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Amazon is offering a $5 credit when you buy a $50 eGift card for Prime Day
Amazon is adding a small additional Prime Day bonus with a $5 promo credit if you purchase a $50 Amazon eGift Card for someone special (yourself included).
TurboTax maker Intuit buys Credit Karma to corner personal financial data
Intuit wants to manage more of your financial data. The TurboTax developer has bought Credit Karma, best known for helping people track and control their credit, for $7.1 billion in cash and stock. It intends to use Credit Karma to craft a "personalized financial assistant" that provides insights into your money and helps you "find the right financial products." It might point you to a new credit card or a higher-yield savings account, for instance.
Senators ask credit agencies why they don't report FBI data requests
Tech companies have long disclosed the number of national security letters (NSLs) they get from authorities, but the credit reporting agencies that often dictate your financial future have been silent -- and Congress wants answers. Senators Elizabeth Warren, Ron Wyden and Rand Paul have sent letters to the CEOS of Equifax, Experian and TransUnion asking why the companies don't divulge how many NSLs they receive from the FBI, or release those requests once the non-disclosure orders end. These companies have the "responsibility" to come clean about their information handling when they have loads of "potentially sensitive data," the senators said.
That Apple Card may not be as private as you think
When it came time to pay for dinner with my friend and his wife the other night, he said, "No, let us get this." It was a kind gesture. When you don't have to pay for a meal out in San Francisco, the feeling of relief is similar to narrowly avoiding getting hit by a self-driving car in the crosswalk. My friend is generous. He used to work in Apple security and now does security for a different Big Tech entity.
Apple is launching a credit card
The rumors were true -- Apple is releasing its own credit card. Apple Card promises to make the most of the company's privacy, simplicity and (of course) integration with your iPhone. You can sign up for the Goldman Sachs-backed card directly from your device (it'll be useful right away), and it'll appear in an updated version of the Wallet app that can show your latest bills, transactions and spending history. Naturally, you can use Messages to ask for customer service.
Apple hopes interest-free iPhones will boost slow Chinese sales
As smartphones get more expensive, and the innovation in new devices gets less grand, there's less reason to upgrade your device every two years. It's a problem for all device manufacturers which rely upon handset sales to grease the wheels of their business, but Apple thinks it has a solution. The company has teamed up with a number of Chinese banks to offer interest free credit on a number of new iPhone purchases.
Google Images will display creator and credit information
While it's easy to find an image of pretty much anything you want on Google, it's not always easy to find credit information for that image. But Google is looking to change that, and it has teamed up with media and image organizations CEPIC and IPTC to bring rights-related metadata to Images. Now, when you find an image on Google Images, you can click the menu icon and then "Image Credits" to see both creator and credit information. Google says it will add copyright notice information in the coming weeks.
Amazon is refunding Prime phone buyers who paid to remove ads
Amazon's Prime Exclusive phones have great prices, but there was a big catch. You had to allow ads on your home screen and if you changed your mind later, it could cost up to $50 to opt out. Buyers got a bonus last week when Amazon decided to eliminate the ads, saying they could interfere with facial recognition and cause other issues. That's great, but it what about folks who paid the fee to get rid of them? Amazon has agreed to refund it in the form of a gift card, essentially closing the chapter on its Prime Exclusive phone ad experiment.
Spotify now shows songwriter and producer credits
Spotify announced today that when listening through the desktop platform, users will now be able to view song credits. Starting now, right-clicking on a track and selecting "Show Credits" from the menu will bring up its performer, writer and producer credits as well as the source from which that info was provided. Spotify says that currently, those details have been compiled from record label-provided metadata and they may be incomplete in some cases, but going forward, the feature will become more functional and will use information from other sources.
The only thing Equifax's new credit app locks is itself
Equifax still appears to have trouble wrapping its head around the concept of trustworthy software following its massive security breach. The company has launched its promised free credit report locking service, Lock & Alert, but there's one overriding problem: at least initially, the mobile app associated with it doesn't appear to work. The New York Times and Ars Technica both report pervasive problems with the app, ranging from the basic login to... you know, locking your credit report. In the NYT's case, the tester gave up after the locking attempt stalled five times in a row.
Curve's payment-switching smart card goes live in the UK
Like the thought of switching payment methods for a purchase long after you've left the store? You now have a chance to try it. Curve has launched its smart card in the UK, letting you not only consolidate your credit cards (of the Mastercard or Visa variety) and debit cards, but switch between them for payments up to 2 weeks after the transaction. If you know you're going to hit your credit limit, for instance, you can switch a purchase to debit to give yourself some breathing room.
