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Although older American spend increasingly large sums of money on goods and services, it is widely believed by financial service providers and retailers that these individuals make relatively little use of credit cards. Using a large national sample of respondents from different age groups, finds that older adults use credit cards as frequently as younger adults when circumstances and opportunities for consumption in both groups are similar. Age‐related declines in use of credit cards may reflect changes in lifestyles and other circumstances associated with age, not age per se. Discusses implications of the results for retailers and consumer credit lenders.

Only a small proportion of consumer borrowing is provided by bank and retailer credit cards. Discusses how recent changes in credit card terms and societal attitudes may further reduce that borrowing. Suggests debit cards will become increasingly important as a means of payment in the UK – plastic cards in general will be used more as paper transactions decline. In Europe there may be convergence of plastic card usage with eventual reduction in the number of credit card issuers.

The use of comment cards is a very popular method for obtaining customer feedback in the hospitality industry. An investigation was made regarding the current status of comment card usage in hotel‐restaurants offering high quality, Sunday champagne buffets, in Las Vegas, Nevada, USA. Cards were assessed with regard to frequency and mode of availability, information content, service quality, card design, and management follow‐up. Although 81 per cent of the buffets made use of comment cards, problems were found with accessibility, comprehensiveness of information, questionnaire design principles and frequency of call‐backs.

This paper aims to discuss the prevention of complacency regarding payment card fraud, particularly the debit card.

Based on research already carried out on payment card fraud in France, Spain and the UK, the paper extends the analysis of fraud to the payment with respect to cards in use in Australia.

It was found that payment card fraud, particularly on MasterCard and Visa branded debit cards, is often hidden amongst the statistics for overall payment card fraud and yet, with the enhanced functionality of such cards, re: online and international transactions, added to the increasing sophistication of the card fraudsters, there is a present and ever increasing risk of debit card fraud.

Whilst payment card fraud is often dealt with under credit cards, there has been no prior work on debit card fraud.

The practice of marketing credit cards on college campuses is becoming increasingly controversial. Critics have charged that credit card companies use unethical practices to encourage students to become overloaded with debt. In response, many colleges now ban credit card solicitors from campus. Perhaps the best way credit card companies can improve their image is to provide specific educational opportunities to students when they fill out credit applications. Includes an empirical study of the debt issues of college students. Results indicate that students can learn specific types of information that should improve their ability to manage their debt. This information includes issues associated with the frequency of use of credit cards, the payment of credit card debt, and the number of credit cards held. Makes specific educational recommendations that should be helpful to companies that currently market credit cards to college students. Results may also provide planning information to banks and credit card companies in parts of the world where credit card usage by college students is not yet widespread, but is likely to increase due to developing free market systems and the increased use of credit worldwide.

Examines the many innovative smart card applications covering areas such as telecommunications, transport, banking, healthcare and employee/membership schemes. Looks at how the banks, financial services firms, information companies and card issuers are gradually reconceptualizing their delivery strategy as well as their businesses to meet the growing need for remote delivery, brand equity and differentiation. Says that smart cards could act as payment vehicles, access keys, information managers, marketing tools and customized delivery systems. Explores possibilities of an electronic purse range from a disposable stored value card to a re‐loadable stored value card which could literally replace low‐value cash transactions. Smart cards would then become integral to the banks’ concept of remote delivery systems in the future, because smart cards are not just a product, they are a new delivery system. Focuses on some of the issues that might be of deeper concern to banks. Suggests a collaboration between banks and providers in the mass introduction of smart cards.

The long‐awaited report of the Monopolies and Mergers Commission into the supply of credit card services came out at the end of August. Although its deals primarily with bank credit cards, nonetheless it has important implications for retailer credit cards — for example, will retailers start to charge fees for cards or will they continue to issue them free? This special feature examines in some detail the retailer credit card market in the UK and suggests that retailers would be better served if they saw their credit card offerings as part of their overall retail support service.

Smart card-based E-payment systems are receiving increasing attention as the number of implementations is witnessed on the rise globally. Understanding of user adoption behavior of E-payment systems that employ smart card technology becomes a research area that is of particular value and interest to both IS researchers and professionals. However, research interest focuses mostly on why a smart card-based E-payment system results in a failure or how the system could have grown into a success. This signals the fact that researchers have not had much opportunity to critically review a smart card-based E-payment system that has gained wide support and overcome the hurdle of critical mass adoption. The Octopus in Hong Kong has provided a rare opportunity for investigating smart card-based E-payment system because of its unprecedented success. This research seeks to thoroughly analyze the Octopus from technology adoption behavior perspectives.

Cultural impacts on adoption behavior are one of the key areas that this research posits to investigate. Since the present research is conducted in Hong Kong where a majority of population is Chinese ethnicity and yet is westernized in a number of aspects, assuming that users in Hong Kong are characterized by eastern or western culture is less useful. Explicit cultural characteristics at individual level are tapped into here instead of applying generalization of cultural beliefs to users to more accurately reflect cultural bias. In this vein, the technology acceptance model (TAM) is adapted, extended, and tested for its applicability cross-culturally in Hong Kong on the Octopus. Four cultural dimensions developed by Hofstede are included in this study, namely uncertainty avoidance, masculinity, individualism, and Confucian Dynamism (long-term orientation), to explore their influence on usage behavior through the mediation of perceived usefulness.

TAM is also integrated with the innovation diffusion theory (IDT) to borrow two constructs in relation to innovative characteristics, namely relative advantage and compatibility, in order to enhance the explanatory power of the proposed research model. Besides, the normative accountability of the research model is strengthened by embracing two social influences, namely subjective norm and image. As the last antecedent to perceived usefulness, prior experience serves to bring in the time variation factor to allow level of prior experience to exert both direct and moderating effects on perceived usefulness.

The resulting research model is analyzed by partial least squares (PLS)-based Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) approach. The research findings reveal that all cultural dimensions demonstrate direct effect on perceived usefulness though the influence of uncertainty avoidance is found marginally significant. Other constructs on innovative characteristics and social influences are validated to be significant as hypothesized. Prior experience does indeed significantly moderate the two influences that perceived usefulness receives from relative advantage and compatibility, respectively. The research model has demonstrated convincing explanatory power and so may be employed for further studies in other contexts. In particular, cultural effects play a key role in contributing to the uniqueness of the model, enabling it to be an effective tool to help critically understand increasingly internationalized IS system development and implementation efforts. This research also suggests several practical implications in view of the findings that could better inform managerial decisions for designing, implementing, or promoting smart card-based E-payment system.

Financial inclusion is measured by the number of people who use the formal financial system and banks in particular. Limited access to formal banking services and the existence of unbanked households is a main policy concern. The authors evaluate how the use of prepaid (reloadable) debit cards by unbanked households affects financial inclusion and specifically the potential for these households to participate in the formal financial system and open a bank account.

The authors apply matching models to analyze survey data from the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation National Survey of the Unbanked and Underbanked Households from 2009 to 2019 and evaluate how prepaid cards use affects plans to open a bank account.

Unbanked households who use prepaid cards are 5% less likely to open a bank account compared to the matched nonusers of prepaid cards. In addition, prepaid card users are 12% more likely to use nonbanks to transfer money/transact online and 18% more likely to have obtained loans from alternative financial services providers compared to the matched unbanked nonusers of prepaid debit cards.

No previous work has estimated the causal impact of use of prepaid cards on financial inclusion.