Associated Press. Here are briefs of the most significant and directly referenced interviews of Robert McKinley by Associated Press reporters. Third party links to story abstracts and the full text are embedded in the briefs. (Abstracts are generally free but there may be a nominal fee for the full story text by the archive provider.) NOTE: There may be some duplication of stories due to citations for both RAM Research and CardWeb within the same article.
| 1. | Associated Press Archive – March 12, 2008 Credit requirements story | |
| In a March 11 story about changing credit standards, The Associated Press reported erroneously that Les Berman was president of the California Association of Mortgage Brokers. He is now a director of the group. A correct version follows.NEW YORK (AP) — The loan you qualify for on Monday might be out of reach on Tuesday. Bankers and lenders are rapidly changing their requirements as home sales and prices plummet and delinquencies and defaults rise. Problems… Purchase Complete Article, of 1069 words |
| 2. | Associated Press Archive – March 11, 2008 Borrower requirements tightening and changing regularly as credit markets continue to struggle | |
| The loan you qualify for on Monday might be out of reach on Tuesday. Bankers and lenders are rapidly changing their requirements as home sales and prices plummet and delinquencies and defaults rise. Problems in the mortgage market are spilling into other lending markets as customers struggle to keep up with payments on other loans, such as auto and credit card payments.”The market is reinventing itself daily,” said Les Berman, owner of Beverly… Purchase Complete Article, of 1042 words |
| 3. | Associated Press Archive – June 30, 2005 Consolidation in credit card industry leaves consumers fewer choices | |
| Bank of America Corp.’s purchase of MBNA Corp. marks the latest consolidation in the credit card industry, which may translate to higher costs, fewer choices and poorer service for consumers. The deal, expected to be completed by the end of the year, will create one of the largest credit card operations in the nation.The combined outstanding card balances of Bank of America and MBNA of $134.8 billion as of March 31 would surpass the receivables of the top… Purchase Complete Article, of 600 words |
| 4. | Associated Press Archive – January 11, 2005 What kind of credit card perks are best? | |
| Q. I was offered a credit card that will offer me a cash rebate from my purchases. Is that better than earning points that can be exchanged for airlines miles or goods and services? A. Credit cards that offer cash rebates have become increasingly popular the last three years because Americans have been wary of flying since the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks and been frustrated by some of the perk programs, said Robert B. McKinley, chief executive of CardWeb.com Inc., which… Purchase Complete Article, of 515 words |
| 5. | Associated Press Archive – November 11, 2004 Retail credit cards promise discounts but carry high interest rates | |
| As you approach the checkout counter with your arms full of sweaters or toys or other purchases for the holidays, it’s not uncommon for the sales clerk to offer you a deal — 10 percent off your bill if you open a store credit account. It may be tempting, but consumer experts say there are a lot of reasons you should say “no.””The carrot they dangle in front of shoppers is an initial discount for signing up for a store… Purchase Complete Article, of 753 words |
| 6. | Associated Press Archive – June 30, 2004 Consumers to earn a little more on savings, pay slightly more on debts | |
| The Federal Reserve’s decision on Wednesday to start raising rates means savers will earn more interest on their bank accounts and debtors will pay more interest on their credit cards and home-equity lines of credit. But not a lot, at least in the short term.”We’re not talking about drastic action here,” said Gary R. Thayer, chief economist at A.G. Edwards & Sons Inc. in St. Louis, Mo…. Purchase Complete Article, of 486 words |
| 7. | Associated Press Archive – June 30, 2004 Consumers to earn more on savings, pay more on debts | |
| The Federal Reserve’s decision on Wednesday to start raising rates means that savers will earn more interest on their bank accounts and debtors will pay more interest on their credit cards and home-equity lines of credit. But not a lot, at least in the short term.”We’re not talking about drastic action here,” said Gary R. Thayer, chief economist at A.G. Edwards & Sons Inc. in St. Louis, Mo…. Purchase Complete Article, of 874 words |
| 8. | Associated Press Archive – January 29, 2004 American Express announces credit card alliance with MBNA | |
| American Express announced its first deal on Thursday to allow a major American financial institution — MBNA Corp. — to issue its credit cards in the United States. American Express said MBNA will issue American Express-branded credit cards starting later this year, allowing the company to reach a much larger potential customer base. New York-based American Express will also continue to issue its own cards.No financial terms were disclosed. The alliance was… Purchase Complete Article, of 798 words |
| 9. | Associated Press Archive – February 8, 2002 Credit card lenders raise rates on financially strapped consumers | |
