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The world’s largest retail electronic payments network Visa Inc announced the Visa Mobile application for the iPhone. Using the tool iPhone owners will have access to over 50 unique merchant offers ranging from clothing and dining to entertainment. The Visa Mobile application is now available as a free download from the iTunes app store.

Mint.com has partnered with Lending Club, the leading U.S. peer lending network, to involve it into new Goals program that helps Mint users to get out of debt and save money more efficiently. Under the new program customers will get out of credit card debt faster, pay less interest and keep more of their money for what really matters, says the official statement.

Lending Club offers personal unsecured loans for paying off high-interest debt at rates starting at 7.93 percent APR. It is 53% less than the overall national credit card APR of 16.81 percent.

 Under the shadow of a still-sluggish economy, many holiday shoppers are embracing healthier money management habits to help keep debt at bay, according to a new survey of 1,000 U.S. adults by USAA. In addition, this back-to-basics approach appears to have many shoppers feeling optimistic about this year’s holiday shopping with nearly half (48 percent) of survey respondents saying that the movie titles “It’s a Wonderful Life” and “Jingle All The Way” best describe their approach to this year’s holiday budget. 

A survey released by AFL-CIO, a federation of labor unions, showed that one if four young U.S. workers does not earn enough money to pay their bills, more than twice as many as a decade ago. Fewer than 1/3 of young workers earn enough to pay their bills and save some money as well, while 10 years ago that number was more than half.

This year experts advise to split your Direct Deposit between your checking and savings accounts if you want to save more money. National Direct Deposit and Direct Payment Month is celebrated annually in May. NACHA’s Marketing Management Group (MMG) coordinates the yearly campaign.