Chase recently announced the release of two new credit cards for the business community. The Chase Platinum Business Card and the Chase Business Rebate Card are now available, giving business people more options and a better deal than what they can get through ordinary business cards. Are these cards worth getting? More importantly, do they offer to your business a reason to switch? Let's examine the new cards and what they have to offer to you, the business person. There are business credit cards that adequately meet most business owners?

Needs while there are other cards that really stand out. The two new credit card offerings from Chase are a pair of stand out performers. To help busy card holders, Chase two new cards share a common feature: they offer quarterly management reports for free. This is especially helpful when you consider that businesses must account for how their money is spent when it comes to tax time. By utilizing the management reporting feature, businesses can readily document important tax deductions. Forget high-tech hacking. One new credit card scam relies more on X-Acto knives and glue sticks than wi-fi and laptops, but helps criminals steal your money just the same. Shaving is a low-tech form of card theft where thieves sort through sets of 16-digit numbers to find one that matches an existing card, and then verifying that number either by trying to make a purchase online or by phone. The scammers can also buy a list of valid credit card numbers from black market sites online. Once they have their hands on a valid account number, they then create a new card with those numbers by shaving the numbers off of gift cards or expired credit cards and gluing them onto a defunct or stolen card.

The magnetic strip is gouged with a knife or pen so that a store clerk has to manually enter the account number on a keypad, and the charge goes through. Another way consumers can fight shaving is with a credit card account that generates a new number for every new transaction. Citibank offers Virtual Account Numbers to cardholders for online purchases while PayPal provides the Secure Card in the form of a MasterCard debit card. While these can only be used online, Qsecure is rolling out a SmartStripe credit and debit card that looks like any other card. However, a chip embedded in the card's magnetic stripe automatically generates a different number for each purchase. Desperate times mean desperate measures. In this economy, we are seeing scams of all kinds resurfacing, including credit card shaving. Merchants should also turn the card over and ensure the back of the card has the proper marks. For sales conducted without a card for online or phone transactions, Harkins advises merchants to protect themselves by requesting the three-number security code on the back of the card (four digits and on the front of American Express cards).

"If it doesn't match, ask additional questions or investigate the customer before completing the transaction," he says. Inevitably, some of the scammers will succeed, and unless the cardholder has a firm handle on his or her account, the crime can go entirely unnoticed. Experts say this further reinforces the need for cardholder diligence on a regular basis. "It's vital to check your balances and accounts on a regular basis and report any suspicious purchases to help identify the theft quickly," says Krishnan. I recently inherited a sum of money, and I'm not sure what to do with it. I have three credit cards that are maxed out to over $22,000. I have a mortgage on my home with over $78,000 left on it. The amount of money left to me was over $150,000. I am 62 years old and thinking of retiring. Should I invest all of this money? Should I think about paying off the mortgage? How about the credit cards?

That amount seems so small that I think I should get more cards and use them to furnish my house. What do you think? Thanks for your question. There are a number of factors you need to consider when you inherit money. You have laid out many of them in your question, so let's review. First, I would consult with the executor of the estate and your CPA, and double-check that all of the debts on the estate have been paid, including any potential estate and inheritance tax. You want to make sure that your inheritance is free and clear of encumbrances. Once you know that the money is yours, write down what are you trying to accomplish. No worrying that something has been overlooked; the reports do the tracking for you. Less work for your busy accountants too!

Both the Chase Platinum Business Card and the Chase Business Rebate Card offer a fixed Introductory 0% APR. This feature is especially helpful to the business needing the convenience of a credit card without worrying about paying off a large balance every month. New business owners are attracted to such a feature as the 0% introductory APR can relieve some of the pressure of financing a new entity. One of the toughest parts of starting a new business is securing an affordable line of credit. Your bank may offer terms, but those double digit rates can be a real turn off, especially if your cash flow is limited. The Chase Business Card and the Chase Platinum Business Card solve this problem by offering huge credit lines up to $35,000. You can save hundreds if not thousands of dollars in interest payments for the first year if you elect to go with a Chase card vs. the typical bank loan. Both Chase cards offer no annual fee and have important balance transfer offers.