Bond investors are driving down the
price of debt issued by retailers as they report comparable-
store sales for the holiday season that are failing to live up
to a record Thanksgiving weekend.

The cost of protecting bonds of Gap Inc. (GPS) from default
approached a record last week and contracts on JC Penney Co.
had the biggest two-day surge in 14 months. Merchandiser
debentures have lost 0.4 percent this month with Family Dollar
Stores Inc. the only one of the top 50 borrowers in Bank of
America Merrill Lynch’s US retailer index showing positive
returns for January. Investment-grade corporate bonds overall
are little changed.

San Francisco-based Gap, Target Corp. (TGT) and Kohl’s Corp. (KSS)
reported December same-store sales that were below analysts’
estimates after mistiming promotions or running out of
inventory. Weaker retailers will struggle to maintain market
share as competition increases, according to Fitch Ratings.

“It’s a case of hangover,” said Anthony Valeri, market
strategist at LPL Financial, which manages $330 billion. “After
a strong start to shopping over Thanksgiving weekend, big
discounts and weaker-than-forecast December sales have left
investors a little queasy.”

While some retailers such as Macy’s Inc. (M) had sales that
beat estimates and boosted earnings forecasts, analysts say
revenue for Samp;P 500 retailers grew 6.4 percent last quarter,
compared with 7.2 percent for the overall index excluding
financial companies, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

Searching for Bargains

An initially “bullish view” of the holiday sales season
didn’t pan out, said Scott Tuhy, an analyst at Moody’s Investors
Service. Retailers may have hurt their own profits by offering
deals just to get consumers in the door, he said.

“The consumer wasn’t going to come out unless there was a
deal, because they’ve been so trained by retailers to expect a
deal,” Tuhy said.

Fitch estimates that the 45 retailers it rates or monitors
have $12 billion of debt coming due this year.

Elsewhere in credit markets, a benchmark gauge of US
company credit risk rose for a fourth day with the Markit CDX
North America Investment Grade Index, which investors use to
hedge against losses or to speculate on creditworthiness,
climbing by 0.3 basis point to a mid-price of 120.3 basis points
as of 12:13 pm in New York, according to Markit Group Ltd.

The index typically rises as investor confidence
deteriorates and falls as it improves. Credit-default swaps pay
the buyer face value if a borrower fails to meet its
obligations, less the value of the defaulted debt. A basis point
equals $1,000 annually on a swap protecting $10 million of debt.

Fannie Mae

The odds of credit rating downgrades on the bonds of Fannie
Mae (FNMA) and Freddie Mac rose after lawmakers tapped the government-
supported mortgage companies to pay for last month’s extension
of a payroll tax cut, according to Bank of America Corp.

Investors in the so-called agency debt market should favor
the bonds of other government-sponsored enterprises such as the
Federal Home Loan Banks and Federal Farm Credit Banks because of
the risk, Ralph Axel, a Bank of America analyst in New York,
wrote in a Jan. 6 report.

Congress, to finance the two-month extension of the tax cut
in December, ordered an increase in the premiums that
Washington-based Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac (FMCC) in McLean, Virginia,
charge to guarantee mortgage debt. The funds generated by the
extra fees will be directed to the government for the next 10
years.

Bankruptcy Opposed

Investors in Residential Capital LLC’s debt are pressuring
Ally Financial Inc. to support the unprofitable mortgage unit.
Bondholders that own more than $800 million of ResCap’s secured
debt hired White amp; Case LLP to oppose a possible bankruptcy
filing for the unit, the law firm said in a statement. The law
firm said the group is “concerned” that Ally may try to walk
away from the unit’s liabilities.

Even as Ally, the former financing arm of automaker General
Motors Corp., prepares to repay $17.2 billion in government
bailout funds, its mortgage unit faces lawsuits over faulty
loans that could wipe out the parent company’s profits. ResCap
hired Centerview Partners LLP to weigh options, including
bankruptcy, a person familiar with the talks said Nov. 9.

While the National Retail Federation raised its forecast
for the holiday shopping season after a record $52.4 billion in
sales during the Thanksgiving weekend, Target, Kohl’s, and JC
Penney lowered their fourth-quarter profit estimates after
ramping up discounts. Sales were forecasted to rise 3.8 percent
for the season, compared with 5.2 percent in 2010, the
Washington-based trade group said Dec. 15.

