Banks Condemn Credit Card Restrictions While They Receive Taxpayer Bailout

LA Times:

You've got to love the banking industry.

As our friends in the financial sector were passing the hat among taxpayers last week for $700 billion in bailouts to cover their crappy mortgage investments, they were simultaneously condemning the House of Representatives' passage of a "Credit Cardholders' Bill of Rights," which aims to crack down on some of the industry's more troublesome practices.

Read the whole story: LA Times

Comments

[Choicelady]

The Dodd and Frank plan is NOT a bailout. They are demanding Congressional oversight; they refuse to give the money in a lump sum; they are insisting on US taxpayer ownership of what we've 'bought' with our tax money and thus the ability to get paid back; they are demanding real controls on defaulting CEOs and other officers. McCain, architect of the Republican House strategy, wants an automatic $300 billion in tax cuts which is money down the drain. He has included NO strategy by which the federal coffers would be repaid. Paulson and Bush of course just wanted a welfare check and no peeking over their shoulder, but McCain is just as bad - gimme tax cuts, and maybe I'll pick up some bad paper for ya, and maybe I won't. But just gimme.

Fight for the Dodd and Frank plan and demand even MORE oversight, regulation, and payback. We deserve that from these creeps. BUT - understand the difference among the three plans before we do the knee-jerk 'don't bail 'em out' stuff because they've SO screwed up the system it WILL collapse if the government does not intervene. And that comes down on US.

[Zeje]

Let it collapse. the government can invest directly into the economy with 700 billion -- health care, education, infrastructure .. jobs, jobs, jobs ... that is what will help Main Street -- It won't help Main Street if Americans are tapped out and can't buy anything

[Morpheus008]

The fattest Pigs deserve to be slaughtered. That applies to the financial industry and politicians. Please Google Jefferson County Alabama and see how JP Morgan has bankrupted this place. Some people must choose between food and paying for water and sewer services. School Districts in Pennsylvania are suing after being overcharged by at least $100million by ... JP Morgan... for investment banking services. At least the industry is consistent but they have powerful enablers.

[grata2ude]

Bail us out so we can screw u somemore. Don't that just beat all.

[research]

Repeal the 2005 Bankruptcy law.

[TheJibreelaMonsters]

Dont tell that to Joe Biden

[MilwaukeeMike]

Yes, repeal the 2005 bankruptcy law. (of course, it was the trade off with the government to open creit markets. Basically, "We'll open up credit to help the economy, so long as those charges aren't dischargab­le.")

[ErnestineBass]

Man...is there an annoying echo in here, or what? LMAO

[robotfog]

banks and their owners can all burn in hell. We can use the energy they generate to run our appliances. I don't understand why they have to be so scummy to begin with. I suspect the people running these rip-off institutions had really lousy parents and ARE really lousy parents if they have reproduced.

[DualCitizenNLUSA]

From now on if I ever see a bank robbery in progress I will cheer loudly.

[Puller58]

Banks used to have good Mr.Drysdal­e of the Beverly Hillbillies to give them a cheerful stereotype. Now they've figuratively donned ski masks and are holding weapons on the taxpayers. Not cool.

[oommoore]

What nerve! If they don't like the language in the bill, then don't take the bailout money and shut your doors. Simple as that.

[SwingingFromCenter]

I love it. It's the bank's fault that they needed what will be about a trillion dollars from us to bail them out and they are railing against the very reason that it happened.

One of the big reasons the banks got in so much trouble was they would notice when a consumer got close to their limit and all of a sudden ramp their APR up from like 9% to about 30% overnight. All of a sudden the consumer is supposed to pay more than twice as much every month just to make their minimum payment. So of course they end up going over limit once that 30% interest hits each month, which triggered even more fees, which just made the minimum payment even higher, up until the consumer just gave up and stopped paying and trying to get above water.

So they take our trillion dollars and want to KEEP being able to do that? Yeah, right.

[Graywolf48]

Call your Congressman/woman and Senators and tell them this bill is not strong enough, that if we're bailing these bastards out, they need to roll back interest rates and lower fees. If you're late with one company's card payment, they charge you an average of $30 late fee AND maximize the interest rate on your EXISTING balance. Then every other card you hold does the same thing, even though you're on time with their card's payment. They get interest rates higher than the mob used to charge. And they wonder why people just stop paying after a while and go bankrupt. That's whyu their cronies in Congress, pushed by Bush wanted the bankruptcy law changes. I'd just as soon not given them one penny of taxpayer money until we get tough sanctions against these greedy scumbags. Right now they need our tax money bailout more than we need them. And if we do end up bailing them out, all their execs should be forced to undergo credit counseling before getting a dime of relief.

[nellie]

Criminals always blame their victims.

[MeanGreenMachine]

She was dressed like she wanted it.

[Mahi Joe]

This is precisely why I do NOT want the government to bail out this banking/broker industry. It's all about the greedy bankers who want us taxpayers to bail out their a$$es yet when it comes to looking out for the average person, screw them! Well screw these bankers and brokers. They made their greedy choices now let them live with their failed policies.

Say NO to the bailout!

[bpowell1]

I agree with you. Let the market bail itself out. I think they will make sure they don't go down the drain.

[robotfog]

I say NO to the bailout too. Plus, We all need to practice a discipline in our home economics and not support any bank or lender that is not for the people. Personally, I spend as little as possible to avoid handing money over to those freaks. Stay away from debt.

[AmandaBC]

You know, in the good ol' USofA, Socialism is only good for the ultra-rich when they're losing money.

You plebeians just shut up and tough it out...

[ErnestineBass]

Suffice to say, I just finished cutting up all but one of my da_mned demon_ic cards.

Any further comment by me would simply be unprintable.

[nellie]

You'll feel so free. I cut my cards up two years ago. It's tough for a while, but just knowing I'm not giving another cent to Discover or B of A is wonderful.

[Meah]

Let's see now. JPMorgan Chase doesn't like giving the taxpayer a break? OK. Now I'll take my money out of WAMU.