Read those messages from the credit card companies carefully. One new “policy” for those of us who pay one time will be YEARLY FEES!

Shop around! Or just use you debit card.

Also, explain to us where the “greed” is when companies loan to people who can’t pay it back and they have to sell off the debt for a few paltry cents on the dollar.

Further to that, they tried to “counsel” me that it could look bad for my credit rating if I closed out an account with them. puh-lease.

Actually, it does. You should have kept it and used it to buy gas and paid it off on time each month. Unless, of course, you have 10 other cards. In that case, it would have been better to close it.

Now as far as the rate, you can negotiate it down if you’re persistent enough. You could have called back and talked to somebody else or asked for a supervisor.

Banks know they take a risk when they extend revolving, unsecured credit to anyone, regardless of income. They cry as if they’ve been hoodwinked, but danged if they haven’t been doing their best to advertise anywhere and everywhere to get people to open accounts. They engage in the same reckless behavior that mortgage companies did, except there’s no specific value that can go up and down on revolving credit like there is for a home.

Several years ago, I had a credit card with a balance on it. I was moving for a new job, mailed my payment (this was before electronic payment was so easy) a bit late and it apparently arrived 1 day after the due date. Because of this, they raised my interest rate to a whopping 29%. When I contacted them about lowering it, not only did they refuse to do so, they told me so in a way as if some outside force had made them raise the rate and there was nothing they could do about it. Well, that card was paid off quickly and I contacted them to close the account. They asked if there was anything they could do to keep me as a customer. I asked they lower the rate and of course that’s the one thing they couldn’t do. Further to that, they tried to “counsel” me that it could look bad for my credit rating if I closed out an account with them. puh-lease.

I’m wary of anything Congress does but the credit card companies (banks) have brought this on themselves with abusive and misleading practices. A little discipline on their part would have averted this mess (especially since they got to write the earlier bankruptcy bill). Unlike the banks, we can’t lean on the gummint to loan us money at zero percent when we screw up.

I’ve known people who’ve gotten in deep water on their bills and the credit card companies essentially hand them an anvil (big rate increases along with draconian late fees pushing the balance over their limit which triggers big over-limit fees that persist month after month); they never catch up.

Then there’s the practice where the rate on an account will go up when the card holder is late on another account… and there was the practice at Providian of holding payments past the due date and then hitting customers with late charges figuring that some percentage wouldn’t complain (reported on PBS a few years ago).

Years ago, a friend’s father was a “credit addict”. Anyone with access to his credit file would know he was in trouble (minimum payments, near limits, 15+ accounts) and yet they kept raising his limits and sending card offers. Who’s the dummy?

I know I’ve paid enough interest of cards to cover everything I’ve bought and then some… I know better now but it takes a while to get them paid off.