How does a holiday become a holiday?  That question may have crossed your mind recently as we transition from Mother’s Day to Father’s Day, shelling out hard-earned money for gifts all along the way.

Some holidays obviously have historical roots, while others are largely corporate creations, but for a holiday to achieve staying power it needs consumer interaction (and lots of it).  With mainstream acceptance, a holiday can find a home on every calendar and grow into a huge source of revenue for business.  Without it, well, just look at the likes of National Walk to Work Day (first Friday in April), National S’mores Day (August 10), Flag Day (June 14), and even Arbor Day (last Friday in April).

One of the most pressing issues facing our nation these days is the federal government’s massive budget deficit.  The deficit and its implications for the already prodigious national debt have been front and center in the national discourse as a $315 billion surplus in 2001 has gradually transformed into an $885 deficit in 2013 under the weight of tax cuts, healthcare policy changes, and spending tied to the War on Terror, Wall Street “bailouts,” the 2009 economic stimulus, and the oft-forgotten interest continuing to accrue on amounts already owed.  With each looming debt ceiling, fiscal cliff, and sequester, the unfortunately partisan debate gains vigor, begging the question of whether we’ll find a solution before we run out of nifty nicknames for the various kick-the-can crises encouraged by our infighting and indecision.

There are plenty of proposed solutions out there – both practical and inane – coming from a variety of sources – from the Brookings Institute to Esquire Magazine’s Commission to Balance the Federal Budget.  But evaluating the efficacy of a potential remedy, of course, necessitates making a proper diagnosis first.

Whether you’re prone to believing that kids should just be kids for as long as possible or that they should get off their spoiled butts and start pulling their own weight, the financial tumult we’ve endured in recent years has made clear how important it is to start sowing the seeds of a successful financial future early.

We saw a 23-year-high unemployment rate in October 2009 (10.0%), at which time 15.7 million people were out of work in the United States.  We saw more than 10% of all credit card users fall so far behind on their bills during the first half of 2010, that banks legally had to write their debt off the books (the consumers still owed it, however).  And we’ve also seen U.S. consumers rack up more than $86 billion in new credit card

In this edition of our “Ask the Experts” series, we at Card Hub surveyed authorities on tax policy from around the country about how they would choose to alter the tax code in an ideal world.

With tax season in full swing, the economy still floundering, and the federal government’s budget mess yet unresolved, it seems that no one is immune to money woes these days.  That’s not likely to change anytime soon either, what with Congress acting like kids on a cross-country road trip and the economic recovery doing its best impression of the University of Maryland mascot.

It turns out Jay-Z isn’t the only one with a new $100 bill these days, not to mention a highly-anticipated release date.  The Federal Reserve recently unveiled plans to introduce a revamped $100 note this October.  And while you obviously can’t use it to purchase the soundtrack for the new Great Gatsby movie – which was executive produced by the rap mogul and features his track “100$ Bill” – (at least not yet), the Fed believes new security features will help thwart increasingly advanced counterfeiting techniques.

“The redesigned $100 note will begin circulating on October 8, 2013,” according to a Federal Reserve press release.  “This note, which incorporates new security features such as a blue, 3-D security ribbon, will be easier for the public to authenticate but more difficult for counterfeiters to replicate.”

In order to supplement the money-saving information already available to travelers through CardHub’s Currency Conversion & Best Travel Credit Card studies, CardHub sought to determine the Best & Worst Cities for Summer Travel in 2013.

More specifically, CardHub analyzed flights listed on Kayak.com from the 30 largest metropolitan statistical areas (MSAs) in the United States to the 10 most popular domestic and international destinations, using July 13 as the departure date and July 21 as the return date.  We compared airfare costs, flight times, and the number of connections for each in order to determine:

While most of us have a vague idea that “offshore tax evasion” costs the government money and hurts the economy in the process, upon hearing the term we’re far more likely to think about Wesley Snipes, Al Capone, or some sort of abstract meeting between a shady looking billionaire and his Swiss banker on a boat somewhere.  But a recent report from the U.S. Government Accountability Office revealed the IRS could be leaving billions of dollars in taxes, penalties, and interest owed by evaders on the table.  Considering all the recent angst over the sequester, that’s sure to get your attention regardless of your familiarity with the income tax landscape.

According to the GAO – which is a sort of ombudsman arm of Congress – the IRS has failed to identify thousands of people who’ve made so-called “quiet disclosures” since its first Offshore Voluntary Disclosure Program (OVDP) in 2009.  A quiet disclosure is when someone simply amends past years’ tax returns to note previously unreported international income, rather than formally bringing it to the IRS’s attention.

