Yes, Virginia (and every other state, small business or individual) not only do the banks and credit card companies screw you over for being late making a payment with obscenely high “late fees” but now, even if you always pay your credit card bills on time and in full, they will hit you with a fee anyway.
The banks are starting to charge fees to reliable customers in response to a slew of new credit card industry regulations that will limit when banks can hike interest rates. Cardholders who get a new annual fee notice in the mail will be in a no-win situation.
“They can either pay that fee or they can close the account, and if they have had the account for a while and they close it, they are potentially going to hurt their credit card score,” said [Ben] Woolsey [Director of Consumer Research at CreditCards.com].
Can someone in Congress please pass legislation to close this usury loophole? Mr. Alan Grayson? Mr. Kucinich? Ms. Pelosi? Senator Reid? I’m looking at you. Otherwise, I expect this type of extortion will just continue until the day that my fees for having credit cards exceed the amount of charges I rack up on them. Then again, maybe they really do want us to go back to an all cash society.
Since the majority is obviously unable to deal on an all cash basis, maybe we’ll just head straight back to barter.
‘Credit’ will be a highly exclusive club for the wealthy, in which members rob each other only as a matter of tradition.
Notwithstanding the discount that retailers already hand over to the credit card companies on all transactions.
Good point. Which is another reason it’s nonsense to claim the banks don’t care if they lose customers. It’s really the merchants who get screwed the most by the credit card bandits.
The story sounds like half bullshit. If the banks are not making money on those who pay up, why would they care if they “lost” them?
I have to disagree with getting Congress to micromanage this particular scam. We need much broader regulation to bring back competition, break up the big banks, and scrap the credit-reporting system. Until then, maybe these “pioneering” banks will do us all a favor and kill themselves off.
This is one instance where I have to sound like a wingnut: there are still plenty of credit unions and local banks out there that issue credit cards and still need to care about what their customers think. Now is the perfect time for those dealing with Citi, BA, and the rest of the plutocrats to switch and make this a better country while they empower themselves.
Everyone should join a Credit Union, seriously. Abandon the big banks.
Exactly. We’d all be better off if we could only deal with small institutions where individuals still have enough say to make a difference. Credit unions and co-ops is where its at. The problem with big banks, big corporations, big unions, big government, big whatever is the big part and the imbalance of power that it represents. Concentrated power of any form yields a very fragile situation.
The time is coming when the American people are going to rise up in their righteous wrath, and do some extremely violent things to the bankers.
I am not exaggerating here. The bankers are riding for a fall, and when the fall comes, all the king’s horses and all the king’s men won’t do shit to help the bankers, since the bankers have fucked them over too.
Who the fuck said that the bankers and the other usury screwers are in charge of the credit score? We need regulation for this aspect of life as well. The credit score should not be at the whim of some turd with an MBA in some office who is determined to fuck over as many people as possible. It should be a clear and PUBLICLY AGREED UPON summary of your economic history. SHIT like closing credit card accounts should NOT be allowed to affect the credit score.
Credit scores should be limited to bill payment history, period. Revealing any other information on individuals should be made a felony.
You’d think closing an account should RAISE your credit score. The less cards, the better!
This is criminal.
I only bank with my LOCAL credit union. I don’t get why folks bank with the big banks. Unless it’s the only bank around.
Yes, the only way to overturn the creeps is to use cash in every way and every day you can until more and more people do the same. Washington and corporate U.S.A. will howl like hell. It will be like music to everyone’s ears. CASH.
There has to be a better way, I say repeal the current Bankruptcy Laws and go back to the pre-2005 law. Let the consumer erase all debt dealing with unsecured Credit Cards.
Next, eliminate Credit Card influence on Credit Reports and force the Credit card companies to disclose the amount of interest they are charging the consumer on each individual credit report.
Just another example that shows me what was once an economy based on production has become an economy based on greed and guile. What we have become since the early days of Ronny Reagan is hard for folks my age to believe: a nation of scam artists preying on….ourselves. Even Adam Smith must be rolling over in his grave. Sigh :-((
As a matter of fact, we all encounter unexpected expenses. They aren’t fun, and the tension that they bring about isn’t fun either. You can use credit cards, but the interest, even on direct deposits from credit into checking, adds up quickly and creates further headaches. Perhaps if there was a financial product, where a small loan could be obtained, with minimal hassle, that you could pay back nearly as soon as you got it, that could help. But wait – it turns out there is such a product to combat unforeseen expenses on an occasional basis – those are payday loans, and when used responsibly are perfectly safe.