including top brands like Eddie Bauer, Illuminations, Best Buy, Gap.com, Lands' End(R) and Banana Republic - representing over 100,000 store locations and service providers, hundreds of catalogs and gift cards, and more than 600 leading online retailers.
Filed under: ClevelandIndians
Here is a look back at a few key trades involving the Cleveland Indians over the past 50 years. This is my entry for BCSWeek3. April 17, 1960 - The "Curse" Begins: Few players captured the imagination of a town the way Rocky Colavito did in Cleveland and Tribe fans were stunned on the day that GM Frank Lane traded him to the Detroit Tigers for AL batting champion Harvey Kuenn. Colavito spent four seasons with the Tigers and enjoyed the best year of his career in 1962 when he hit .290 with 45 dingers and 140 RBI. Kuenn spent one uneventful season with the Indians before beinig traded to the Giants. Many still consider the Colavito/Kuenn trade responsible for the ensuing decades of baseball mediocrity in Cleveland. "The Curse of Rocky Colavito" lives on to this very day. Colavito did return to the Tribe in 1965, but his best seasons were behind him and on July 29, 1967 the Indians once again traded "The Rock", this time to the Chicago White Sox.
Drip wastewater disposal gains favor
Marin County has a pending update to its septic-system policy that would add subsurface drip to its list of allowed alternative systems.
Since April, Napa County has approved some 50 subsurface drip systems, with more than half installed so far, according to Sheldon Sapoznik, who oversees septic systems for the county Environmental Management Department.
The majority of plan submittals for alternative systems have disposal to subsurface drip, he said. Its a big shift. We had a half-dozen submitted with one site plan resubmitted so they would have subsurface drip.
Many of the Napa County projects are rural homes, but some are wineries. For example, a subsurface drip system was designed to handle process wastewater from Whitehall Lane Winery near St.
My life as an FBI mole
For the first time, the FBI "mole" who's expected to be a key prosecution witness against indicted developer and political fund-raiser Tony Rezko is talking. In an exclusive interview with the Sun-Times, John Thomas said his life became frantic as he amassed hundreds of hours of recorded conversations for federal investigators while trying to maintain the real estate business he built on pluck and hustle. .
Cocaine-Smuggling Granny's Secret Hideaway
A GRAN jailed in South America for drug running is back in Scotland living in a secret hideaway. Irene Campbell, 63, who got seven years for trying to smuggle £500,000 of cocaine out of Venezuela, has been keeping a low profile since being freed. But the Record has tracked her down to a flat in Perth. And the former Glasgow social worker told us: "I don't know how you found me but just go away." The mum-of-four was jailed in 2000 when Venezuelan customs caught her with 8kg of cocaine in her case. She's been trying to hide her shameful past since moving into her two-bedroom flat in Perth. Neighbours in the respectable cul-desac where she lives were stunned to discover she was a convicted drug trafficker. One said: "I can't believe she was smuggling drugs.
Experts: SSL certificate no guarantee of safety
SAN JOSE, Calif. - When a small padlock appears in the corner of your Web browser's address bar or the entire bar turns green, it seems like a powerful signal you're safe to proceed. But experts say the SSL certificates those green lights signify — digital stamps of approval that Web sites buy to prove they're running a legitimate business and can send and receive encrypted data safely — don't provide the safety they seem to. "They instill some sense of security, but that could be a dangerously false sense of security," said Paul Mutton, a researcher with UK-based security firm Netcraft Ltd. .
PlusNet owns up to security breach
PlusNet is undergoing an overhaul of its webmail platform following a security breach earlier this month. The ISP used a Service Status message on its website to inform customers its existing webmail system has been migrated to a Squirellmail platform on Saturday to ensure an earlier breach in its customer email address database does not happen again. Is there a skills shortage? Tell us what you think of the IT workforce in silicon.com's 2007 Skills Survey. PlusNet discovered the breach on 9 May. It involved an undisclosed number of customer email addresses and customer contact lists being disclosed to a third party. As a result, these customers received an unusually large amount of spam, including offers for cut-price pharmaceuticals. The ISP said a small number of customers may also have downloaded a Trojan horse in the process.
Internet Julius Baer Defends WikiLeaks.org Shutdown
If you cannot get them to redact it and they will not even listen to your side and they will not give you the name of your accuser so you might clear your self in court, what do you do? Post you side, ok what if your sponsors and lenders, maybe even your service providers now start to say hey I do not want to do business with you because of these allegations. Now what do you do? Your side of the story must be just made up since the allegations clearly paint you as a liar, thief, sheep molester ect. I do not know maybe they ARE slime and hooray for the brave whistleblower, if its all made up do we say better you than me? That's the 2 sides of anonymity. The people who host this type of stuff SHOULD be held responsible to verify as best they can BEFOR publication or they SHOULD pay if they are wrong.
Surcharges spur energy efficiency
The Globe has decided to resurrect the old African-American "welfare queen" canard on the latest home mortgage crisis ("Broker's clients detail web of dashed dreams," Jan. 20). I see it as an outrageous exploitation by the rich and powerful of the poor, mostly African-Americans, and other minorities and their communities. Did you know that African-Americans and other minorities who do honestly qualify for a mortgage generally pay more? BWB. Borrowing While Black. This same criminally inflated real estate bubble happened 20 years ago and caused the collapse of the savings and loan industry. But instead of this experience informing the politicians, who raked in the campaign contributions, or the media, who lapped up the advertising dollars, it only informed the criminal conspirators, who were more brazen this time than the last, making bad loans to desperate working people who lost confidence in the rental market.
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