As we all know, exchanging currency is necessary for most trips outside the United States, and there are a variety of ways to convert U.S. dollars into the currency used in your destination. Banks, credit card companies, credit unions and the currency-exchange companies that typically operate out of airports and train stations all offer currency conversion services at varying rates and with different fees. But which one offers the best deal? It’s commonly said that credit cards are the best way to save on currency conversion, but is that true? And if it is, how much can consumers expect to save using a no foreign transaction fee credit card?

In order to find out, Card Hub conducted a study whereby we analyzed online rates and anonymously called the nation’s largest consumer banks as well as Visa, MasterCard and one of the Travelex locations in the John F. Kennedy Airport (Visa and MasterCard are the most widely accepted card networks around the world, and Travelex is the world’s largest currency exchange operator). Both for uniformity’s sake and because the Euro is the most prevalent foreign currency, we gathered information about the U.S. Dollar-to-Euro exchange rate as of May 7, 2013. In other words, we determined the dollar amount needed to buy one Euro from each of the companies polled. Please find the results of this study, as well as our findings from last year, below:

These are strange financial times that we’re living in these days.  And while that’s true no matter what stage of life you’re in, the economic and workforce dynamics are especially unique and bewildering for young people.  So, with graduation season now upon us, it’s fair to wonder how they should approach money management once the caps hit the ground and the diplomas are framed.

The two overarching factors that most influence these decisions are the value of higher education and the availability of jobs.  A college degree, in general, is undoubtedly worthwhile, but with student loan debt in this country recently surpassing the $1 trillion mark, students need to carefully weigh the costs and benefits of each school and area of study they’re considering through the prism of the job prospects offered by each.  The job market is becoming increasingly friendly to recent grads, but the potential there is neither uniform nor necessarily feasible, especially in light of the fact that the average student now graduates with more than $27,000 in debt.

Last month, Chase took another significant step toward winning the hearts and minds of travelers everywhere, reaching a new rewards sharing deal with Virgin Atlantic.  The addition of Britain’s second largest airline to the rapidly expanding Ultimate Rewards network – which already includes the likes of US Airways, British Airways, Hyatt, Marriott, and Amtrak – gives the biggest bank in the U.S. an impressive new feather to put in its marketing cap.

The deal allows users of the Chase Sapphire Preferred, Ink Plus, and Ink Bold cards to transfer their Ultimate Rewards miles to Virgin’s Flying Club at full value, thereby gaining a variety of added redemption options.

For accountants nationwide, Tax Day represents a long-awaited finish line, as hours of overtime and countless weekends spent in the office make way to deep exhales and stereotype-defying parties.  But for those consumers who rushed through their returns or, even worse, tried to pull a fast one on Uncle Sam, April 15 might very well mark the beginning of a nerve-wracking waiting game.

“Will I get audited?” they wonder.  “And if so, what’s the IRS going to do to me?”

Do you remember your first night at college?  For those of us who dove headfirst into sampling fraternity life things might be a bit of a blur, but no matter how seamlessly any us think we can adapt to new situations, leaving home for the first time inevitably brings its own unique set of challenges and anxiety.

Not only do we start to appreciate all the little things our parents did for us on a day-to-day basis, but the big things come into focus too.  It gradually hits us that we’re going to have to earn a living, manage our own finances, pay taxes, and do all those other real-world tasks that, while perhaps mundane, seem are nonetheless extremely important if for no other reason than the fact that doing them well can save us a lot of money, and vice versa.

What would you do if you won the lottery?  Everyone plays that little game whenever the Powerball jackpot gets especially high, and it can be pretty fun to debate the merits of different payout methods as well as daydream about how you’d allocate your bounty of millions.  But, in a testament to grass-is-greener clichés and Christopher Wallace’s famous refrain about the difficulties that accompany money, abstract thoughts of philanthropy, careful investment, and calculated splurging too often turn into tales of wastefulness, jealousy, and even bankruptcy when a dreamed-for windfall becomes reality.

That disconnect is not limited to the lottery, however.  Rather, it speaks to the potential for any rags-to-riches story to end with a return to humble beginnings, and there is perhaps no better single example of this boom-or-bust path than the National Football League’s annual “Player Selection Meeting” – better known as the NFL Draft.

Here comes the…bill.  Here comes the bill.  The average wedding will run you just shy of $28,500 these days, so it’s understandable if the poor soul who gets stuck with the tab finds him or herself singing the wrong tune as the ceremony gets under way.  But is it avoidable?  That’s the real question.

In other words, at a time characterized by a lack of financial literacy, trillions of dollars in consumer debt, and a fetishism of reality TV that has somehow made being a “bridezilla” seem like the norm, is there any way to throw a dream wedding without spending as much in a single day as you would when buying a pretty decent car or putting a down payment on a house?

