Banks Offer Virtual Credit Cards for Online Shopping.SOME $36 billion is likely to be spent at Web "e-tail" stores this year, up 145 percent from 1998. That estimate comes from shop.org, a trade association for online retailers. Stressed-out workers are learning the value of e-shopping during their lunch breaks, or at midnight from their computer at home. And for the first time, you're seeing an explosion of Internet credit cards. "Some of the very best and very worst cards are now offered on the Web," says Robert McKinley
Robert Elgin McKinley (born 14 August 1928 in Zurich, Ontario) was a Progressive Conservative party member of the Canadian House of Commons. , president of CardWeb, a credit-card tracking service (www.cardWeb.com) With a Web card, you apply online, get statements electronically or by mail, monitor your account online and pay by computer, too. Old-fashioned folk can still opt to pay by check. For people seeking more credit this Christmas, the special appeal of Web cards is their speed. You give the same information you would in a mailed application. Approval (assuming you qualify) might come in just half a minute. From that moment, you can make purchases online. Most issuers mail you a plastic card, usually a MasterCard or Visa, which you can also use in stores. At Citibank, however, plastic has become uncool. Instead, Citibank is offering ClickCredit, a virtual card (www.clickcredit.com). It works like a credit card but exists only in Citi's computer. You use it solely for making purchases on the Web. ClickCredit offers the usual credit-card bells and whistles A slang English term for exceptional features in some product. In the computer field, it typically refers to functions in software that may be greatly appreciated by some users, even though they may not be necessary most of the time. , such as frequent-flier miles or cash-back rewards for frequent shoppers. The most desirable customers pay no annual fee and a 9.9 percent variable interest rate on unpaid balances. (Poorer credit risks pay 18.55 percent and perhaps a $50 annual fee.) Here are McKinley's two favorite cards on the Web, plus the low rates they offer their better customers. Each has an introductory program, with low or zero rates for the first few months. Neither charges an annual fee. (Who's a "better customer?" People who make payments on time and carry unpaid balances, or at least use their cards a lot. If you don't qualify, these issuers will charge you more.) Wingspan Platinum Visa (www.wingspan.com) is issued by BankOne at a fixed 9.99 percent. With Wingspan, you get 5 percent off the cost of online purchases from 28 merchants. NextCard Visa (www.nextcard.com) is issued by NextBank. You apply for a standard card with a fixed 15.9 percent rate. Once approved, you could be offered a rate as low as 9.9 percent, depending on your credit profile. "That's fuzzy pricing," McKinley concedes, but he likes NextCard's rich rewards program. You get more frequent-flier miles per dollar spent than on any other card. But to get them free, you have to carry unpaid balances. When checking a card's Web site, always click on the phrase "terms and conditions," to see what else the issuer may charge. For example, both of these cards punish people who pay late, pay less than the minimum or go over their credit limit. Transgressors lose their low fixed rates. NextCard currently charges as much as 23.2 percent on unpaid balances, for those who pay less than the minimum. Wingspan goes to 22.99 percent for certain late payers. Web credit cards provide the same fraud protection you'd get from any other credit card. Officially, you're liable for the first $50 in fraudulent charges. Most issuers, however, cover even that. As for the bad apples, McKinley names three: Future Card Visa, First National Credit Card Visa and Global 1 Visa or MasterCard. They charge big fees up-front, substantial monthly fees and high interest rates. Global 1, for example, charges $348 in setup fees, against a minimum credit limit of just $375 - which wouldn't leave you much to spend. First National charges $169, against a credit limit as small as $250. Even if your limit is higher, you're starting out in debt to the bank. Global and Future didn't return calls. First National's Molly Fleming calls high fees the natural result of accepting people with poor credit. Please, if you have poor credit, skip these cheesy cheesy (che´ze) caseous. offers and use a secured card, instead. With secured cards, you also pay money up-front, but it goes into your own interest-paying savings account Savings Account A deposit account intended for