The GM card, run by the bank’s HFC subsidiary, will close to new and existing customers from 23 January, meaning no further spending will be permitted (see the Credit Card Rewards guide).

Anyone who had built up rewards points has until the end of March 2012 to use them.

Those with outstanding balances will be able to pay the debt off as usual; there will be no demands for full repayment.

No other standard card pays as much cashback in the long term though the GM card is only suitable for those looking for discounts off General Motors-owned Vauxhall cars.

The card pays three ‘GM Rebate Points’ for every 100 you spent. One point is worth 1 that can be used for discounts of up to 1,500 on Vauxhalls.

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Netflix recently announced that they were offering up a new pricing model. If you only streamed from Netflix before, you’re probably happy with the changes. If you never streamed, you’re probably not happy because you are simply paying more now. And if you did both, you might be thinking about switching to streaming only.

Netflix has become a key component of those who wish to consume media without the high price cable bills. As a result, they have over 17 million members, the stock price is at $187, and the company profited $38 million on $553 million in revenue in Q3 2010. They’ve grown into an industry leader in both the at-home rental space and now in the streaming video space – so much so that they are somewhat immune to adverse effects when increasing prices. Let’s d

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The past week saw several emerging market economies review their interest rate settings. Among those reviewing monetary policy were Russia, Mexico, Georgia, Kenya, Poland, Nigeria, Angola, and Israel. The main standout was Angola, which slashed its benchmark rate -394 basis points to 18.00% as a new central bank governor took the helm. All the other banks held their policy rates, judging that conditions justified the current settings, e.g. to promote economic growth, and as an appropriate level for their various inflation targets.

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By now, you probably know that most sites offering you a free credit report are doing it in the hopes of persuading you to sign up for credit-monitoring services that are far from free. But did you know that the free credit report scams are steadily being replaced by the even more enticing free credit score con? This isn’t surprising: A free credit report can give you a lot of information about your open credit card balances, total amount of debt, and any missed or late payments in your past, but it doesn’t give you your actual three-digit credit score. This is the score that mortgage lenders rely on when determining whether you qualify for a mortgage loan and at what interest rates. Thi

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Jesse Eisinger has the story of CELF, which has some interesting implications. Essentially, Goldman Sachs (GS) took a bunch of leveraged loans it had lying around on its balance sheet, and bundled them into a CLO called CELF which it sold in July 2008.

The transaction was clearly profitable for Goldman — if it wasn’t, the bank wouldn’t have done it. And like all CLOs, the reason was that there was insatiable investor demand for triple-A-rated securities. As a result, by bundling up a bunch of loans and tranching them so that a triple-A-rated security fell out the other side, Goldman could make money: demand for AAA debt was much greater than demand for leveraged loans, so turning the latter into the former was profitable.

Then, this year, Goldman unwound the deal. It bo

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Top Financial News Headlines from Around the Web

Today’s top headlines feature Cyber Monday shopping predictions, tips for college grads entering the workplace, and encouraging signs for the economy based on today’s Black Friday turnout. Plus, find out about Elizabeth Warren’s meeting with more than a dozen top banking industry executives and her plans as the head of the new Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.

American Workers Can’t Escape Email During Holidays Six out of ten people check e-mail during the holidays, and many find that there are messages from their workplaces. A new poll by Harris Interactive and Xobni shows that 59% of employed Americans check their work email during family holidays.

Experts Give Tips to College Grads Seeking First Job A college degree is no longer the ticket to the American dream. Experts

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Last week, the New York Times launched an interactive puzzle called ‘You Fix the Budget‘. The puzzle looks at the existing budget deficits in 2015 (now projected at $418 billion) and 2030 (projected to be $1.345 trillion) and lets you choose what spending to cut or how to grow additional revenue. And… it’s actually kind of fun.

You have the option of selecting from the following categories (each containing a number of budget influencing options and how much of $ impact each would have on the budgets):

• Cutting domestic and foreign aid (aid, earmarks, federal employee pay, cut federal workforce, farm subsidies, govt. contrac

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Let’s assume that bottled water costs $1 per bottle. Maybe less if you buy it in bulk. That’s not that much, right? And water is good for you, an essential component of life itself, so it’s totally justified, right?

Once you see the math (and some other interesting facts), you might find it a bit harder to justify.

Unless you live or are traveling in a country that does not yet have potable drinking water (and there are surprisingly still plenty of them out there), you really have no reason to drink bottled water. Most of us know that the cost of drinking bottled water vs. tap water will never work out in your favor. However, the exact extent of the price disparity isn’t so clear. When yo

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