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Around the world, books, clothes and music are popular items to buy on the Web, according to a new global online shopping study conducted by Survey Sampling International (SSI) among 20 – 39 year olds in the US, Brazil, China, Japan and the Netherlands. The majority of respondents in China (70%) and Japan (60%) purchase books on the Internet, while almost half of participants in Brazil and the Netherlands do their book shopping online. In the US, books are also a common online purchase — second only to music — with 42% of survey participants reporting they buy books on the Web.

While books are popular with Internet shoppers, clothes are also a major online category. In fact, in China, clothes are the most common Web purchase. Three-quarters of Chinese respondents say that they purchase their outfits online — more than in any other country studied. In the Netherlands, just under half of participants report buying outfits on the Internet — tying with books as the most common item people buy online. Clothing is also a dominant online category in Japan — second only to books — with 45% of respondents shopping for apparel on the Web. In addition, clothing is a top-three online purchase in the US.

Music is also an important online category. It ranks #1 in the US (44%), #2 in the Netherlands (36%) and #4 in Japan (38%). It is less dominant in China and Brazil, though about a quarter of respondents in both countries buy music online.

In spite of the many commonalities in shopping preferences among countries, there also are some key differences. For example, in China and Japan, almost 40% of respondents buy food for their daily meals online. This is in sharp contrast to the US (13%), Brazil (7%) and the Netherlands (4%), where relatively few people shop for daily meals online.

In addition, almost half of Chinese respondents and a third of Japanese respondents buy cosmetics online. In the US and Brazil, only about a quarter of online shoppers buy cosmetics on the Web — and in the Netherlands, just 9% purchase makeup online.

Digital equipment is another category where there are marked geographic differences. Close to half of online shoppers in China and Brazil purchase digital equipment on the Internet. This is a far greater number than the US (38%), the Netherlands (30%) or Japan (26%).*

*Respondents could select multiple items they purchase online.

For more information, visit surveysampling.com.

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Wells Fargo & Company (NYSE: WFC) and Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) recently announced the rollout of Rapid Alerts for Wells Fargo Visa credit cardholders. The free service allows consumers to better manage and track their spending while providing them with near real-time¹ detection of potentially fraudulent activity.

Rapid Alerts by Wells Fargo are enabled by Visa’s transaction alerts platform. Alerts are sent on behalf of Wells Fargo directly from VisaNet, Visa’s global processing network, typically within seconds of a transaction occurring. Rapid Alerts are triggered when the transaction meets certain criteria previously selected by the Wells Fargo Visa account holder and delivered via text message or e-mail. Rapid Alerts let consumers monitor their Wells Fargo Visa credit card account activity and take immediate action if they believe a potentially fraudulent transaction is taking place.

Rapid Alert messages contain the amount, time and date of the transaction, as well as currency conversion and information relating to the merchant, such as name and location. Rapid Alert messages help customers track their spending and better manage their finances. Customers also will be alerted to Wells Fargo Visa credit card payments that are declined, which may also help remind customers of recurring payments that they forgot to update due to a reissued, lost or stolen card.

For more information, visit wellsfargo.com.

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Credit Union ONE recently presented a check for $17,000 to the Karmanos Cancer Institute – bringing its fundraising total to more than $1.2 million over the past 23 years, with $400,000 raised just through the credit union’s Affinity Card program since it was Credit Union ONE’s most recent donation has gone towards the purchase of a new bladder scanner.

Through Credit Union ONE’s Affinity Card program, the credit union and Karmanos share income generated by cardholder transactions. Other fundraising monies have come from a new member initiative created by Credit Union ONE several years ago. Credit Union ONE made a pledge of $400,000 in 2005 with its “Building a Cancer Free Future” campaign plus $100,000 for the Nurse Mentorship Hispanic Breast Outreach Program.

The credit union also has supported several other aspects of Karmanos’ research fundraising efforts, including the Gail Purtan Ovarian Cancer Research Fund, special events through the Karmanos Annual Dinner and Partners, as well as third party fundraising events and Karmanos’ population studies program.

Credit Union ONE, headquartered in Ferndale, is a full service financial institution offering an array of consumer and commercial financial services. Gary Moody, president and chief executive officer of Credit Union ONE, said the credit union is humbled to be part of the cutting-edge cancer research taking place at Karmanos.

For more information, visit karmanos.org.

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After Congress passed legislation last year reining in some of the worst credit card lending practices, many banks responded by hiking interest rates before the new rules went into effect, including on customers with perfect bill paying records. Now Consumers Union, the nonprofit publisher of Consumer Reports, is calling on the Federal Reserve Bank to require banks to roll back those unfair interest rate hikes and to put stronger limits on the size of penalty fees and interest charges.

The Fed has already proposed new regulations that would limit penalty fees and require banks to reconsider interest rate hikes imposed during the year leading up to the enactment of key CARD Act protections on February 22, 2010. But the proposed regulations don’t go far enough according to Consumers Union and should be strengthened to ensure consumers are more likely to see their old interest rates reinstated and don’t face unfair penalty fees and charges in the future.
The Fed’s proposed regulations would require banks to review interest rate hikes made on customers between January 2009 and February 22, 2010 and to reduce those rates “as appropriate.” But under the proposal, banks are allowed to keep secret their review process with no oversight by the Fed.

Banks could keep the higher interest rate if the reason for the old rate hike still exists, or if the bank decides to come up with a new reason for the higher rate. Banks would not be required to start this “look back” process until six months after the regulations go into effect – in other words, starting in late February 2011.

Thousands of consumers have contacted Consumers Union over the past year to complain that their credit card interest rates were raised unfairly. Many consumers reported that their banks acknowledged that interest rates were raised because of the economy or a change in market conditions and not because of anything wrong done by the consumer. Other consumers reported that their interest rates doubled or tripled after they were a day or two late making their payment or for other minor mistakes. Before the new credit card protections started on February 22, banks were allowed to raise interest rates on existing balances at any time for any reason.

Starting on February 22, banks were prohibited from raising interest rates on a credit card customer’s existing balance unless the customer has a variable rate card, a promotional rate has expired, or if the customer is more than 60 days late making the minimum payment.

The Fed also has proposed regulations required by Congress under the CARD Act that are meant to ensure penalty fees and charges are “reasonable and proportional” to the customer’s violation of the credit card contract. However, the Fed’s proposed rule only applies to penalty fees such as those imposed for going over the limit or being late with a payment and not penalty interest rates.

Under the Fed’s proposal, penalty fees would be allowed only if a bank can show the fee is a reasonable proportion of the total cost to the bank caused by the customer’s violation of the credit card agreement or if the bank proves that the fee amount is necessary to deter the same kind of violations in the future. The rule also proposes a complicated “safe harbor” provision which allows a bank to pick a permissible fee amount without doing the cost or deterrence analysis.

Consumers Union urged the Fed to broaden its proposed regulation so it extends to the size of penalty interest rate hikes in addition to fees and to limit those rate increases to no more than seven percentage points above the non-penalty interest rate. Consumers Union called on the Fed to simplify and strengthen the “safe harbor” provision for penalty fees by setting it at five percent of the violation or no more than $10.

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