Gap Default Swaps

Credit-default swaps on Gap surged to 313 basis points on
Jan. 6, which is 0.1 basis point shy of an Oct. 4 record,
according to data provider CMA. Gap’s comparable sales for
December declined 4 percent, the company said Jan. 5, compared
with the average estimate for a 1.3 percent drop from analysts
surveyed by researcher Retail Metrics Inc.

“They have to reinvent the company from the outside in,”
Craig Johnson, president of consulting firm Customer Growth
Partners in New Canaan, Connecticut, said Jan. 5 in a Bloomberg
Television interview. “They’ve lost their way.”

Swaps tied to the debt of Plano, Texas-based JC Penney
had the worst two-day stretch since October 2010 as the third-
largest department store chain cut its fourth-quarter profit
forecast, citing declining sales and deeper discounts than
anticipated. Profit will be at most 70 cents a share, JC
Penney said in a statement Jan. 5, less than an earlier
projection of as much as $1.15 and below the average analyst
estimate of $1.08.

Junk-Rated Retailers

The contracts jumped 45.6 basis points on Jan. 4 and 5 to
327.9 basis points, according to CMA, which is owned by CME
Group Inc. and compiles prices quoted by dealers in the
privately negotiated market. They declined to 326.6 on Jan. 6.

The loss in retailer bonds this month compares with a
decline of 0.07 percent for US investment-grade debentures,
Bank of America Merrill Lynch index data show. Gap bonds have
lost 0.83 percent on average, Target debt declined 0.21 percent,
and Kohl’s decreased 0.87 percent, while Matthews, North
Carolina-based Family Dollar has gained 0.37 percent, the only
positive return in the US Corporates, Non-Food and Drug Retail
index.

While bonds of junk-rated retailers have gained 0.28
percent this month, they’re trailing the high-yield market
overall, which has returned 0.76 percent, Bank of America
Merrill Lynch index data show. High-yield bonds are graded below
Baa3 by Moody’s and lower than BBB- by Standard amp; Poor’s.

Target, Kohl’s

Minneapolis-based Target, the second-largest US discount
retailer, said fourth-quarter profit would be at most $1.43 a
share, 10 cents below the maximum forecast earlier. The average
analyst estimate in a Bloomberg survey was for $1.48. December
comparable-store sales rose 1.6 percent, less than the estimated
3.3 percent gain.

Menomonee Falls, Wisconsin-based Kohl’s cut its fourth-
quarter profit forecast by 31 cents to at most $1.73 a share,
and same-store sales dropped 0.1 percent, compared with the
projection for a 2.4 percent increase.

Stronger, growth-oriented retailers will continue to build
market share, and the industry’s same-store sales will climb as
much as 3 percent in 2012, Fitch said in a note dated Nov. 22.
Debt maturities this year are “moderate,” with $12 billion
coming due across the 45 companies that Fitch rates or monitors.

Macy’s

Macy’s reported a 6.2 percent increase in same-store sales,
topping the 4.6 percent estimate. The Cincinnati-based company
boosted its fourth-quarter earnings forecast by 3 cents to as
much as $1.60 a share. Analysts projected an average $1.61.

Retailers such as Macy’s have “effectively and
efficiently” managed and planned their inventory, have stronger
logistics, and have been “been able to maintain their margins
better than others,” said David Brown, a money manager who
helps oversee $82 billion of fixed-income assets at Neuberger
Berman LLC in Chicago.

Macy’s $611.9 million of 7.875 percent notes due July 2015
have climbed to 116.1 cents on the dollar as of Jan. 6 from as
low as 113.98 cents on Oct. 11, Trace data show.

“Where the rising tide is not helping all ships, the
better operators are standing out more,” he said in a telephone
interview. “You have a highly competitive industry with modest
growth. Some of those companies who are not very tightly
managing their inventory and cash flow and properly investing in
their stores are going to continue to struggle.”

Personal spending climbed 0.1 percent in November, the
Commerce Department reported Dec. 23. That was less than the
median 0.3 percent gain projected by a survey of 79 Bloomberg
economists.

Even as the jobless rate unexpectedly dropped in December
to 8.5 percent, the lowest level in almost three years, “it’s a
long road back to strong employment, so these types of consumer
spending levels are probably here for a little while,” Brown
said.

“It’s just difficult for us to see in the context of a
sluggish economic growth that retailers as a whole are going to
outperform,” Moody’s Tuhy said.

To contact the reporter on this story:
Mary Childs in New York at
mchilds5@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story:
Alan Goldstein at
agoldstein5@bloomberg.net

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Citing the states ongoing financial problems, Moodys Investor Service on Friday downgraded Illinoiss credit rating to the lowest of any state in the country.

