The Consumerist has reported that the new changes to American Express usage terms allows them to debit your account in cases of "errors or questions". In other words, they can debit your bank account whenever they feel like it. If they think you did something wrong or they have a computing glitch, you may find yourself suddenly charged for some arbitrary amount.

I don't know about you, but the last thing I need is sudden and unexpected charges to my bank account. If this move is typical of AMEX, then perhaps that's the reason they are such an underdog in the credit card industry.

Check out this article for tips on how to teach the "Customer Service Reps" what and how to do it.

By the way, there's plenty of evidence that the airlines are just getting started with their new fees. Once passengers are used to paying for beverages, checked luggage and "free" award tickets, it's on to bigger and better things for the chronically mismanaged airline industry.

What's next? No one knows.

And that's a very good reason to follow this advice:

Of course, the best way around all of these fees is to fly on an airline that doesn't have them. Southwest Airlines still allows you to check two bags at no extra charge. JetBlue still serves free drinks and snacks and charges $25 less than the big airlines for unaccompanied minors. Supporting these less fee-prone companies will hasten the inevitable demise of the airlines that erroneously believe they can surcharge their way back to a profit.

It's important to note here that Southwest is the only profitable airline and they've never had to stoop to this. Go figure.

(H/T to The Consumerist for the link)

(H/T to The Consumerist for the link)

Originally, the bankruptcy laws were a catch-all for handling aggressive and dishonest lending allowing people to completely remove their debts once every 7 years. That way, even if someone made mistakes or was suckered in by bad credit deals, they could escape them under some circumstances and start over.

Lenders weren't happy with this and wanted it to be much harder for people to get out of the credit programs they carefully lured you into. They scored victory in 2005 by managing to secure a new law that made it much tougher for people to file bankruptcy, but didn't do anything to help curb the massive lending abuses by credit grantors. Now it seems the one-sided bill may have hurt lendors as much as it's helped them.

1) Unsigned Cards Are Not Valid And Merchants Can And Will Refuse Them
2) The Maximum Liability For Unauthorized Use Of A Credit Card (not debit even if it's got a credit card logo) Is $50 According To Federal Law
3) Merchants Cannot Require You To Present ID, Unless Your Card Is Unsigned
4) Merchants Cannot Require A Minimum Transaction Amount
5) Merchants Cannot Charge A Surcharge For Using A Credit Card, However, They Can Offer A "Cash Discount"
6) Many Credit Cards Have Programs That Will Automatically Double The Manufacturer's Warranty And Other Excellent Benefits
7) Merchants Are Not Allowed To Make You Give Up Your Right To A Chargeback
Merchants Are Not Allowed To Place A Hold For The Estimated Tip
9) If Merchants Suspect You Of Fraud They Are Supposed To Call With A "Code 10"
10) If Merchants Break These Rules, You Can Report Them To The Credit Card Company

Read the details for each of these at The Consumerist.

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(H/T to Schneier's Blog for the link)