As you can imagine, we’ve been reading a  lot of chatter about gift cards on Twitter.

To us, the interesting thing is that gift cards are, in some ways, analogous to credit cards for companies. A credit card allows consumers to delay fulfillment of their part of a purchase. In the same way, companies delay fulfillment of their part of a purchase through gift cards. You wait to pay off your credit card and the company waits to give you its products.

It’s a mutually beneficial arrangement in both cases. However, make …

Ianfurniss tweets a cautionary blog post about credit:

RT @fotofugitive @pixelatedimagePhotographers, credit cards and debt – don’t, for the love of Annie Leibovitz, do it! http://bit.ly/8YH5tC

The article discusses using credit for photography gear.

Admittedly, our main reason for linking to it is that we like the photo mockup for a credit card. But it also grounds generic advice- don’t spend beyond …

GregM39 alerted us to a CBS News Story:

Credit Cards’ Holiday “Reign of Terror”http://www.cbsnews.com/stor…

CBS News reports on continuing changes in credit cards. We’ve noted the new climate in the credit card world, and it continues through the holiday season. Consumers need to read notices, be aware of changes to rates and fees, and make sure they understand any new rules.

It may be the holiday season- but it’s not a holiday from financial awareness.

Occasionally, Twitter spam leads us to interesting discoveries. Today, a spammer posted a link to an article he copied, but the original article is actually pretty interesting- it’s about a new way to “go dutch” with credit cards.

Posted at Yanko Design, the “Piece of Cake” allows users to choose what they pay for at a restaurant or split the bill evenly. Then, payment is as simple as a swipe. It seems like an exciting way to make the convenience of credit cards more…well, convenient. Of course, the design is …

ValetView tweets about another new credit card development: valets who take credit cards.

Here at Taking Credit, we’ve taken it as our duty to cover the latest in credit card acceptance, from the Salvation Army credit card kettles to taxi cabs and credit cards. We’ve even updated you on credit card newspaper boxes.

So valets are the latest in the bunch, at least in LA. Like all industries taking credit cards, valets will look to balance the convenience of credit cards with the burden of …

Today, Black Friday, has a lot of people thinking about credit cards:

Black fri is a day when I ride and see the mtns from my arena and think about lines, “stuff”, credit cards, pushy people and actually smile

As you can imagine, credit cards are used frequently on Black Friday. That’s why we have some helpful tips.

1. Don’t max out your cards. Sure, you may want to spend a lot. But maxing out your card puts you in reach of overdraft fees that would be far better used on presents.
2. Keep …
   

Financethink tweets out a question:

FTT: Anyone take a personal loan to pay off credit cards? http://bit.ly/2GH5KU

Occasionally, you may have a credit card bill that’s too much to pay. In some cases, that bill can be so significant that interest charges and other fees can be very expensive.

Why do people take out loans to pay off their cars? In some cases, private loans can have lower interest rates than credit cards. If your debt is significant enough, that can …

SaraLang tweets about the Minnesota cold- and a credit innovation:

MN makes me laugh-Salvation Army has issues swiping credit cards because the machines freeze below 35 degreeshttp://tinyurl.com/y8qymga

That’s right- the Salvation Army is continually testing credit card kettles.

Have you personally seen a credit card kettle in the wild? Apparently, last year was the first year of a significant rollout for the kettles. However, a Life Magazine slideshow shows that the Salvation Army has been swiping in some …

The WashingtonPost has some good advice:

Time to stop tossing those notices about your credit cards: http://bit.ly/16y8Jr

The full article points out that CARD legislation is changing the notices that credit card companies send.

We’ve written before about some of the effects of CARD legislation, including rate fees and freezes. As a part of these changes, however, credit card companies are forced to give more advance notice about changes they make.

It’s become easier to be an informed …

Sometimes, there are quality tweets about credit that don’t quite fit for a post. We’ve included a few of our favorites from today:

Nerdy_Nora is getting frustrated…

@ctheory Dear, you’ve *barely* dealt with my insanity. I lost *two* credit cards yesterday, my glasses today, my train pass… Im not there!

While Keldsyeahh is happy…

thinks the best thing about shopping with dad is that if you bug him for about 3 minutes +he just hands you his visa and away you …