funds that are expected to stay in for the short term. A savings account offers lower returns than the market rates. Notes: . The bank taps that money only if you don't pay your bills. McKinley's two favorite secured cards: Amalgamated Bank of Chicago The Amalgamated Bank of Chicago is a bank in Chicago, Illinois founded in 1922 by the Amalgamated Clothing Workers of America (now known as UNITE HERE). Its original name was the Amalgamated Trust and Savings Bank of Chicago. ($500 minimum deposit) and Orchard Bank in Portland, Ore. ($200 minimum). Web wallets In many ways Web shopping is wonderful, but it can also be a pain unless you know where to look and exactly what you want. Another sticking point sticking point n. A point, issue, or situation that causes or is likely to cause an impasse. Noun 1. sticking point - a point at which an impasse arises in progress toward an agreement or a goal for anyone with a long Christmas list is having to fill in all those tedious order forms. All those addresses, over and over. All those passwords and e-mails. A study by Jupiter Communications, a New York New York, state, United States New York, Middle Atlantic state of the United States. It is bordered by Vermont, Massachusetts, Connecticut, and the Atlantic Ocean (E), New Jersey and Pennsylvania (S), Lakes Erie and Ontario and the Canadian province of research and advisory company, found that 27 percent of online buyers abandon at least one order before completion, because the order form drives them nuts. By contrast, just 19 percent of buyers dropped out because they worried about security online. The hassle with forms is now perceived as a worse problem than online theft. Net people are jumpy. Lengthy online order forms squelch squelch v. squelched, squelch·ing, squelch·es v.tr. 1. To crush by or as if by trampling; squash. 2. impulse buying impulse buying n → compra impulsiva . It takes a grandmother with a mission to soldier on soldier on Verb to continue one's efforts despite difficulties or pressure . This leads me to the digital wallet The electronic equivalent of a wallet for e-commerce transactions. Also called an "e-wallet," it holds credit card data and passwords for logging into Web sites. The wallet data may reside in the user's machine or on the servers of the wallet service. -- an experiment this Christmas season but probably a fixture in the shopping season 12 months from now. A wallet gives you one-click shopping. You feed it all your data - name, address, credit card numbers, passwords, shipping information. When you're ready to buy, you click on the wallet and presto, you've filled in the order form. Alternatively, you might drag information out of your wallet and drop it onto the online form. The banks are behind the digital wallet in a big way, Pete Hisey, editor of Credit Card News in Chicago, told my associate, Dori Perrucci. That's because, for them, e-commerce is so profitable. Banks charge merchants more for every online or catalog catalog, descriptive list, on cards or in a book, of the contents of a library. Assurbanipal's library at Nineveh was cataloged on shelves of slate. The first known subject catalog was compiled by Callimachus at the Alexandrian Library in the 3d cent. B.C. transaction, and less for transactions when you physically plunk down Verb 1. plunk down - set (something or oneself) down with or as if with a noise; "He planked the money on the table"; "He planked himself into the sofa" plonk, flump, plank, plump, plump down, plunk, plop your card. The more you leave the mall for the Web, the happier they will be. Digital wallets, or similar technologies, have been tried before and failed. One reason is that billing sites differ from merchant to merchant. You can't be sure that the wallet you carry will work everywhere you shop. But last June, the industry's heavies agreed on a new digital standard. If it catches on, any wallet will connect with any merchant using that digital handshake handshake - handshaking . Syndicated columnist Inc.com defines a syndicated columnist as, "[A] person hired by publications or broadcast organizations to produce written or spoken commentary about specific feature subjects. Jane Bryant Quinn Jane Bryant Quinn (born February 5, 1939) is an American journalist. She was born in Niagara Falls, New York, and she graduated magna cum laude from Middlebury College in Vermont. She is a contributing editor for Newsweek and has a weekly article in Newsweek. can be reached in care of the Washington Post Writers Group, 1150 15th St., Washington D.C. 20071-9200. |
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