According to the Associated Press, Moodys blamed the low rating of A2 on weak management practices and the most recent legislative session which took no steps to implement lasting solutions on issues such as an increasingly severe pension funding shortfall.

Further detailing the downgrade, Moodys said Illinoiss chronic use of payment deferrals to manage operating fund cash presented a major challenge to its financial wellbeing.

It remains to be seen whether the state has the political willingness to impose durable policies leading to fiscal strength, Moodys explained in a statement, before it pointed to the states decision to temporarily increase its income tax rates as a step in the right direction. California has the second-worst credit rating in the US

At the same time Moodys downgraded Illinoiss credit rating, Standard Poors left its rating for the state unchanged, though it warned of a negative outlook, according to the AP. The same week, Fitch Ratings also left Illinoiss rating unchanged and said the states outlook has stabilized.

Gov. Pat Quinns office responded to news of the Moodys rating by calling it an outlier decision, Fox Chicago reports.

Although the state has taken positive steps toward fiscal stability, swift bipartisan action to implement further cost reductions and reforms in the upcoming legislative session are needed to stabilize the budget, Kelly Kraft, a Quinn spokeswoman, said in a statement, Bloomberg reports.

Great story out this morning by Bloomberg reporter Thom Weidlich, detailing yet another devious and dirty scheme in the consumer credit industry.

The story outlines the misfortunes of a successful Park City, Utah restaurant called Ciseros that is best known for serving the movie stars and film glitterati attending the nearby Sundance film festival. The restaurant is engaged in a legal battle with its bank, but the larger struggle is between the restaurant and major credit cards like Visa and MasterCard.

Its a complex tale, but the gist of it is that the credit-card companies invoked arcane provisions of operating contracts with the merchant, and unilaterally fined the restaurant for enormous sums of money without proving any of the charges. Some of that money was actually debited from the merchants account before they managed to close it.  

When a restaurant opens for business, it signs service contracts with middleman firms that allow them to accept charges from Visa and MasterCards. These middleman firms process the charges on behalf of the issuing cards, and also debit the accounts of merchants for things like debit fees.

The problem is that when merchants like these restaurant owners in Utah sign their service contracts, they also have to agree to a series of draconian security rules, under which they are automatically liable to the card companies if the card companies suspect fraud or lax security procedures.

In the case of the Utah restaurant, Visa and Mastercard both claimed that the restaurant allowed charges from fraudulently used cards, and also violated security rules by keeping the data for too many customer accounts on their company computer.

From Weidlichs piece:

Unknown to [the owners of Ciseros], data on 8,107 customers’ accounts had been stored in their computer system, they said. That was fewer than the 10,000 threshold for a fine to be imposed under Visa’s rules that certain customer data shouldn’t be stored on a merchant’s computer, they said.

Visa later said 32,581 accounts were on Cisero’s computer, without explaining how it got that number…

The credit companies never proved any of these allegations, never gave the restaurant an opportunity to answer the charges, and simply moved, through their middleman firms, straight to debiting the restaurants account.

The two credit card companies each ultimately claimed preposterous levels of fraud:

Visa decided the “actual fraud” was $1.26 million and calculated Cisero’s total liability for noncompliance at $1.33 million, according to court papers. The restaurant’s “total pre-cap liability” was put at $511,513, the couple said in court papers, and ultimately Visa said Cisero’s owed $55,000…

MasterCard said it could assess $100,000 against the restaurant but was imposing only $15,000, they said. The card company later added $13,850 in loss claims by issuing banks based on fraudulent cards supposedly made with data stolen from Cisero’s system…

As Ciseros lawyers pointed out, the way the numbers kept shifting, as though Visa and MasterCard were simply making them up as they went along, suggested strongly that the whole business was less about merchant fraud and a lot more about just randomly taking money from small business owners who cant fight back:

“These various shifting numbers based on unexplained calculations” show that the “process is little more than a scheme to extract steep financial penalties from small merchants,” Cisero’s said in court papers.

The most galling part of the story is that the fines claimed by Visa and Mastercard were part of a fine-print arrangement that is virtually impossible for merchants to learn about, much less defend against. If you want to have a restaurant, you must allow credit card charges — but if you allow credit card charges, you have to sign, sight unseen, an agreement that says you can be fined tens of thousands of dollars every time a credit card firm thinks your security procedures are bad:

When the restaurant and US Bancorp entered their first contract, “arcane operating rules — over 1,000 pages in length — were not publicly available to merchants and did not contain provisions on data security,” the McCombs said in their complaint.

