If you haven't heard yet, your fellow Americans in the District of Columbia celebrated a holiday on April 15th.  Emancipation Day, which marks the day President Lincoln signed a law in 1862 that freed over 3,000 slaves in D.C., is usually observed on April 16th but was moved to the 15th this year so it wouldn't fall on a weekend.

By law, local holidays in D.C. affect tax deadlines the same way federal holidays do.  So this means that your federal income taxes aren't due until today, April 18th.  You got an entire extra weekend to pay the tax man! I hope you took advantage of it.

But what if you still haven't gotten your act together in time to file your income tax return?  No need to worry, because you always have the option to file an extension and get a reprieve until October.

In an effort to create greater transparency between customers and credit card companies, the Credit Card Accountability, Responsibility and Disclosure Act of 2009 (CARD) introduces consumer-friendly litigation that regulates how banks control credit card fees. Notably, the new law standardizes how a bank can increase interest rates, change introductory offers and delinquent payments.

Ever since credit cards began featuring magnetic strips to hold personal information electronically, there has been very little innovation in terms of the way payments are processed by merchants.  Now, fifty years after the advent of magnetic strips, it seems the credit card industry is ready to take its next big leap forward. The good ol' mates down in Australia have recently unleashed an exciting new technology that may provide a glimpse into the future of credit cards.  The new innovation is called "Visa Contactless", and it works in conjunction with consumer iPhones.

Did you receive emails from credit card companies over the weekend that read something like the following? "Recently, we were notified of a system breach at Epsilon, a third-party vendor that provides marketing services to a number of companies. The information obtained was limited to the customer name and email address of some credit card customers. No account information or other information was compromised and therefore there is no reason to re-issue a new card."

If you're at all like me, your computer is teeming with antivirus software, spyware guards, privacy alerts, and other enhanced security features.  It's what helps me sleep at night.  And if you're like me, you also rarely think twice about enacting the same kind of security measures on your smartphone. Maybe it's because I still think of my phone as, well, a phone, and not a personal database of extremely sensitive personal information, like social security numbers and credit card data.  In reality, however, our smartphones are pocket-sized treasure chests for identity pirates.