Visa

Out shopping this weekend, I happily remembered a prepaid Visa gift card I'd received months ago was nestled in my wallet. I called customer service to find out if a pin had been established, because I'd had the card for about six months and couldn't recall setting one up. The Visa representative gave me instructions for using the card and then told me my balance was $95 — but the card was given to me with a value of $100.

When I asked where the $5 went, I was told a fee goes into effect after the card is inactive for a certain period of time. The advantage of giving a Visa gift card is that it should work like cash. It seems very sneaky to me to punish someone with a fee for not spending soon enough, and makes me wonder if other gift cards have similar policies. Does it make sense to you that an inactive gift card would go down in value?

They're young, they're gorgeous, but they don't have as much access as you may think. Many non-United States citizen fashion models are not granted visas to fly to the US, where many of their assignments are shot. That's because models must compete with engineers and other high tech workers for H-1B visas, which are given to well educated foreign citizens.

That may all change if models are granted their own visa category under legislation moving on Capitol Hill. The fashion industry's argument is that if models are not granted visas, assignments will be forced to move overseas, thus taking money away from American industry professionals. What's more, "American models lose the chance of working at events that move overseas. This is about millions of dollars that would go abroad that will be spent in America,” said Bruce Morrison, a former Congressman who lobbies for a coalition of fashion industry businesses. This sounds like a dire issue. I hope it gets sorted out soon so we can see more Fab faces in fashion.

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Pro-Tibet groups are joining together to call out the corporate sponsors of the Beijing Olympics. The groups say that unless the companies use their influence to pressure China, they are complicit in a humanitarian disaster.

Twelve global sponsors, including Coca Cola, General Electric, McDonald's, Visa, Johnson & Johnson and Omega have paid a combined $80 million for the four year exclusive sponsorship deal. Activists explain that together these companies have a GDP equal to Canada's, the world's eighth largest economy. Thus, they can wield a lot of influence.

Do you expect sponsors to get involved in global politics, considering they work with governments, employ lobbying firms, and maintain international presences?

Are human rights more than politics, therefore giving everyone an obligation to pressure China, including corporations and consumers? Or, should the sponsors be commended for supporting the Olympic movement, which would be impossible without them?

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A man drops his wallet at a zoo. Does this monkey look like a good samaritan to you? Let's tune in and find out...

Visa, the credit card company, is no longer just about producing a plastic card to assist you in all your luxury shopping. The company has opened a temporary "swap shop" in London where customers can trade in their old clothing and accessories for other secondhand goods. Visaswap.com is the editorially driven site that provides comments from fashion editors, advice on trends, hot items to swap and buying secondhand merchandise.

Although us non-Londoners won't get as much use out of the site and the swap shop, it is still worth looking through to find out more about the revolutionary project and TRAID, a charity committed to protecting the environment and reducing world poverty by recycling. Plus, the tips from front row fashion experts are fun. I love the one about using a skinny belt to avoid looking like a potato sack!

I can't get a taxi in this town. Maybe I should hang out with Bond-James Bond.