The couple said they had no chance to negotiate over terms and no choice but to sign.

“Restaurants must be able to accept electronic payments from Visa and MasterCard to stay in business,” they said in the complaint. Not accepting customers’ cards “is simply not an option for Cisero’s.”

This story is another example of the central complaint against financial companies. They occupy a place in society in which they are a trusted part of our infrastructure. We allow many of our creditors to debit our bank accounts freely because we trust them not to simply steal our money without justification.

But the Bloomberg piece is just one more example of financial companies violating that trust. Episodes like the Utah business are apparently not uncommon, and other merchants have complained in recent years of an increasing tendency toward systematic overcharging in other areas:

The dispute is the latest in the contentious relationship between merchants and the card networks.

In 2003, in a suit brought by Cannon’s firm, New York-based Constantine Cannon LLP, Visa and MasterCard agreed to pay $3 billion to settle claims they overcharged on debit-card swipe fees.

Merchants last year successfully lobbied for federal legislation limiting the debit fees. Trade groups and merchants including the National Restaurant Association have filed an antitrust suit against the networks in federal court in Brooklyn, New York that is still pending.

Nobody minds banks and creditors being greedy. But we cant live with big firms simply taking money out of bank accounts for no reason, and daring people to sue to get the money back. Thats theft by bureaucratic force, not mere greed.

 

Equities research analysts at Credit Suisse (NYSE: CS) raised their earnings per share (EPS) estimates on shares of International Paper Company (NYSE: IP) in a research note issued to investors on Monday. They currently have a neutral rating and a $31.00 price target on the companys shares.

Separately, analysts at Zacks Investment Research reiterated a neutral rating on shares of International Paper Company in a research note to investors on Monday, October 31st. They now have a $30.00 price target on the stock. Analysts at JPMorgan Chase Co. (NYSE: JPM) raised their price target on shares of International Paper Company to $29.00 in a research note to investors on Monday, October 31st. Also, analysts at Longbow Research cut their price target on shares of International Paper Company from $38.00 to $36.00 in a research note to investors on Thursday, October 13rd. They now have a buy rating on the stock.

International Paper Company (International Paper) a global paper and packaging company. It is complemented by the North American merchant distribution system, with primary markets and manufacturing operations in North America, Europe, Latin America, Russia, Asia and North Africa. The Company operates in six business segments: Industrial Packaging, Printing Papers, Consumer Packaging, Distribution, Forest Products, and Specialty Businesses and Other. The wholly owned subsidiary of International Paper is International Paper Investments (Luxembourg) Sarl On August 4, 2008, the Company completed the acquisition of the assets of Weyerhaeuser Company’s containerboard, packaging and recycling (CBPR) business. In July 2010, International Paper Company purchased SCA Packaging Asia.

Shares of International Paper Company traded down 0.50% during mid-day trading on Monday, hitting $30.7849. International Paper Company has a 52 week low of $21.55 and a 52 week high of $33.01. The stocks 50-day moving average is $28.29 and its 200-day moving average is $27.46. The company has a market cap of $13.455 billion and a price-to-earnings ratio of 9.67.

Stay on top of analysts coverage with our daily email newsletter that provides a concise list of analysts upgrades, analysts downgrades and analysts price target changes for each day. Click here to register.

The credit card industry saw its fair share of doozies in 2011. Banks continued to polarize customers with less-than-savory practices, while a barrage of debit fees gave consumers the wake-up call they needed to pack their wallets and take their business elsewhere.

CardRatings.com just released its annual list of the worst credit card deals of the year, based on terms, fees and overall value to customers. And boy, are we glad we didnt sign up for these cards because if we had, wed be jumping ship too!

First, theres First Premier Gold from First Premier Bank, a partially secured card with an APR of 49.9 percentyep, 49.9 percent. The card packs a fistful of fees, from a $95 deposit to a first-year fee of $75, plus the monthly $6.50 fee.

Then theres what CardRatings.com dubbed the least premium premium card, the Visa Black Card, which charges $495 annually. The card struck reporter Curtis Arnold as a weird, cheap knockoff of American Express original Centurion Card, in that it carries less prestige and gaudier featuresnamely the gold lettering displaying BLACK CARD across the frontthat are more in line with lower-end cards like Chase Sapphire.

