Leading the way in this new innovative way of shopping is Barclays, Barclaycard who have over 5 million contactless enabled credit cards in the U.K. at the present time. It all started in 2007 with Barclaycard introducing the One Pluse, making life easier for many of its customers.

Caffe Nero, one of the largest coffee retailers trailed the contactless concept in December 2008 in central London and completed the roll out across all their stores by October 2009. Managing Director of Caffe Nero, Jonathan Hart, says “We have had very positive feedback from our customers since our decision to trial contactless in December 2008. The rollout across our entire network will give our customers a choice of ways to pay which we hope will enhance their experience with us.”

Another company to roll out this concept is Pret a Manger, who have also successfully roll out the product throughout its 199 shops. Head of I.T. at Pret a Manger , Simon Kerry, said “As a high street food chain, our busiest times are during the morning and lunch time rush hour. These are the best times to pay with contactless as it cuts down on the amount of time that our customers will spend queuing in store. We are pleased our customers have embraced the technology and hope to see an increase of payment via contactless in the next year.”

These are only two of the big names who have rollout this concept, taking contactless payment product with Barclaycard to 20,000 outlets.

Amer Sajed, Chief Executive of Barclaycard UK, Business and International at Barclaycard, comments: “Five million contactless payment cards issued is a significant milestone on the journey of how people will pay for goods and services in the future. Together with Barclays we continue to rollout contactless technology across our card portfolio as we believe it is the future of payments. Consumer feedback highlights the increasing demand for contactless payment and we expect to see more retailers follow Caffe Nero and Pret A Manger and sign up to contactless in the near future.”

Simple advice has been issued in order for credit card holders to make necessary procedures in order to protect themselves from fraud.

Logging out straight after making the transaction then saving the confirmation e-mails are very important in order to record what has been purchased. PC’s should have up to date protection such as anti virus software and the latest operating system.

Only sites with a good reputation should be used and these sites can be identified by looking for the padlock symbol.

Head of fraud control for The U.K. Cards Association, Kate Worobec, said “More of us than ever before will be doing our Christmas shopping online this year, and there is absolutely no reason why we shouldn’t be doing so in complete confidence.”

Finally, credit card holders should never reveal any details to any cold calls they receive.

Head of banking at moneysupermarket.com, Kevin Mountford, said “Christmas is always a difficult time of year financially and the current economic climate is not making things any easier. Preparation is the key during the festive season and consumers who have saved will be able to start the New Year without the burden of Christmas debt hanging over them”.

Those who have decided to go down the credit card route should be using their head when deciding about how to go about this, with Mr Mountford adding that for those people looking at using a credit card a deal with 0% interest on purchases would be the best option.

He added “Provided you are able to pay off the balance in full within the zero per cent period, these cards are a good way of spreading the cost of Christmas”, pointing out that consumers should not be spreading the payments to after the 0% interest period as they could still be paying the credit card off the next time Christmas comes around.

Customers will not only receive points on everything they buy, but they will be able to double their points when purchasing fuel or any AA products.

In may appeal to the 15 million members that the AA has who will be able to benefit from a 12 months interest free period.

With an APR of 16.9%, customers can redeem their points against AA insurance or products as well as shopping vouchers and cash back.

The motorist’s card, as the director of Financial Services at AA put it, believes that reward cards are of particular popularity at the moment. He said “The cost of motoring is constantly rising – not least the price of fuel and the new AA card offers the opportunity to help ease the financial pain of running a vehicle”.

The announcement was made to staff after just a day when RBS and Lloyds confirmed plans for £ 40 million worth of government money being ploughed into them.

This news comes on top of RBS confirming last week that they are going to be axing 3,700 branch staff and will see offices in Southampton, Southend, Leicester and Sheffield being affected.

Chief Executive of HSBC UK, Paul Thurston, said “This restructure is an essential part of the streamlining of our business and the migration of activities into centres of excellence around the country.”

Having already being labelled a “fundamental mistake” by union leaders, employees at the lower wage end of the scale are most likely to be affected. Rob MacGregor from Unite’s national office said “The union does not believe this will do anything to improve the company’s performance.”

This bad news will take HSBC job cuts total this year to 3,400. The bank did not have to take the government bailout but instead raised £ 12 billion from shareholders earlier this year.

MasterCard has said that it has now agreed to halve the fees charged for transactions, but that this was only a temporary measure pending a court appeal. Xavier Durieu, secretary general of retailer lobby EuroCommerce, said: “This temporary settlement sends an extremely negative message to everyone in Europe. This decision is appalling and we count on the Commission to win the court appeal.”

