[XR7]

Even worse, is how credit card companies are using "universal default" to jack up interest rates on existing debt balances to over 30 percent! (Chase is notorious for this - one of the worst.) They periodically check your credit, and even if you have never made a late payment, if there is a traffic ticket or a late payment on some other unrelated account, they jack up your interest to usurious rates. They got the green light to do that after Congress tightened up the bankruptcy laws recently. And, it's completely legal.

[Spirochete]

if there is a traffic ticket or a late payment on some other unrelated account, they jack up your interest to usurious rates.

The countermeasure is to not borrow money.

[Riverine]

Traffic ticket!?

[Labyrinthos]

Even worse, is how credit card companies are using "universal default" to jack up interest rates on existing debt balances to over 30 percent! (Chase is notorious for this - one of the worst.) They periodically check your credit, and even if you have never made a late payment, if there is a traffic ticket or a late payment on some other unrelated account, they jack up your interest to usurious rates. They got the green light to do that after Congress tightened up the bankruptcy laws recently. And, it's completely legal.

Not owning a credit card is also completely legal. If you don't like the terms, then take your business someplace else, or better yet, pay cash or use a debit card.