Credit Card Companies Raising Rates As New Limits Go Into Effect

suntimes.com:

Being in debt is about to get a lot more expensive for millions of Americans. Credit card issuers have been rushing to raise rates in advance of this Thursday, when the first provisions of the Credit Card Accountability Responsibility and Disclosure Act (CARD) will go into effect, with other protections starting in February 2010.

Read the whole story: suntimes.com

Comments

[bankownedbyamerica]

The most pressing issue is why we, the American people, were fooled into thinking Obama would create more jobs.
hat tip to http://www.iamned.com .....

[Harrier]

I hope they raise it to 500%. I use the only for transactions and a float. I get a float, save interest and get point to fly internationally every year

[NewAmericanCenturySucks]

...in return for which, you are paying them more than double the value of your miles - in the form of transaction fees charged to the retailer, and passed on to you, the sucker - er, consumer.

[peacegurl48]

Let's punish them and stop allowing them to gouge us; I'm down to 2 cards and once I've paid them off I will never get another.

[danimalplanet]

im with you on that

[mrsbee]

My husband just paid off one of the credit cards and canceled it...16.5% interest..­.he will continue to do that...the­y must be getting a lot of cancellati­ons...they keep sending us promos to keep spending..­.no thanks.

[Disuberence]

AllieMD I'm a Fan of AllieMD I'm a fan of this user 25 fans permalink

Your comment isn't clear. Are you saying you go to school full-time during the school year -but not in summer - and so you are dropped only in summer?

====

Yes.

[jaqlynn]

Somehow none of this is working out like it was supposed to.
And if there is no public option in the health care reform, then the insurance companies are just going to PUNISH us because 60 percent of us are for reforms.
If they hadn't been so greedy, we might have just kept quiet.

[Rumplestiltskin]

The folks whining about credit card companies "ripping them off" after they spend money they don't have are probably borrowing for vacations in Vegas where they plan on winning.

[Lilith33]

NYT;

Plastic Card Tricks


Before more Americans get in so deep that they cannot dig out, Washington needs to change the way these companies do business to ensure that consumers are treated fairly.


The stories about deceptive practices are harrowing. At a recent news briefing in Washington, a Chicago man told about what happened when he charged a $12,000 home repair bill in 2000 on a card with an introductory interest rate of 4.25 percent.


Despite his steady, on-time payments, the rate is now nearly 25 percent. And despite paying at least $15,360, he said that he had only paid off about $800 of his original debt.

[Rumplestiltskin]

"You can't cheat an honest man."
"Never give a sucker an even break."

Thank you W. C.

[Lilith33]

Cont.


NYT;
Plastic Card Tricks


The Federal Reserve is focused mainly on making it easier for consumers to understand credit card contracts — some go as high as 30 pages of nearly unreadable fine print.


Clarity, however, is not enough.


One bank contract stated baldly: “We reserve the right to change the terms at any time for any reason.”



Congress needs to address numerous unfair practices, including interest rates that skyrocket for no apparent reason and due dates that suddenly shift — forward — so that an unwary consumer pays late.



Late fees are a big profit center in some banks. Some raise interest rates when consumers get close to their credit limits. In other cases, a late payment on one company’s card raises the rates on other cards in your wallet.



P.s. my brother in law is a bigwig at citibank and said under oath before congress they send the bills too late in the month for customers to send back in time.

They do it on purpose.

[vindrag]

This is a little off topic, but I believe Bank of America does the same thing with mortgages. They informed me several months ago that BOA would no longer be mailing out monthly mortgage statements so I signed up to get them electronically. But I haven't been receiving them. So I called their customer service and was informed that I needed to change my preferences on their website which I did. Guess what? I am still not getting statements. I have never been late, but I wonder how many other people are now that they don't get their monthly reminder.

[mcmchugh99]

This is their thank you to the public that spent trillions of dollars bailing these banks out.

Next time when they go down, they should stay down.

[Ponderus]

And furthermore: my partner just said they don't_kill you -- they keep you on life support, as disabled as possible. And also, they hope, as uneducated, misinformed, and angry (at all the wrong people) as possible, because then you can be manipulated by BeckO'Reil­lyLimbaugh­CoulterMal­kin, and the rest of the monsters.

[Ponderus]

I guess all the bright boys on Wall Street still don't get it: you can't starve your customers to_death and still have a business. Do they think they operate on love and air and the beneficence of Heaven? It's kind of like an ecosystem -- if all the prey_die, so do all the predators.

[kesmarn]

Well put.

[willwallace]

GOPEllis, opinion?

Its the incoming president of the Canadian Medical Association

Its the same as President Obama telling us the economy is not going to recover anytime soon.

[Lilith33]

The Real Boston Tea Party was Against the Wal-Mart of the 1770s


The real Boston Tea Party was a protest against huge corporate tax cuts for the British East India Company, the largest trans-national corporation then in existence. This corporate tax cut threatened to decimate small Colonial businesses by helping the BEIC pull a Wal-Mart against small entrepreneurial tea shops, and individuals began a revolt that kicked-off a series of events that ended in the creation of The United States of America.

They covered their faces, massed in the streets, and destroyed the property of a giant global corporation. Declaring an end to global trade run by the East India Company that was destroying local economies, this small, masked minority started a revolution with an act of rebellion later called the Boston Tea Party.


She claims the original Boston Tea Party was actually a revolt partially against the Bank of England, and now England is in worse shape than the U.S. I ...
www.thomhartmann.com/.../the-real-boston-tea-party-was-against-the-wal-mart-of-the-1770s/ - Cached - Similar

[willwallace]

Disuberence, I hope you're not telling us you dropped out of school.

If you want to have a meaningful life, get a degree, its really the only way these days. Unless you get very lucky.

My gf has coverage through her mom, she is 24 and still under her insurance.

[Heavy]

There must be a new main

[Ponderus]

No, it's still this.

[Lilith33]

Yup about healthcare.

[willwallace]

"That's called looking at the evidence, looking at how care is delivered and how care is paid for all around us (and) then saying 'Well, OK, that's good information. How do we make all of that work in the Canadian context? What do the Canadian people want?' "

Doig says there are some "very good things" about Canada's health-care system, but she points out that many people have stories about times when things didn't go well for them or their family.

"(Canadians) have to understand that the system that we have right now - if it keeps on going without change - is not sustainable," said Doig.

[GOPtakesEllisDee]

Pure opinion.

[Ponderus]

Drivel.

[FormerReaganite]

And things NEVER "go wrong" in the American health care system? Golly gee, I had no idea our system is *flawless!*

[FormerReaganite]

You might want to recheck the title of this thread; it is about credit cards, not health care. (OOps)