This does seem a little counter-intuitive, but credit card holders are using Facebook to befriend the people who send them those annoying bills for long-forgotten bar tabs.

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You can deposit checks with a free smartphone app, set up direct deposit from your employer, pay bills online, and even add cash to your card from any Walmart checkout counter, all with no fees.

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Thousands of over-the-counter products now must pass behind the pharmacist's counter when the customer pays with the special debit card.

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Whether the choice of payment is by debit or credit card, gift card, check or mobile phone, online or at the checkout counter, First Data takes every opportunity to go beyond the transaction.

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First, already in 2011, my Flex card could no longer be used to pay for over-the-counter drugs like antacids or aspirin.

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Showed what I thought was my ticket to the conductor, who most politely and in immaculate English told me I was carrying a piece of paper saying my credit card had been refused, and next time to buy a ticket at the counter.

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"All they do is put an ID card down and pick up a phone, " says Bill Knight, who stands behind a counter giving out the phones.

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In the past, DirecTV has tried a variety of more conventional approaches to fighting piracy, including cooperating with law enforcement to bust black market distributors and taking various electronic counter measures, or ECMs. In January, DirecTV instructed its satellites to send an ECM known as a "card kill" on Super Bowl Sunday.

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