The Great Recession has reinvigorated America’s entrepreneurial spirit.  As the job market soured during the housing market crisis and ensuing economic swoon, business creation rates soared to record heights.  We averaged fewer than 29 new start-ups per 100,000 people each month from 2000 to 2007 – when the unemployment rate averaged 5.0% – and that number rose to 33 start-ups per month from 2008 to 2011 – when joblessness climbed as high as 9.6%, according to data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics as well as the Kauffman Foundation.

When jobs weren’t as abundant, we took it upon ourselves to create our own.  That’s certainly admirable, but the fact of the matter is that starting a business is the easy part.  What’s hard is not only staying in business, but also growing and becoming profitable.  Of all the businesses founded in 2008, only 74.4% survived two years, and even fewer – 62.4% – made it three, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Adding yet another chapter to the odyssey pitting Visa, MasterCard, and numerous major banks against merchants and retail industry trade groups, a federal judge ruled on Thursday that merchant groups must add a banner to their websites informing consumers about previously misleading information and directing them to a court-approved summary of the case.  Judge John Gleeson also ordered attorneys for the various merchant interests to meet within a week’s time to discuss options for correcting the misinformation campaign designed to build opposition to a controversial preliminary settlement struck back in July.

The case in question, which dates back to 2005, revolves around claims that Visa, MasterCard, and a number of major banks for years conspired to keep the fees owed by merchants for card payment processing artificially high.  Final resolution seemed near in July when the parties reached a settlement that scored merchants a $7.3 billion payday, a temporary reduction in “swipe fees” worth an additional $1.25 billion, and the ability to assess a surcharge when a customer buys something with a credit card.

Ladies and gentleman, it’s officially spring.  I know that’s technically been the case for quite a while now, as the Vernal Equinox (which marks the start of the season) fell on March 20 and Punxsutawney Phil didn’t see his shadow way back in February.  But it didn’t really feel like spring until recently (at least where I live in the Northeast).  After all, the Cherry Blossoms were late to bloom and it wasn’t until just yesterday that Adam Scott donned that iconic green jacket as Master’s champion.

For a lot of folks out there, Jim Nantz’s hushed commentary and the lush grounds at Augusta National Golf Club signal a clear end to scarves and snow days and the start of a long-anticipated countdown to shorts and summer vacations.  But regardless of what screams spring to you, summer will be here before we know it, so it’s probably wise to start planning potential trips soon.

Key Findings:

• Industry competition has reduced interest rates for people with excellent credit, while a lack thereof is having the opposite effect on rates targeted to people with average/below-average credit, and other consumer segments are seeing rates stabilize with the economic recovery: The average interest rate for people with excellent credit (12.79%) is down 1.69% relative to Q4 2012, and the average rates for people with credit on the low end of the spectrum have increased between 1.7% and 3.0% on average.

• 0% offers and initial rewards bonus are experiencing a resurgence after appearing to peak in months past:  The average 0% balance transfer term (10.29 months) is 2.39% longer than in Q4 2012 and the average 0% purchase APR is available for 2.53% longer than Q4 2012 (10.13 months). The average cash back initial bonus ($76.81) is 33.77% more lucrative than it was this time last year, and the average points/miles bonus (11,446) has risen 13.89% since then.

• Changes to common fees continue to reflect consumer preference:  Foreign transaction fees, which more and more consumers have become aware of in recent years, are 5.88% less expensive than last year. Cash advance fees, which credit applicants typically pay little attention to, are 22.61% more expensive.

• Consumer complaints indicate increasing concern about credit scores and credit lines, less worry when it comes to interest rates and the debt payoff process: The number of complaints categorized by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau as being related to Credit Determination and/or Credit Lines rose 92.3% during the first quarter of 2013, while those tied to the Payoff Process and Interest Rates fell 39% and 35.9%, respectively.

• Foreign transaction fees are stabilizing:  While the average foreign transaction fee has fallen more than 7% since last year, the downward trend is beginning to flatten out, as the 2.25% average we saw in Q4 2012 represents a 0.90% increase from the previous quarter.

Please find a breakdown of pertinent credit card data for Q1 2013 below.

It’s Tax Day (in case you didn’t know), and both in honor of the occasion and because you might be feeling a bit down about all the cash you’re sending Uncle Sam’s way, we thought a lighthearted and (hopefully) entertaining post was certainly in order. At the end of the day, we can all take solace in the fact that even Super Bowl MVPs pay taxes. And their bills are far larger than yours or mine.

Joe Flacco had it all. After taking what many perceived to be a big risk in not working out a contract extension prior to the 2012 season, the Baltimore Ravens franchise quarterback led his team to victory in Super Bowl XLVII, was named MVP of the game, and reached a reported six-year $120.6 million deal a month later.