| While millions of borrowers are basking in low interest rates, refinancing their mortgages and buying new cars, other consumers are watching their credit card rates climb further into the stratosphere — to 30 percent and beyond. Providian Financial Corp. recently raised the rate on its high-risk accounts from 23.9 percent to 29.9 percent, a move that threatens to drain thousands of dollars from financially strapped households during the next few years.The strategy is part… Purchase Complete Article, of 1110 words |
| 10. | Associated Press Archive – February 8, 2002 Credit card lenders raise rates on financially strapped consumers | |
| While millions of borrowers are basking in low interest rates, refinancing their mortgages and buying new cars, other consumers are watching their credit card rates climb further into the stratosphere — to 30 percent and beyond. Providian Financial Corp. recently raised the rate on its high-risk accounts from 23.9 percent to 29.9 percent, a move that threatens to drain thousands of dollars from financially strapped households during the next few years.The strategy is part… Purchase Complete Article, of 1116 words | ||
| 11. | Associated Press Archive – February 8, 2002 Credit card lenders raise rates on financially strapped consumers | |
| While millions of borrowers are basking in low interest rates, refinancing their mortgages and buying new cars, other consumers are watching their credit card rates climb further into the stratosphere — to 30 percent and beyond. Providian Financial Corp. recently raised the rate on its high-risk accounts from 23.9 percent to 29.9 percent, a move that threatens to drain thousands of dollars from financially strapped households during the next few years.The strategy is part… Purchase Complete Article, of 1110 words |
| 12. | Associated Press Archive – February 5, 2002 Credit card lenders raise rates on financially strapped consumers | |
| While millions of borrowers are basking in low interest rates, refinancing their mortgages and buying new cars, other consumers are watching their credit card rates climb further into the stratosphere — to 30 percent and beyond. Providian Financial Corp. recently raised the rate on its high-risk accounts from 23.9 percent to 29.9 percent, a move that threatens to drain thousands of dollars from financially strapped households during the next few years.The strategy is part… Purchase Complete Article, of 1223 words |
| 13. | Associated Press Archive – October 30, 2001 Why hasn’t my credit card rate come down? | |
| Q: The Federal Reserve Board has cut interest rates nine times this year, which is supposed to save credit card users $750 million over the next year. But it seems that the rates on my balances haven’t budged. What’s going on? A: While the central bank’s cuts have lowered interest rates by 4 percentage points this year, credit card rates haven’t come down quite as much, said Robert B. McKinley, chief executive of CardWeb.com, a… Purchase Complete Article, of 468 words |
| 14. | Associated Press Archive – July 22, 2001 NextCard determined to prove it’s not a dot-com deadbeat | |
| With 1 million accountholders, NextCard Inc. has built the biggest credit-card business on the Internet. Now comes the hard part: proving that it is sitting on one of e-commerce’s few gold mines, rather than just another dot-com time bomb.Using sophisticated marketing and data-mining tools, the San Francisco-based company believes it has found a way to rope in creditworthy borrowers while fencing out the deadbeats that leave lenders in a morass of… Purchase Complete Article, of 885 words |
| 15. | Associated Press Archive – July 19, 2001 NextCard determined to prove it’s not a dot-com deadbeat | |
| With 1 million accountholders, NextCard Inc. has built the biggest credit-card business on the Internet. Now comes the hard part: proving that it is sitting on one of e-commerce’s few gold mines, rather than just another dot-com time bomb.Using sophisticated marketing and data-mining tools, the San Francisco-based company believes it has found a way to rope in creditworthy borrowers while fencing out the deadbeats that leave lenders in a morass of… Purchase Complete Article, of 892 words |
| 16. | Associated Press Archive – July 3, 2001 Credit card rates lag behind this year’s sharp decline in interest rates | |
| Credit card finance charges are declining at a dramatically slower pace than general interest rates so far this year, costing consumers billions of dollars in potential savings. Since the beginning of the year, the Federal Reserve Board has lowered short-term interest rates six different times, causing the banking industry to lower its bellwether prime rate from 9.5 percent in early January to 6.75 percent today.Less than half of that 2.75 percentage point decline has been… Purchase Complete Article, of 694 words |
| 17. | Associated Press Archive – August 28, 1999 Credit-card firms squeezed by smart customers | |
| Savvy consumers like Barbara Hoffman helped bring Wall Street’s wrath down on the credit-card industry this week. All it took was a pair of scissors and a bit of financial common sense. She carved up four credit cards this year, refinanced her debts and paid off her high-interest accounts.”Why should I support the credit card companies when I should be looking out for my own finances?” the Chicago jewelry saleswoman… Purchase Complete Article, of 744 words |
| 18. | Associated Press Archive – August 27, 1999 Credit-card firms squeezed by smart customers | |