Retailers have been outraged by these fees, and according to reports have claimed that domestic and cross border payment card transaction fees in Europe are amounting to around £11 billion a year. EU Competition Commissioner Neelie Kroes said: “These fees are simply a hidden source of revenue for banks. MasterCard could not justify their level.”

MasterCard officials have said that the agreement to cut the fees on a temporary basis meant that the network could not invest in new products for consumers and retailers and could not sustain string competition within the payments industry in Europe. MasterCard Europe’s president, Javier Perez, said: “That is why these rates are only interim, and why we are pursuing our appeal in the European Court of First Instance.”

Neelie Kroes stated: “We will be monitoring implementation closely in coming months.” She added: “I have no intention that today’s announcement will allow Visa to benefit at the expense of MasterCard.”

In the past many people have switched their credit card debts onto a 0 percent balance transfer credit card, which has given them a long period of interest free credit within which to repay the transferred balance without being charged any interest on the debt. However, these cards usually charge a balance transfer fee of around 2-3 percent of the amount being transferred, and in some cases this can come to a lot of money, which may put people off from doing this.

Industry officials have recently said that a more suitable alternative for those that do not wish to have to pay these costly transfer fees would be the life of balance transfer credit card. In the same way as the 0 percent balance transfer card consumers can transfer their existing credit card balances on to these cards. They are then charged a very low rate of interest on the transferred balance for the life of the balance, as long as they ensure that they make at least the minimum monthly repayment required.

One credit cardholder recently stated: “I wanted to try and shift my debt from my existing cards, which charged a high rate of interest, to an interest free balance transfer card, but providers were asking for a large amount by way of transfer fees. I then decided to transfer to a life of balance transfer card, which saves me money in interest and gives me more time to clear the balance that I transferred.”

One of the measures that the government is bringing in is to stop credit card firms from automatically increasing customers’ credit limits. At present credit card providers review the accounts of customers periodically and then increase their limits accordingly, letting them know by post. However, whilst the customer may not have really wanted the credit limit increased once this is done the temptation is there to spend on the card, which puts the cardholder even deeper into debt. The government wants this practice to stop, and for credit limits to be increased only at the request of the cardholder.

Another thing that many credit card providers have been doing over recent years is sending out credit card cheques to customers, which can then be written like normal cheques. Customers can even write themselves a cheque and put it in their bank, with the amount then coming off their credit card. However, many do not realise that they are then charged high credit card fees for using the cheques. This is something else that the government wants to put an end to.

The Consumer Affairs Minister, Gareth Thomas, said: “We are concerned that people may be tempted to borrow irresponsibly if credit card companies increase borrowing limits without this being requested by customers, or send out unsolicited credit card cheques. It’s vital we protect consumers at this time and we are exploring these issues carefully.”

The two banks that are said to have pushed up their credit card interest rates recently are Halifax and Bank of Scotland. Officials have expressed concern that whilst the Bank of England has been slashing the base interest rate over the past six months, bringing it down to an all time low of just 0.5 percent, some credit card firms have continued to hike up their interest rates dramatically.

The two groups are owned by HBOS, which has now been taken over by Lloyds TSB. The provider has said that the rate rises are between 1 and 4 percent. However, some of the credit card customers have received letters stating that their card interest rate is being increased by 5 percent. Some customers have even seen their rates increased by more than this amount. The card provider has said, however, that the move is part of a ‘continual review of rates’.

An official from HBOS said: “The changes will affect a small number of our card holders and will be according to each customer’s personal circumstances. The average increase is between 1% and 4% which is inside [government] guidelines and reflects what is happening across the credit card market.”

Whilst using debit cards is largely free in the UK for UK consumers the story is quite a different one abroad, and many people fail to realise this. The hefty charges that can be applied for debit card transactions whilst abroad can quickly add up, and the cardholder may suddenly find that if they have been using the card on a regular basis they owe a small fortune in fees. Using credit cards abroad is also costly due to various fees and charges that are applied, and again customers can come back to a nasty shock when their credit card statement arrives.

Fees for over the counter transactions as well as currency conversion fees can all add up, but many consumers take their cards with them and use them on a daily basis without realising how much they could be clocking up in charges. One consumer said: “I went abroad and thought that I would be fine to use my debit card whilst I was over there. However, I was shocked when I saw my bank statement and realised how much I had been charged in fees and charges. Never again!”

Consumers are now being urged only to use their cards if they really need to and to consider another form of currently such as traveller’s cheques. For those planning to take their cards abroad it is advisable to contact the lender or bank and find out just what your charges are so that there are no really nasty shocks.