Perhaps the most hilariousand embarrassingcards of the bunch were FNBOs World of Warcraft Visa and Merrick Banks Hooters Visa. No one remotely cool would want to be seen using either of these cards, but the rewards they offer are well below average.

The Hooters card offers 5 points for every dollar spent, but 2,421 points for a 3-D mouse pad is a total rip-off, said Arnold. And while the WOW Visa offers a point for every dollar spent to cardholders, redeeming 1,500 points per month for online game time feels like a waste when they could purchase a $10 prepaid card instead.

For the full list of cards, see the sites post here.

DONT MISS: The Best Rewards Credit Cards For Road Warriors gt;

With tax season upon us, government leaders are urging low to middle income workers to apply for the earned income tax credit.

The IRS estimates 15 to 20 percent of eligible workers do not claim the credit, most because they dont know about it.

The annual earned income tax credit campaign was launched this morning at United Way headquarters. Among those in attendance was Central Kentuckys congressman. US Representative Ben Chandler says the tax credit can help people move toward the middle class, which is important to our countrys stability.

Families who earned below $49,000 last year are eligible for the credit. Nearly 400,000 Kentuckians claimed the credit last tax season, amounting to $876million in benefits. The average award was 2,200.00.

The state has set up a list of free tax preparation sites across the state. For more information, you can log onto http://assistance.ky.gov/.

In addition, beginning Jan. 17 Kentuckians living in central and northern Kentucky areas can dial 2-1-1 to find information on free tax preparation sites near them. Counties who can access 2-1-1 include Anderson, Boone, Bourbon, Bullitt, Campbell, Carroll, Clark, Fayette, Grant, Henry, Jefferson, Jessamine, Kenton, Madison, Montgomery, Nelson, Oldham, Scott, Shelby, Spencer, Trimble and Woodford.

For information about tax preparation sites outside the 2-1-1 calling area, taxpayers may call Community Action Kentucky at (800) 456-3452.

Psst. Need a Credit Card?

As the nations banks and financial firms try to move beyond the financial crisis, they are testing how best to lend to people with tarnished credit. Many lenders remain leery about subprime borrowers to loosen the lending spigot, especially on unsecured loans such as credit cards. Other lenders, hungry for growth, say borrowers with dinged-up credit deserve an opportunity to rebuild their reputation. Credit cards can be a good place to start because lenders offer borrowers small amounts of credit, at least at first. [Wall Street Journal]

Impatient? It May Hurt Your Credit Score

Your propensity to wait (or not) is also reflected in your credit score, according to a study from researchers at Columbia and Stanford published online in Psychological Science. Patient people tend to have higher credit scores than those who just cant wait. Participants who were the most willing to wait for the bigger payout had FICO scores that were roughly 30 points higher than those who were least willing to delay, the study found. Those who were the least willing to delay fell below the subprime credit score cutoff of 620, below which people generally pay much higher borrowing costs on credit cards and other loans. [New York Times]

Can You Fear Me Now? Banks Face Verizon-Like Backlash on Fees

As banks look for ways to get revenue from free services like bill pay, they risk becoming a target of public outcry, as Verizon Wireless has over a short-lived plan to assess a $2 fee for certain bill payments. Most banks have long abandoned charging for online bill pay, but some have experimented with bringing fees back for specific uses, such as for last-minute payments. Expedited bill-pay fees can be justified, experts say, but consumers may demand that other types of payments remain free, even when such services are costly to banks. [Bank Technology News]

Best Credit Cards for 2012

The start of a new year is typically when consumers take a close look at their finances and make resolutions on saving money and cutting expenses. Changing credit cards can save substantial money on interest payments, or earn some extra cash with attractive rewards. But credit cards are not one-size-fits-all, and shopping for the best credit card to fit your specific needs is a must. The credit card offer you receive today is determined by your credit score and how you have handled finances in the past. Here are some of the top credit cards on the market today. [LowCards.com]

Cyber vengeance: The major credit card information leak,
a by-product of the activities of the Saudi hacker
who has been sneering over attempts to locate him, has not been ignored.

Israeli hackers who spoke to Ynet claimed on Monday that they have managed to lay their hands on the details of thousands of credit cards used on Saudi shopping websites. Ynet has confirmed the hackers reports. If the leaks continue, we will cause severe damage to the privacy of Saudi citizens, one of the Israeli hackers threatened.

Related stories:

• Saudi hackers identity uncovered?

