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The Summit Federal Credit Union Visa Platinum with Rewards
The Summit Federal Credit Union Visa Platinum with Rewards is a credit card for Summit FCU members with the best credit. The credit union offers two types of Platinum credit cards: one with and one without rewards. The interest rate is lower on the credit card without rewards.
Find great credit card offers for FREE by clicking on the box below!
Summit Federal Credit Union, or SFCU, is headquartered in Madison, Wisconsin, with branches in Milwaukee and in a few more surrounding areas. SFCU also has an extensive website, allowing members to do most banking online. SFCU even offers apps for mobile devices.
SFCU Visa Platinum with Rewards Details
The SFCU Visa Platinum comes with two options.
Shadow shopper survey for life industry
A “shadow shopper” survey of life insurance advice has been recommended by a parliamentary committee looking at the Future of Financial Advice (FOFA) reforms.
The Parliamentary Joint Committee report into the FOFA bills wants the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) to conduct the survey within the next two years.
The committee says it believes the ban on life insurance commissions within superannuation is important for consumer protection.
It also believes a fee-for-service model is appropriate for providing life insurance advice within superannuation.
“The committee is mindful of the prediction that life insurance will be the product most likely to provide advisers with commissions,” the report says.
“It recommends ASIC conduct shadow shopping exercises post implementation of the (FOFA) Bill to monitor whether conflicted advice is being provided on life insurance outside superannuation.”
The committee has also recommended ASIC monitor the amount of life insurance sold both inside and outside superannuation to see if there is any market distortion.
Many organisations have argued payments on group life insurance should be allowed where a member seeks personal advice. This could
Index funds are subject to hazards of their asset classes
Frequently on the radio, I hear financial advisers recommend index funds for investors. While that may work reasonably in a rising market, it has not done too well in a falling or even a static market.
If you examine the performance of dividend stocks data sources such as Value Line and Big Charts, you can see the advantage in recent years of dividend stocks over the index.
While this may look like hindsight, the performance of my wife’s portfolio — composed entirely of dividend-paying stocks — outperformed the Dow Jones industrial average and the Standard & Poor’s 500 index last year, in the past five years and the past 10 years in spite of the dot-com crash and real estate slump.
Because of that, we recently moved a small account that my wife had (about 25 percent in an index fund) from Vanguard to Schwab where it, too, can be invested in dividend-paying stocks. Shouldn’t people be warned that the index funds are hazardous?
New Jersey Reverses on Cosmetics Tax
On January 17, 2012 New Jersey Governor Chris Christie signed into law the abolition of the state’s 6 percent tax on cosmetic procedures.
A cosmetic medical procedure is any medical procedure performed on an individual which is directed at improving the subject’s appearance, and which does not meaningfully promote the proper function of the body or prevent or treat illness or disease. Examples include cosmetic surgery, cosmetic injections, dermabrasion, laser skin resurfacing, and cosmetic dentistry.
The phase out will begin after July 1 of this year with an immediate reduction to 4 percent in the first calendar quarter. The rate then drops to 2 percent after that first quarter until its complete elimination on July 1, 2013.
The measure operates like a selective sales tax on cosmetic services, where a 6 percent tax was levied on each purchase of a cosmetic service. However, regardless of the “luxury” nature of cosmetic services, governments should not use the tax code to influence what individuals want to purchase.
Egg closes credit card accounts of customers
The online lender Egg has recently caused outrage amongst many of its customers, after withdrawing the credit card facilities of over 160,000 cardholders. The lending giant made the shock announcement recently, yet it is still continuing to advertise its credit card. Many of the customers that have been affected by the card withdrawal have expressed shock and bewilderment with regards to why their cards have been withdrawn.
Officials from the bank have apologised for the move, but added that the people that have been affected are those that the lender no longer felt it appropriate to lend to. One official said that the cardholders who were having their credit card facilities withdrawn were those whose credit ratings had slipped since they first opened their credit card accounts with the bank.
Around 7% of the lenders’ card customers are thought to have been affected by the withdrawal of services, and cards are due to become ineffective 35 days from the date of the announcement. C
Surcharges: What Are We Paying For NAB Amex And Visa Cards?
While credit cards already have their own set of charges from interest rates and annual fees, merchant surcharges could be adding even more to the cost of paying with plastic.
The last few years has seen this topic get a lot of attention, with companies like MasterCard and consumer groups like Choice criticising the high surcharge rate in Australia.
As one of the Big Banks and a strong advocate for developing fairer terms for customers through the Better Banking Reforms, NAB has begun cutting down or eliminating as many extra fees as possible.
While most of NAB’s credit cards still come with an annual fee, the bank does not charge over limit fees and only charges a $5 late payment if the amount due is over $50.
Unfortunately NAB has no control over what cardholders fork out for surcharges.
These credit card fees are implemented by merchants as a way of reducing the amount of money they have to pay in processing or interchange fees when a person pays by card.
The actual cost to the merchant is based on a percentage of the transaction amount, which according to the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) are as follow:
- MasterCard and Visa: 0.81%
- American Express: 1.88%
- Diners Club: 2.1%
These rates suggest that people with an NAB Visa credit card will pay less than they would with an American Express card, which is why NAB offers dual card accounts.
Most American Express reward cards earn more points than Visa or MasterCard options, so by providing both an Amex and Visa card for the one account, people can maximise their points and minimise additional costs.
In the case of NAB, all the main frequent flyer options – the NAB Qantas and NAB Velocity ranges – are dual accounts.
But unfortunately the lower surcharge does not always apply to people who use an NAB Visa credit card. Merch