Posted on 04/19/2009 4:17:44 PM PDT by zaphod3000
WASHINGTON -- President Barack Obama will soon turn his attention to the issue of high credit card rates and other abuses, giving a potential boost to congressional efforts to rein in credit card companies.
The president is "going to be very focused, in a very near term, on a whole set of issues having to do with credit card abuses," White House economic adviser Larry Summers said on NBC's "Meet the Press" airing Sunday. He said the abuses include charging consumers "extraordinarily high rates that they wouldn't have paid if they knew what they were getting themselves into."
Mr. Summers is scheduled to meet with the heads of several of the largest U.S. credit card issuers at the White House on Thursday.
Democratic lawmakers have already begun advancing legislation to curb certain credit card fees and other practices. It is unclear whether, or how, the White House's efforts might differ from the measures being pushed by Rep. Carolyn Maloney (D., N.Y.) and Sen. Christopher Dodd (D., Conn.).
(Excerpt) Read more at online.wsj.com ...
Bails out the banks then goes after the banks to protect dead beat shoppers who abused their credit cards.
obama’s going to run the whole economy.
Now that he is emperor, he can "get even."
He wants to run everything these days... just crown him King Obama and be done with it.
Boy I sure he doesn’t mess with my card: no yearly fees and 7% interest.
What is the high interest he speaks about?
>>The marketplace (and personal responsibility) should determine what people should pay.
Wait until credit cards dry up completely.
“run” or ruin? (or both)
Our Nanny Government is now going to make sure we know how to shop for the best credit card.
I guess simply cutting up a credit card with a high interest rate is to complicated for most Americans today - it takes our Government to do our shopping for us.
Will Obama also tell me how to shop for the best grocery prices and when I can’t send a flee of government employees out to do my shopping for me?
If that's what it takes to achieve the love of the masses.
Apparently it's working anymore...
I put almost everything I purchase on a credit card.
I haven’t paid a credit company a finance charge or interest in 30 years.
I guess that will come to a screaching halt now - credit card companies will figure out a way to charge smart users like me a fee to cover the loss in revenue due to Obama’s sticking his nose into something the Government doesn’t belong in.
As soon as he cuts the 2nd amendment out of the Constitution.
“Will Obama also tell me how to shop for the best grocery prices and when I can’t send a flee of government employees out to do my shopping for me?”
Of course not. He’ll send a bunch of neigborhood gardening coordinators to teach you how to grow your own food while reducing your carbon footprint and combating global warming.
Some cards have default rates of 25-30% if one payment is a day late.
Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez has ordered the army to take control of all rice processing plants in the country.
Mr Chavez accused some firms of overcharging by refusing to produce rice at prices set by the government.
He warned that some companies could be nationalised if they tried to interfere with supplies of the grain.
Mr Chavez - who has nationalised large swathes of Venezuela’s economy - did not say how long the government intervention would last.
Major rice processors in the country include the US-owned giant Cargill and Venezuela’s main food company, Polar.
Last year, Venezuela seized control of plants and offices belonging to Mexican cement giant Cemex.
In 2007, the government said it had taken control of the massive Orinoco Belt oil projects as part of President Chavez’s nationalisation drive.
Have you checked your rate lately? They are hitting everyone, being a good customer did not make a difference. The lady I talked to at a CC company told me it did not mater if you paid off a $30,000 bill every month. I had my rate jacked from 9 to 15%. I was able to get it down to 14%. I was told I could apply for a new card and get a low intro rate, because those rates were set my the folks in marketing.
This could turn out very diffeent by who runs the banks.
Obama can get tough on banks but banks will just not lend, or else, Obama can run all banks, and y’all who do pay will pay for those who charge and don’t pay.
The service center that does credit card accounts for Sears and Roebuck (aka K-Mart) has changed billing dates virtually every month for the last two years.
Even if you are on an electronic system, unless you click it up so your payments are made within 2 or 3 days of posting of the new bill, it is possible to get hit with a $39 fee AND find your total interest charges virtually doubled, or for the good little boys and girls who have no balance and pay on time, you may suddenly find you are overdue and owe both an extraordinarily high interest rate AND a penalty. This will be reported to the credit bureaus.
The other alternative is to simply link your system with your bank into an automatic "pay on posting" situation.
Another solution is to NOT use Sear's card nor buy stuff at their stores.
Frankly, the customer shouldn't need to be worried about Sear's credit card service bureau engaging in fraudulent methods. Sears, instead, should be fearful of its executives going to prison for long periods of time.
In point of fact, there has been substantial abuse by credit card issuers and tremendous abuse in the mortgage lending market, and these abuses really do need to be addressed.
I think the worst abuse by credit card issuers is to send out checks to existing card holders, offering to loan big chunks of money at ultra-cheap rates. The catch in the extremely fine-print legalese is that you can never pay off any other balance before you pay off the ultra-cheap check loans. This forces you to pay the full interest rate on existing card balances and any other use of the card until the check loans are completely paid off.
This whole deal is a complete scam and a total ripoff. I for one, will rejoice when this particular abusive practice is outlawed.
Cat Nipman
From what I understand, Joe Biden is one of the biggest recipients of credit card company campaign cash.
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