APRO organizes and maintains a network of rent-to-own dealers to help defend and promote the industry in Congress and in state legislatures. For 20 years, APRO has led the rent-to-own industry in creating and developing a strong grassroots campaign. APRO members and industry leaders can join this valuable opportunity by attending APRO's annual Dave Egan Legislative Conference. Local elections also provide a valuable opportunity to participate in grassroots networking. As a small-business owner, the best introduction to politics is during elections. Rent-to-own dealers have been active in elections for years, helping candidates furnish their campaign offices, volunteering their stores for campaign signs, volunteering employees for voter phone banks and attending local political functions.

This year, APRO's Dave Egan Legislative Conference is February 23-25th.  If you haven't already registered, you can do so at the rtohq.org website, where you can also find out more information on the 20 years of legislative activity in which APRO and the Rent to Own dealers have participated.

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One of the hottest topics in electronic payments is cardholder data security.  As a business, it is your responsibility to ensure your customer's data is kept secure at every step in the transaction.  This not only includes the card number and expiration date, but the actual data that is stored on the magnetic strip of the credit card.

At Moneris, we recently rolled out a product called Vault, which is a new component of our payment gateway eSELECTplus.  Primarily built for businesses that process recurring bill payments, Vault securely stores all credit card data on our secure servers so you don’t have to.  Vault works using a token based system, so after the first transaction and customer record is set up, the card information does not need to be re-entered.  It is stored securely, and referred to by the token whenever a transaction is processed, all within our secure, PCI compliant servers.

By taking the burden of the business regarding cardholder data security, you can concentrate on what is important to you…running your business.

Take a look at Vault, and call us at 866-423-8475 to find out more!

The recession has cooled the American ardor for living on credit. After years of saying "Charge it," consumers are more often paying with their debit cards instead.  Worry about jobs, fear of fluctuating interest rates on credit cards and wariness about spending too much are contributing to the change.  "People are managing their money in a different way," said David Robertson, publisher of the Nilson Report, which tracks the credit card industry.

"You clearly have a situation where those people who have jobs are exhibiting recession anxiety and they are making more debit transactions."  Click to read more.

CONSUMER DELINQUENCIES RISE AGAIN IN FIRST QUARTER 2009 Composite ratio inches higher, sets new record

WASHINGTON – A record wave of job losses is being cited as a major factor in a record rate of consumer delinquencies in the first quarter of 2009, according to the American Bankers Association’s Consumer Credit Delinquency Bulletin.   More than two million Americans lost their jobs in the first three months of the year with more than 6 million jobs lost since the recession began.  The composite ratio, which tracks delinquencies in eight closed-end installment loan categories, rose to 3.23 percent of all accounts (seasonally adjusted) compared to 3.22 percent of all accounts in the previous quarter.  The delinquent balances on those accounts also rose from 3.16 percent to 3.35 percent of total balances due (not seasonally adjusted).  The ABA report defines a delinquency as a late payment that is 30 days or more overdue.  Read More... 

The U.S. Senate approved legislation today that will have a drastic effect on the credit card industry.  The bill, called the Credit Card Accountability, Responsibility, and Disclosure (or Credit CARD) Act, sponsored by Senate Banking Committee Chairman Chris Dodd, D-Conn. addresses credit card issuers' ability to raise rates on existing balances as well as over-limit and late fees and more. (more) 

Bill Summary

In a recent article by Marketwire VeriSign, the trusted provider of internet infrastructure services, indicated that even in trying times, consumers seek safety over savings; eighty five percent of consumers said trusting a site is most important when transacting online.

Here is the Marketwire article

To keep your customer data secure, make sure you are using a PCI compliant payments solution, and abide by the PCI Guidelines.  We are here to answer your questions, contact us for more information on secure payment solutions!

Stephanie Rosenbloom writes for the New York Times about November retail sales results

Read the article here

RIS News has some interesting insight on shopping behaviors.  Turbulent Economic Times Changing Shopping Behaviors

Some interesting myths about personal credit history.  Seven Common Consumer Credit Myths Dispelled By TransUnion's TrueCredit.com

The Federal Reserve provided its G.19 monthly update on consumer credit in the US - reporting
that revolving credit grew at 7.1 percent annual rate during May as compared to
declining 0.5 percent in April.