| Savvy consumers like Barbara Hoffman helped bring Wall Street’s wrath down on the credit-card industry this week. All it took was a pair of scissors and a bit of financial common sense. She carved up four credit cards this year, refinanced her debts and paid off her high-interest accounts.”Why should I support the credit card companies when I should be looking out for my own finances?” the Chicago jewelry saleswoman… Purchase Complete Article, of 744 words |
| 19. | Associated Press Archive – August 27, 1999 Credit-card firms squeezed as consumers pay down debts; will ultra-low rates end? | |
| Savvy consumers like Barbara Hoffman helped bring Wall Street’s wrath down on the credit-card industry this week. All it took was a pair of scissors and a bit of financial common sense.Inspired by the rosy U.S. economy, Hoffman carved up four credit cards this year, refinanced her debts and paid off the high-interest accounts. “Why should I support the credit card companies when I should be looking out for my own… Purchase Complete Article, of 800 words |
| 20. | Associated Press Archive – May 19, 1999 Watch out for those currency-exchange fees on credit cards | |
| Overseas travel may be more expensive for some vacationers this summer because of a hike in fees from credit card issuers. A handful of the biggest credit card issuers have added or plan to add surcharges on consumer purchases made overseas using Visa, MasterCard and American Express, and several others are considering them.The new fees — assessed per transaction after a currency is converted to dollars — run between 1 percent and 4 percent. That’s in addition… Purchase Complete Article, of 493 words |
21. Associated Press Archive – March 10, 1999
Credit card users: Watch out for those fees! Neatly packaged with come-hither features like single-digit interest rates, no annual fees, and rebates galore, today’s credit cards look mighty appealing. But the allure often ends where the dull, tiny print begins.More and more, the great deals consumers thought they were getting are being offset by hidden fees and penalties. Among them: rising late and over-limit fees, higher rates on late payments, shorter grace periods and changing interest…
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22. Associated Press Archive – December 23, 1998
Read the fine print before transferring your credit card balance Consumers juggling holiday bills may be tempted to transfer their credit card balances to a new card with a low, temporary “teaser” rate, but they better read the fine print first. It may take a magnifying glass, for instance, to discover it’s more difficult and expensive to get cash advances on some cards or that some issuers actually impose fees on transferred balances.A few agreements allow the issuer to substantially raise the…
Purchase Complete Article, of 655 words
23. `Stratospheric’ Card Rates Targeted
24. GE May Plug Into Credit-Card Market
25. Credit-Card Issuers Wrote Off $8 Billion In Bad Debt For 1991
26. Credit Card Issuers Face New Reality — Companies React To Competition, Anger Over High Interest Rates
27. Credit Card Companies Ready To Cash In On Holidays
28. Analysts Mixed On Ge Credit Card With High Interest Rate, Annual Fee
29. AT&T Cut May Start Credit-Card Rate War
30. Credit-Card Issuers Wrote Off $8 Billion In Bad Debt For 1991
31. Consumers bound to feel Bank of America’s purchase of MBNA
32. American Express, MNBA join forces to issue credit cards
33. Try For Better Credit-Card Deals
34. Good Times Squeeze Credit-Card Issuers
35. Read the fine print before transferring your credit card balance
36. Credit cards with rewards also invite more headaches / Annual fees can be higher and the rules can change without warning
37. Top rates climbing yet more / Credit card industry tries to boost profits
38. Credit and credibility/Industry, consumers seek out McKinley’s bank card information
39. Shoppers put holiday brake on card use
40. Survey finds dip in credit card rates
41. Consumers winning credit card wars
| 42. AUTOMAKERS’ CREDIT CARDS CAN HELP TAKE BITE OUT OF CAR BUYINGAuthor: ASSOCIATED PRESS Date: November 10, 1996 Publication: Plain Dealer, The (Cleveland, OH) Page: 6G |
| Holding out for a better rebate to buy a new car or truck?You may be carrying it around in your wallet.General Motors Corp. and Ford Motor Co. quietly have created a pool of indebtedness to future customers through the GM MasterCard and the Ford Citibank Visa.The two auto giants owe potential customers more than $5 billion in rebates because of credit-card partnerships they created four years ago.Since the GM Card debuted in September 1992, rebates averaging $690…Click here for complete article ($2.95) |
| 43. AT&T REDUCES CREDIT CARD RATE TO LURE SHOPPERSAuthor: ASSOCIATED PRESS Date: November 5, 1996 Publication: Plain Dealer, The (Cleveland, OH) Page: 6C |
| In the spirit of air fare- and gasoline wars, a brawl may be shaping up among credit card purveyors, just in time for the holiday shopping rush.The credit card business of AT&T Corp., the nation’s second-largest issuer of plastic, is offering sharply lower interest rates for its best customers. Others are expected to follow.AT&T Universal Card Services Corp. is gambling that its lower rate will entice more consumers to pull out their…Click here for complete article ($2.95) |
48. Penalizing high-risk borrowers
Source: Michael Liedtke ASSOCIATED PRESS
While millions of borrowers are benefiting from low interest rates as they buy homes, refinance mortgages, and buy new cars, other consumers are watching their credit-card rates climb to 30 percent and beyond.
