Core retail spending (excluding fuel and vehicle-related spending) fell 0.8 per cent in April, the first time since last June.

The dropping of Airpoints from BNZ credit cards has lowered the bank's travel reward performance in the latest credit card research.

Setting yourself up for life financially can be done with seven easy steps.

For the March quarter as a whole core retail sales paid for by credit, debit or charge cards were up 2.7 per cent - the fastest quarterly growth since December 2006.

Latest stats show New Zealand consumers are starting to spend up in the shops, with electronic card spending up 3.7 per cent last month.

Don't be sucked in by tempting rewards schemes when you're shopping for a credit card, says Consumer New Zealand.

Retailers are continuing to benefit from the boost to consumers' discretionary incomes from the fall in oil prices over the past year.

New Zealanders increased spending on debit and credit cards in February, led by gains in hospitality and apparel as low inflation

People are becoming more comfortable with the new way of paying for small items, with a trebling in the use of contactless card transactions over the past year.

Having bad credit can stand in the way of everything from borrowing from the bank to signing up with a power company for your home electricity.

Visa is rolling out software to detect whether it's you or someone pretending to be you filling up on fuel.

A six-year-old racked up a credit card bill of more than $1,200 in just two days, playing games on his parents' tablet.

Consumer spending rose strongly and across the board last month, electronic card transactions indicate.

There's a fox in the hen house of personal finance. It's called a credit card, writes Diana Clement. Most people have little plastic friends. They may also have Farmers Card, QCard, Gem Visa and other store cards, which are disguised credit cards.

Visa is to stop accepting signatures for its New Zealand-issued credit cards for most transactions from later this year in a bid to strengthen security.

Remember that ad where Richie McCaw races around the shops in a suit, buying wedding presents and tapping his card on an eftpos terminal?

Ordinary travel insurance is full of fish-hooks, writes Diana Clement. Credit card travel insurance has even more nasty surprises.

Kiwis appear to be falling back into the bad credit card habits last seen before the global financial crisis, an economist has warned.

Competition is heating up in the $5.6b credit card market, with two major banks releasing new offers in the past week.

Next time you give your credit card some exercise, ask yourself if you're behaving logically. You're probably not.

Credit cards are designed to part us with our money. Canny customers, however, can sometimes use these little plastic cards to their financial advantage.

Card fraud is now big business. The victim may be in New Zealand; an offender may well be in Russia, Germany or Taiwan."Cash, they told us, was old hat. Paper money was an anachronism from another era, an idea whose time had passed.

After a week-long holiday relaxing in the Far North, Chloe Johnson panics when she tries to buy skincare products online and discovers the card is missing from its usual home inside her wallet.

Banks and police are trying to stay ahead of wily credit card fraudsters - but as long as banks mail pre-activated cards, the problem will persist.

A man arrested in Australia for "significant'' credit card fraud is alleged to have used money fleeced from bank accounts to travel to New Zealand on fake passports.

More New Zealanders are feeling comfortable about increasing the limit on their credit card limits now than this time last year, according to survey findings.