Hoser

Credit Cards: Not Dead Yet

Because, anastos:

a) You get that money interest free IF you pay it off every month. That's what I do.

b) You get reward points or cash back.

Card Issuers: Facts and Fictions

This guy is FULL of it. As a former business owner, we didn't take AMEX or DISC because their fees are too high! Much higher than Visa/MA. Rarely did we have someone ask if we accepted anything other than Visa or MA. Also, most people don't carry AMEX or DISC but if you have a debit card, chances are it's Visa or MA.

Since most credit issuers are tightening standards as to who gets a cc and for how big a credit line, does he REALLY expect AMEX or DISC to grow in the next 2-3 years while the economy continues to slump? Gimme a break. The only thing he said that makes sense is that business MAY slow down for VISA/MA because of a tightening in the issuing of credit. I kind of doubt it as people will switch to their debit card (especially for online purchases) and that is likely to be VISA/MA. They will continue to beat the Street's targets in the next few years.

Visa: Why I Sold All of My Shares

Gimme a break.
This friggin' idiot dumps his stock after an 8% loss in a week? And what took him so long to get in, anyway? After kicking myself for not getting in on Google's and Mastercard's IPOs, I scraped up as much $$$ I could afford and got in the 1st day on Visa (175 shares at about $58). Even with this mild downturn, I'm sitting pretty and will probably buy more this week if it stays below $80 (25 shares maybe. I'm just a small investor without the last name of Kennedy or Bush). My sell point should be sometime early next year: when it hits $120 (so I've doubled my money) and it hits 1/3 of MA (Visa has something like 7 million shares, MA has 2.25 million. With a little extra as a margin because of Visa's dominance, I figure a 3:1 MA to Visa price ratio is about right and V may be overvalued if it goes above that. No hard numbers to back it up really, just my gut feeling).