SENATE TARGETS ABUSES BY CREDIT CARD FIRMS
By PAUL THARP
January 26, 2007 -- Aiming to break a credit card squeeze on Americans, the Senate yesterday declared war on deceptive credit abuses and interest-rate gouging by card issuers.
"I would like to put the credit card industry, issuing banks and card associations on notice," said Sen. Chris Dodd (D-Conn.), head of the Senate's banking committee.
Dodd had a long list of complaints about the credit card industry, which last year reaped a staggering $17.1 billion in controversial penalty fees alone - a ten-fold rise in such fees in the last decade.
Dodd said he was worried at how the latest generation of consumers has turned credit cards into a self-inflicted nightmare - using cards to charge up $1.8 trillion a year, up from a $69 billion a year in 1980.
What's worse, he said, is that credit card companies that have put more than 640 million cards into circulation are also piling record fees and hidden charges that can break the back of many consumers.
Expert witnesses painted a grim future for America's addition to credit cards.
"The credit card industry is broken," said Elizabeth Warren, a law professor at Harvard Law School.
"A growing number of card issuers increase their profits by loading their credit cards with tricks and traps so that they can catch consumers who stumble, or mistake those traps for treasure, and find themselves caught in a snare from which they cannot escape."
"Once they are trapped," she said, "they are bled with 29 percent interest rates, late fees, over-limit fees, double cycle billing, disappearing grace periods, $15 phone payment charges, and every other possible way to run up the bills and keep the customer paying and paying and paying."
Other witnesses echoed similar complaints about card issuers.
Dr. Robert Manning, a consumer finance professor at Rochester Institute of Technology, said he was dismayed by how credit card issuers have abandoned consumers victimized by frauds.
He said card issuers earlier "assured Congress and consumer groups they would vigorously protect consumers" hurt by card frauds.
"Instead, we have had a failure to protect or to be held accountable for the personal and financial costs of identity theft and fraudulent use of credit card accounts," said Manning.
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Its about time someone is doing something about these thieving bastards.
If you are late on one credit card, they jack your rate up on other cards. wtf.
The credit card bill of rights is long overdue.
By PAUL THARP
January 26, 2007 -- Aiming to break a credit card squeeze on Americans, the Senate yesterday declared war on deceptive credit abuses and interest-rate gouging by card issuers.
"I would like to put the credit card industry, issuing banks and card associations on notice," said Sen. Chris Dodd (D-Conn.), head of the Senate's banking committee.
Dodd had a long list of complaints about the credit card industry, which last year reaped a staggering $17.1 billion in controversial penalty fees alone - a ten-fold rise in such fees in the last decade.
Dodd said he was worried at how the latest generation of consumers has turned credit cards into a self-inflicted nightmare - using cards to charge up $1.8 trillion a year, up from a $69 billion a year in 1980.
What's worse, he said, is that credit card companies that have put more than 640 million cards into circulation are also piling record fees and hidden charges that can break the back of many consumers.
Expert witnesses painted a grim future for America's addition to credit cards.
"The credit card industry is broken," said Elizabeth Warren, a law professor at Harvard Law School.
"A growing number of card issuers increase their profits by loading their credit cards with tricks and traps so that they can catch consumers who stumble, or mistake those traps for treasure, and find themselves caught in a snare from which they cannot escape."
"Once they are trapped," she said, "they are bled with 29 percent interest rates, late fees, over-limit fees, double cycle billing, disappearing grace periods, $15 phone payment charges, and every other possible way to run up the bills and keep the customer paying and paying and paying."
Other witnesses echoed similar complaints about card issuers.
Dr. Robert Manning, a consumer finance professor at Rochester Institute of Technology, said he was dismayed by how credit card issuers have abandoned consumers victimized by frauds.
He said card issuers earlier "assured Congress and consumer groups they would vigorously protect consumers" hurt by card frauds.
"Instead, we have had a failure to protect or to be held accountable for the personal and financial costs of identity theft and fraudulent use of credit card accounts," said Manning.
..............................................................
Its about time someone is doing something about these thieving bastards.
If you are late on one credit card, they jack your rate up on other cards. wtf.
The credit card bill of rights is long overdue.