You can now replenish your Amazon Cash card at 7-Eleven
It can be tricky to shop these days without a credit or debit card, especially online. Amazon Cash is one way to do so, however, with an online account that you can refill with cash via a barcode you take to participating stores. Now 7-Eleven is in on the act, giving Amazon more than 30,000 locations people can use to refill their Amazon Cash account.
Affirm’s app lends you money to buy things online
Paypal co-founder Max Levchin launched Affirm back in 2012 to extend credit for folks to buy things online. Today, his company has extended that feature to a mobile app, functionally creating a virtual credit card for anyone who wants to trust a tech company instead of banks.
Equifax will warn 2.5 million additional hacking victims by mail
The hack that compromised Equifax was bad enough, but its response only seemed to make things worse. Even the website that verified the potential threat to your data left many people wondering. Equifax wants to remove any doubt, though. In the wake of a just-completed forensic investigation by security partner (and sometimes foe) Mandiant, Equifax has announced that it's mailing written notices to everyone who was confirmed as affected since it disclosed the hack on September 7th. That's no mean feat when 2.5 million more Americans have been added to the tally (which now stands at 145.5 million affected) as a result of the investigation. The website should reflect the additional hack victims no later than October 8th, so you might not have to wait for a letter to find out whether or not you're part of this newer batch.
PlayStation credit card gives extra money back for gaming purchases
If you're a PlayStation fan, you probably use your credit card for a lot: games, add-ons, the virtually obligatory Plus subscription and the occasional accessory. Wouldn't it be good if you could at least get some compensation for pouring so much money into Sony's coffers? If you live in the US, you can. Sony has launched a Visa-based PlayStation credit card from Capital One that gives you discounts and redeemable points if you shop for Sony gear or PlayStation services.
Equifax to launch a free lifetime credit lock service
Equifax's new chief knows it'll take a lot of effort to make people trust the credit reporting agency again. He started by penning a letter of apology published by The Wall Street Journal, wherein he admitted that the company wasn't able to live up to people's expectations. Equifax was hacked, he wrote -- its website "did not function as it should have," and its "call center couldn't manage the volume of calls" the company received after the security breach was made public. The interim CEO has also revealed that Equifax will launch a new service on January 31st that will give you the power to lock and unlock your credit anytime. Best thing about the offer? It will be free for life to all its customers in the US.
Equifax's data breach response has its own security flaw
The Equifax data breach is already unnerving thanks to the sheer scale of sensitive data involved, but it's not helped by the credit reporting agency's initial response. Clients have discovered that the PIN codes Equifax is handing out to help lock your credit report (so a thief can't open a line of credit in your name) are generated by the date and time you made the request. An attacker could determine your code simply through brute force, especially if they have an idea as to when you locked your report.
Curve's smart card switches between credit and debit after purchases
Have you ever bought something only to regret it later as you run into a spending limit on the card you used? If you live in in the right country, you might have a way to overcome this particular strain of buyer's remorse. Curve is giving its British and European Mastercard users the ability to switch a purchase between credit or debit up to two weeks after the transaction took place. If you realize you're going to go into overdraft, or that you should have expensed dinner on your corporate credit card, you can make a change before it's too late.
T-Mobile giving AT&T customers a free year of DirecTV Now
T-Mobile is trying to counter AT&T by offering AT&T customers a year of its rival's own DirecTV Now streaming service if they switch to magenta. The offer has some flaws: You'll just get a $35 monthly credit, which represents the lowest tier of DirecTV now, for one. You'll also need to pay $120 per month (minimum) for two lines on the new T-Mobile One "unlimited" plan, which doesn't include LTE tethering or high-definition video.
Thieves can use web bots to guess your Visa card details
If you've punched in credit card details while shopping online, you've probably wondered how secure those digits are. According to Newcastle University, the answer is: not very. Its researchers have discovered that thieves are using web bots to guess Visa credit and debit card info thanks to a flaw in the company's payment system. The biggest challenge is obtaining valid 16-digit card numbers, usually by buying them or using an algorithm to generate valid examples. After that, the bots find expiration dates and CVVs (that three-digit number on the back) by spreading guesses across hundreds of shopping sites, plugging numbers into fields until they hit the jackpot. While that sounds like a painstaking process, the bots can figure things out in 6 seconds.
