EDGE Miami

Consumers used their credit cards more in March, marking only the second increase in the more than two years since the height of the financial crisis.

WikiLeaks’ payment processor said Thursday that it was preparing to sue credit card companies Visa and MasterCard over their refusal to process donations to the secret-spilling website.

A sweater you buy for Christmas goes on sale for half price the next day. You might be able to get the difference back if you paid with a credit card.

The Justice Department on Monday sued the three largest U.S. credit card companies for anticompetitive practices and reached a proposed settlement with two of them, MasterCard and Visa.

Consumer borrowing fell again in July as households cut back on their credit card use for a 23rd consecutive month, adding more drag on an economy struggling to mount a sustained rebound.

The amount consumers owed on their credit cards in this year’s second quarter dropped to the lowest level in more than eight years as cardholders continued to pay off balances in the uncertain economy.

The benefits of stricter credit card regulations appear to have come without the predicted drawbacks - at least so far.

According to Moody’s Credit Card Indices, 10.71 percent of securitized credit card loans - card balances that are pooled and repackaged for investors - were written off as uncollectable in May. That was slightly higher than the 10.62 percent in May 2009, but down from 10.91 percent in April.

The Federal Reserve adopted new rules Tuesday aimed at protecting credit card customers from getting socked by lofty late payment charges and other penalty fees.

MasterCard Inc. spent $820,000 in the first quarter to lobby the federal government on Wall Street reform and consumer protection legislation, according to a disclosure report.