• Compromised credit cards restricted

• Saudi hackers leak personal information of thousands of Israelis
  

The Israeli hackers activities have yielded, according to the hackers, thousands of lists that include the personal details of citizens in the Arab state as well as the credit card details of those citizens. At the moment, were holding on to the information and waiting for the right moment to publish it, they stressed.

Will Saudis soon be facing credit card leak?

Ynet has looked into the details and can confirm that at least some of the names on the list are real and match the rest of the details presented in the hackers list. Most of the identities matched the information in the file, their Facebook and email accounts as well as their telephone numbers. The people listed were mostly Saudi citizens.

Speaking to Ynet, Mohammad, a Saudi resident, confirmed the details and tried to find out how his telephone number and information was discovered. That is my name and those are my personal details, but I dont know anything about a credit card leak, no one told me anything, he said before hanging up.

One hacker who spoke to Ynet said: We could not stay silent after the pompous boasting of the Saudi hacker. He added that a few Israeli hackers came together and decided on various responses for each cyber activity that would be carried out against Israel,
including responses beyond the cyber world.

The Facebook page of one of the Saudis exposed by Israeli hackers

When asked what he meant he explained that the response we decided upon after group consultations includes scenarios where Israel is attacked outside of the cyber world. For example, he explained that if a terror attack were to take place, we will make every effort to publish the terrorists personal details and those of his family.

He stressed that sadly, the State of Israel does not support an offensive policy so we are forced to maintain a great deal of secrecy; if we are caught were facing a harsh punishment.

Meanwhile, the Saudi hacker has failed to impress Israelis. Any hacker can see tat this isnt the most talented person and that everything he did demanded very little knowledge and that it can be carried out through pre-arranged programs without any problems.

The Israeli hacker added that they were working on exposing his true identity, but it isnt our main priority.

Its possible that I may have — ahem — possibly (cough, cough) given the ACC too much credit this bowl season.

Yes, me, the one you guys are always saying never gives the ACC enough credit.

Well I was trapped. Duped. Lured into believing that Georgia Tech could handle Utah. Fooled into thinking that Virginia stood a chance against Auburn and that Wake Forest could surprise Mississippi State. Convinced that Clemson by God could beat West Virginia.

Silly me.

I projected a 6-2 bowl record this year, with losses by Virginia Tech and North Carolina. Turns out it was 2-6. HD KOD? Possibly. Typical ACC? More likely. But heres the thing, guys: Those predictions — thats what you should have expected. Thats what you should continue to expect. Georgia Tech should not have blown a 14-point lead. Wake Forest should not have lost when winning the turnover battle 4-0. Those two games right there flip and suddenly at the very worst the ACC is looking at a 4-4 bowl record.

Its easy, though, to give the ACC too much credit. It happens almost every preseason.

Florida State, Clemson and Miami always load up on big-time recruits. NC State has developed a reputation for finishing the season strong under coach Tom OBrien. Virginia Tech is always expected to be a contender. There are plenty of reasons to keep the expectations high.

Maybe its not a matter of giving the league too much credit, rather its a problem with the league failing to reach its potential.

If credit card companies behavior in the last quarter of 2011 was any indication, lenders are working hard to attract new fiscally responsible customers as they drive out poor credit consumers with fees, according to a new report by Cardhub.com.

TheCredit Card Landscape Reportexamined 1,000 credit card offers and found credit card companies were more than willing to extend 0% introductory rates for new customers in the last quarter of 2011, and offered 60% more cash back rewards offers.

The Citi Platinum Select MasterCard and Citi Simplicity Cards were top of the heap when it came to extending 0% introductory APR rates, which lasted for as many as 21 months.

But one area where lenders arent budging much is added fees. (See which fee you probably wont have to worry about this year.)

As we predicted, lenders arent showing much leniency for customers with poor credit and continue to wield heavy cash advance, balance transfer and foreign exchange fees.

If youre looking for a no balance transfer fee card, Card Hub recommends Slate from Chase, which offers 0% APR on balance transfer to 6-12 months, based on credit history.

There was bad news on the APR front, as regular APRs were higher than the same period last year, with increases between 3.5% and 9.5%. Student and business credit cards saw a 1% APR hike.

As poor credit customers are being elbowed out by fees, creditors really stepped it up to get new consumers with healthy credit into their good graces. Initial reward bonuses were 100% higher than the last quarter of 2012 and points and miles bonuses were up 10%, according to the report.

In 2010, the best cash back rates on the market capped at 1.25% and now can be found as high as 2%.