The Dayton department store in Minneapolis and others plan to set up unattended kiosks where credit-card customers can charge their purchases themselves.

The ideal credit-card customer to the bank (and the money lender) is one who is so much in debt that they can never pay off the capital.

Allows New York banks to assess new penalties on credit-card customers for making late payments or exceeding their allowed credit limits.

- A catalogue masquerading as a magazine, mailed free to credit-card customers but also sold on newsstands.

The company's top credit-card customers, he added, had been "picked off" by banks offering Visa cards or MasterCards with low initial interest rates.

In the process he has helped bring in new competitors and new ideas that are forcing banks, sometimes unwillingly, to offer better deals to their credit-card customers.

Both have struggled with profit margins, Dillard's because of inventory growth, while Mercantile has offered too many promotions to its credit-card customers.

Mellon is also expanding its number of credit-card customers.

A special issue of the catalogue announcing the reduced prices was sent to credit-card customers.

For credit-card customers, don't expect to see your refund until the second billing cycle.