Providian Financial Corp., for instance, recently raised the rate on its accounts for high-risk borrowers to 29.9 percent from 23.9 percent, which threatens, during the next few years, to drain thousands of dollars from financially strapped households.
The strategy is part of
Published on 2002-02-17, Page E05, Philadelphia Inquirer, The (PA)
Source: Karen Gullo, ASSOCIATED PRESS
The nation’s banks cut their prime lending rate to 8.5 percent from 8.75 percent yesterday in response to the Federal Reserve’s decision Tuesday to lower a key short-term interest rate.
The banks’ action was a stocking stuffer for consumers: It will knock a few bucks off January’s credit-card bills and other loan payments at many households.
But big savings on the cost of paying off loans could reach consumers by summer, economists
Published on 1995-12-21, Page C01, Philadelphia Inquirer, The (PA)
Article 9 of 29; 288 words
50. BAD CREDIT, NO PROBLEM BANKS ANGLE FOR ALL KINDS OF SHOPPERS
Source: Vivian Marino, Associated Press
Plastic warfare is being waged in millions of mailboxes as banks try to get more credit-worthy customers during the lucrative holiday shopping season.
But with the market otherwise saturated, some financial institutions are now aggressively pursuing individuals with spotty or unproven credit records.
Stacks of unsolicited offers abound for them – even for people recently out of bankruptcy – through secured credit cards.
“The secured market is an underdeveloped
Published on 1995-12-11, Page 20, Philadelphia Daily News (PA)
Article 10 of 29; 567 words
51. RATE CUT GOOD NEWS TO BORROWERS
Source: Karen Gullo, Associated Press
The Federal Reserve’s interest rate cut will modestly ease borrowing costs for millions of Americans who have racked up credit-card charges or have borrowed money for cars and home repairs.
The dip won’t make a big dent in consumers’ wallets, analysts say, but there’s a silver lining: The Fed’s action should be the first in a series of rate cuts that will take place this year.
Consumers could see significant savings
Published on 1995-07-07, Page 20, Philadelphia Daily News (PA)
Source: Patricia Lamiell, ASSOCIATED PRESS
In the spirit of air-fare wars and gasoline wars, a brawl may be shaping up among credit-card purveyors, just in time for the holiday-shopping rush.
The credit-card business of AT&T Corp., the nation’s second-largest issuer of plastic, is offering sharply lower interest rates for its best customers. Others are expected to follow.
AT&T Universal Card Services Corp. is gambling that its lower rate will entice more consumers to pull out their
Published on 1996-11-05, Page D02, Philadelphia Inquirer, The (PA)
Source: Patrica Lamiell, ASSOCIATED PRESS
Caught between those who don’t pay their credit card bills and those who pay them before racking up interest charges, credit card companies are looking for new penalties and fees to slip onto their statements.
One way is to bring back what amounts to an annual fee – a charge to customers who pay their balances in full or who leave their cards in a sock drawer for emergencies.
About 20 percent of GE Capital Corp.’s GE Rewards MasterCard holders fit that
Published on 1996-09-11, Page C01, Philadelphia Inquirer, The (PA)
Article 7 of 29; 881 words
Robert McKinley Reports, Analyzes, Writes, and Edits Content for the Following Online Publications or Services:
Bankcenter (payment-related news releases for executives & consumers)
CardBuzz (published payment-related news for executives & consumers)
CardFlash (payments news for executives)
CardData (quarterly payment data for executives)
CardTrak (payments news for consumers)
PYRPTS (global payment reports)
PYVNTS (global payment events)
The RAM Reports (annual payment reports for executives)
RAM Research (consulting, research, analysis)
Ruebud Media (network of payment-related services)
Robert McKinley (about)
Robert McKinley (biography)