In the old days, banks lent money to people they were confident
would pay them back. No more. These days, banks search for people who
cannot pay them back and lend them money anyhow.
These unsecured loans come in the form of credit cards. And the
banks cannot find enough young people, students, sick people and old
people on small fixed incomes to give credit cards to. Once they’ve got
them signed up for a card the tricks and traps begin. From then on
their victims will spend their money and their lives paying on a debt
which they will never discharge. It’s as though they had been thrown
into a new form of indenture to Citigroup or J. P. Morgan Chase.
An example of what credit card-issuing banks do to people was given
to the Senate Subcommittee on Investigations, where Alys Cohen of the
National Consumer Law Center, testified about “a young Navy sailor who
opened a credit card account with First Premier Bank on November 21,
2006. The credit card had a $250 credit limit and a 9.9 percent APR for
purchases. The same day that the sailor opened the account, he was
assessed two fees — a “Program Fee” of $95 and an “Account Set-Up Fee”
of $29. The next day (November 22), he was assessed a participation fee
of $6. Three days later (November 24), he was assessed an annual fee of
$48. When this young sailor received his first month bill, which had a
closing date of Nov. 24, 2006, he had already accrued a balance of
$178, without making a single purchase.
“The next week, the young sailor used the credit card for four
transactions totaling $84.85.On Dec. 22, 2006, he was assessed a
participation fee of $6. With all these fees, the young sailor was
already over his credit limit, despite making less than $85 in
purchases on a card with a $250 limit. He was assessed an over-limit
fee of $25 and a late fee of $25, plus a finance charge of $1.96, on
Dec. 26. He now owed a balance of $320.81.” { THE NATION/CBS News | Continue reading }
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I agree that this is egregious
behavior. It seems to me though, that credit card regulatory laws have been enacted, oh, maybe 69 times during my lifetime.They must be
ethereal, on the order of laws governing congressional bribe
takery. Maybe we need to start depending on something else to
protect us against the bad guys, like common sense and vigilance?
The article does not tell us what the young sailor did when he received the
bill. He may have taken it to his JAG Officer for a cease and
desist letter. Or, he may have called the credit company and said
"Eat Me, I know where your kids go to school." Or, he may have done
nothing, and today owes, $12 millions dollars in interest.
Whatever, the young sailor did not pay attention to WTF he was
signing, did he?
Maybe this is the reason people don't mind their Pees and Ques anymore. They have a nanny. Here's the CBS/Nicholas von Hoffman solution.
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With the Democrats in control — they are somewhat less tainted with
bank money than the Republicans — some kind of a new credit card law is
a possibility. It might make the tricks and traps used by the banks on
their credit card customers illegal. |
Don't bother telling him; von Hoffman's in the Liberal Zzzone.
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