Chase rewards points now valid for Southwest flights

In the run-up to the 2011 holidays, many credit card companies ran special promotions and/or enhanced their rewards programs. That was understandable. Card issuers are strenuously competing both to attract new customers and to encourage existing ones to use their plastic as much as possible, and the holiday season must be their biggest opportunity to do those things.

So you might have expected the flow of promotions and enhancements to dry up at the start of the new year. But youd have been wrong.

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Jan 05, 2011 Total dollar figures loaded annually on prepaid debit cards are fast approaching the $500 billion mark. As a financial tool, the prepaid card has earned its place among bank debit cards, credit cards and paper checks and doesnt appear to be losing ground anytime soon. Remarkably, there is still a large portion of the population that doesnt understand how prepaid cards work beyond that of a merchant gift card. Let us fill you in. Lets focus on General Purpose Reloadable (GPR) prepaid cards for the time being and leave the merchant gift cards on the table for now. First of all, GPR prepaid cards are just that, prepaid.

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Orthodontics is a specialty of dentistry that is concerned with the study and treatment of improper bites (tooth irregularity and/or unequal jaw connection). Orthodontists can also specialize in the control or modification of facial growth. Your dentist may refer you to an orthodontist if he feels you will need treatment to improve your orofacial appearance.

Braces

Any orthodontic problem can be classified as misaligned or crooked teeth, missing teeth, extra teeth, overbite, under bite, misaligned jaw position, and a disorder in the jaw joint.

No matter how old or young you are, correcting the alignment of teeth seems inevitable. Its always better to correct the alignment at a young age as an adults jaw is already positioned and settled.

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Credit card signup bonuses can stretch your holiday budget by Peter Andrew

Nobody could blame you for wanting to bury your head in the sand. Why should you be planning your holiday spending now, when youve got Thanksgiving to worry about? But, if you can spare a few minutes, here are some ideas that could put cash back in your pocket. So lets talk turkey.

Credit card companies and sign-up bonuses

As you probably know by now, credit card companies are currently locked in a desperate battle to win market share. This largely explains the recent rush of enhancements to rewards credit cards.

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Dec 09, 2011 Yesterday Fiserv, Inc. (NASDAQ: FISV) announced on their website an partnership agreement with Sunrise Community Banks to offer General Purpose Reloadabe (GPR) and gift prepaid card processing services for the MasterCard(R) network brand. Sunrise Community Banks are based in the Minneapolis/St. Paul area and are comprised of Franklin Bank, University Bank and Park Midway Bank. Fiserv consdiders themselves a leader in technology solutions for the financial industry including Processing Services, Risk & Compliance, Customer & Channel Management, Insights & Organization, Payments and more focused Industry Solutions, according to their website.

Phil Valvardi, General Manager of Prepaid Solutions for Card Services for Fiserv was quoted:

GPR and gift cards provide a convenient, safe and secure alternative payment solution.

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Skype says that nearly five million people downloaded version 2.0 of its iPhone app, which allows calls over 3G, in the first four days it has been available. That’s a big number, especially considering that the app was released on a Saturday night with as little fanfare as would seem possible.

Reuters first reported the Skype stat, current through “Wednesday morning.” We contacted the company to double check (no offense, Reuters, but that is a huge number). Skype confirmed the five million downloads figure and said it likely includes upgrades, explaining why its app didn’t shoot to the top of the U.S. iTunes store “free app” list, and the “five million” number, of course, includes all global downloads.

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Study: Debt paid off faster without minimum payment requirement? by Peter Andrew

Are you one of those people who receive their monthly credit card bills, check the minimum payment required, and then (at least usually) pay only that minimum? If so, youre a member of quite a big club.

Credit card debt paid down more slowly

Of course, everyone knows that making only minimum payments is a very slow, and, with credit card rates the way they are, a very expensive way of paying down plastic.

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