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President Obama has really rocked the credit card world since he’s taken office. Of all of the industries affected by the downturn in the economy, the credit card industry has been hit as one of the hardest. President Obama passed the credit cardholders bill of rigths this year which gives protection to you as a consumer.

Valentine’s Day is coming up quickly, what with it being the end of January. Sweethearts of America, I am telling you now to lock up your credit cards! If you have a special someone in your life – especially if you are a man – it can be so easy to run up exorbitant charges on your plastic in the quest to get the big day just right.

Are you leaving the country or otherwise going on a long and costly trip? Hopefully you have at least considered travel insurance to protect your monetary investment and health. In recent years, travelers have found themselves with more and more options as insurers and independent companies jump into the travel insurance business. Obviously, to ask any of these insurers you would be convinced that you absolutely cannot live without these types of coverage, but it’s important to know that you might already be covered by insurance you already have!

Something that many drivers may not consider when they are choosing the rental company with which to do business is roadside assistance, and how the company treats this unfortunate but oftentimes necessary bit of trouble. There’s nothing that can derail your plans faster than finding out that the car you rented has a flat tire in a parking lot far away from home, or that you are suddenly stuck at the airport in a strange town with an engine that will not turn over.

Kaplan is the founder of a fresh new web site called Blippy (blippy.com) with a slightly bizarre, kind of ingenious twist: in an age of ever-decreasing privacy, where full disclosure is the new normal, Kaplan’s site will allow people to link up their credit cards so that the items/services they buy and their costs are auto-posted on a news feed similar to the social networking sites Facebook and MySpace.

It’s no news to anyone with a brain that the rules of life are quite a bit different when it comes to celebrities. The stars of our culture seem to be able to get away with quite a lot more than their non-luminous counterparts, from evading hit-and-run charges to skirting multi-million dollar bankruptcies with nary a court appearance to slow them down. The newest story of a celebrity engaging in behavior that would get any of the rest of us arrested comes from Hollywood – naturally – and the famous pop tart Britney Spears.

Those flying with Continental Airlines in coming weeks will be witness to a host of new changes impacting the legacy carrier. Continental announced today that it has converted fully to cashless flights, meaning that fliers have to swipe a credit or debit card for all in-board expenses. And, as of this summer, passengers will have more in-board services from which to choose than ever before.

It’s entirely possible to be wasting plenty of money, and not even know it. Many of us have been really working on tightening our belts during these tough economic times, and have made many sacrifices to bring our monthly budgets more in line with what they need to be. But did you know it’s possible that you are throwing a considerable amount of money away every month on your credit card? Unlike cash, which is very easy to monitor as it comes from your wallet, or a debit card (considering that most of us check our bank accounts online or by phone on a regular basis), it’s pretty easy to be spending money on a credit card and not even be aware of it.

January’s just about over, but it’s never too late to make (and follow!) some great resolutions for new change in your life. How are those New Year’s resolutions working out for you? Many studies have shown that starting a diet and losing weight is one of the most frequently-made resolutions that people make. Today, I’m going to suggest an all-new resolution.

How many times have you gone to make a small purchase in a store, only to have it brought to your attention that there is a minimum purchase for all credit card transactions? As a consumer who knows maybe a little more than most about credit cards and the rules governing their use, this particular issue tends to peeve me like none other: it’s just a fact that merchants cannot (per the terms of the agreement signed between the merchant and credit card issuer when the merchant agreed to accept those cards) require a minimum amount to be bought before they will accept credit cards as payment.

Has it been at least a week before you’ve been importuned with the appeal to participate in a Nigerian lottery scam? Your winning streak is about to come to a close. Last week’s devastating earthquake in Haiti has, in less than seven days, brought out some of the best in people all around the world as they came together to give generously. Of course, it has also brought the scum of the world out of the woodwork as they came together to concoct fake charity scams and multiple other ways to fleece people out of their hard-earned money in the name of Haiti.