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The last batch of rules from the Credit Card Accountability, Responsibility and Disclosure (CARD) Act will go into effect on Aug. 22. When this happens, a number of changes will take place, including new protections for gift cards. Are you ready?

How Your Gift Cards Will be Protected

If you love to purchase gift cards because of their convenience, whether sharing with a loved one or for your personal use, you’ll be happy to know that the Credit CARD Act will soon be making sure you get to enjoy them a little longer.

This article was written by Cole Collins, an online freelance writer in the field of personal finance, with a concentration in consumer debts and debt relief solutions. Follow him on Twitter @totaldebtrelief.

1. You shall pay no bills before the mortgage.

U.K.-founded Barclays Bank has teamed up with three U.S.-based wireless service providers to create unique credit card offers for consumers. The bank wants to test new technology that would allow customers to make credit card payments from their smart phones.

So far, Barclays is working with AT&T, Verizon and T-Mobile to install a radio frequency identification (RFID) tag inside smart phones like the BlackBerry and iPhone to link to users’ bank accounts by simply waving their smartphone in front of a reader, making the phone similar to a credit card. Trials of the new technology are set for Atlanta and three other U.S. cities and will be handled through Discover (IT Pro Portal).

Ever since the 2009 federal crackdown on abusive credit card practices set out to expose companies that unfairly charged consumers to use their cards, a number of other credit card abuses have been discovered.

According to a report released by the Credit Card Accountability Responsibility and Disclosure (CARD) Act and a study from the Pew Health Group’s Safe Credit Cards Project, while most of the practices deemed unfair or deceptive by the Federal Reserve have disappeared, credit card companies have come up with new harmful behaviors to take their place. These new charges include increasing cash advances and credit card balance transfers as well as penalty fees  (CNN Money).

If you’re regularly excited by new credit card offers then you may want to relocate to Europe for Visa’s latest credit card.

The Euopean Visa card, CodeSure, was introduced with new feature: a keypad and digital number display. The Visa Codesure is the same size as the traditional credit cards you’re used to, but also has a small 12-button keyboard and screen that generates a constantly-changing series of unique security passwords that are to be used for Internet purchases. Even with this new feature, the card can also be used in standard ways as well, including credit and debit card transactions (ECommerce Journal).

Ryan Guina is an entrepreneur and writer. He has worked for Fortune 500 companies and served six years in the USAF. He writes about money management and small business topics at Cash Money Life and military money topics at Military Finance Network. You can follow his twitter feed.

This is a guest post from Little House in the Valley, who is currently working toward owning her own little house in the valley. On her journey toward home ownership, she is learning to be financial savvy through budgeting her money and living frugally. With each new savings tip or idea, she shares how she accomplished her goal. Follow her on Twitter at LittleHouse2009

One of the perks American Express Business Platinum credit card members receive is a complimentary companion flight ticket a few times a year. The complimentary ticket allows one person to pay for a full-priced ticket and then reserve another ticket for the same flight for free; a buy one, get one deal.

A new analysis released by CreditCards.com found that a whopping four out of five adults are unable to properly understand credit card agreements. According to the study, a standard credit card application and contract are written at a 12th grade reading level. However, the average American adult reads at a ninth-grade level.

As noted by Roy Peter Clark, a senior scholar from the Poynter Institute in St. Petersburg, Fla., the contracts are written in dense prose so that customers won’t be able to understand it. In other words, it’s not an accident. Credit card companies know exactly what they’re doing (Fox Business).

The American Bankers Association and Keybridge Research have released a study that shows nearly 40,000 jobs in the Massachusetts area were directly or indirectly created as a result of credit card borrowing by small businesses between 2003 and 2008.

On the national level, the survey noted that credit card lending to small businesses during the same timeframe resulted in the creation of 592,000 small business jobs with an addition 1 million indirectly created. As a result of the credit card’s impact on job creation, the study noted, any reduction in small businesses’ access to credit cards could result in a drop in their ability to hire new employees (Boston Globe).

Last summer, roughly 6,400 7-Eleven franchisees banded together to express their dislike of “interchange fees,” which are the percentage of each transaction made through Visa, MasterCard or other member banks that are collected from retailers each time a credit or debit card is used.

The fees average about 2 percent per transaction or roughly $1,000 per month for some stores and have become too much too pay, resulting in many franchises discontinuing the cash-back option. Many store owners created the “Stop Unfair Credit Card Fees” petition drive to fight the fees. So far, over 1.6 million signatures have been collected (Times Herald).