Credit Card Bills Deliver a Shock

Portland Oregonian ^ | 12/05/2007 | Laurie Kellman

[from occupied ga]

That was a rude surprise to Janet Hard, a stay-at-home mother of two teenage boys from Freeland, Mich.

What she didn't know she spent the money?

Depending on her husband's salary as a steamfitter while she raised the children was financially difficult,

Duh then maybe she and the sperm donor should have only had one kid.

[Fawn]

She pays an $8.00/month convenience fee to pay through the internet.

I have Discover, pay them through my bank and get charged Nothing to do it.

[Glenn]

Everyone on FR PAYS their bill in its ENTIRETY every month

It only makes sense to do so, yes?

[Wolfie]

I was just thinking the same thing. I was also thinking its probably a load of BS in many instances. In a sane country, the bigwigs at the credit card companies would be tarred and feathered.

[green iguana]

Everyone should only buy forever stamps.

They're why I made that mistake. With no value shown on them, I guessed what first class postage is and, for some reason, came up with 42 instead of 41. Doesn't help that my wife buys the stamps...

[Smokin' Joe]

The odd part is that I was carrying a balance before they upped the rate. At 9-10%, I was willing to pay them a little to use their money. When that doubled, fuhgeddaboutit.

They got greedy, and I paid off the balance quickly after they raised the rate (because I was unwilling to pay that kind of interest), not before the rate change.

In retrospect, I don't mind, because it made me clean up my act a little financially.

Now I just use the card for things I would buy anyway (because it is convenient), and I get the 1% cash back, too.

If they don't like that, tough. They would be collecting a little interest now and then if they hadn't jacked my rates.

[dakine]

Thread won’t die...

[CodeToad]

“available credit on inactive accounts”

Having available credit and not using it is a bad thing???

[murdoog]

Everyone on FR has “above average” children, perfect teeth, no debt, and their &#*# don’t stink....at least they always show up to relay that fact....hahaha

Not me. I am a deeply flawed individual, and I have credit card debt.

[Churchillspirit]

I refuse to take Discover cards in my business because of their unprofessional conduct.

They made a presentation to a group of us and then were to arrange a time for staff training. I came back from a meeting about a week later to find out that someone from Discover had been at my store and done the training - no appointment and it was on a very busy day.

I told them what to do with their cards - politely, of course.

[Toddsterpatriot]

He was saying that credit card companies are penalizing people who pay off their balance monthly. He gave an example of one card company that doubled and tripled the required minimum payment and also charged an 'interest' penalty on the new balance due.

People who paid off 100% of their monthly balance were being punished by having their minimum payment raised from 2% of the balance to 4% or 6% of their balance? When they already pay 100%? Wow, those credit card companies really know how to hurt a guy. LOL!

[Toddsterpatriot]

...Hard said she paid more than the minimum payment on her Discover card every month, plus an $8 Internet fee. Wow.

Is that a normal fee for a Discover card?

No. I pay on the Internet every month for free. Life is more expensive when you're stupid.

[M. Espinola]

Toddsterpatriot, do you still stick to your repeated statements -- there was never any housing bubble? bla, bla blaaaaa...

LOL

[Toddsterpatriot]

Toddsterpatriot, do you still stick to your repeated statements -- there was never any housing bubble?

You'll have to show me where I said that once, let alone repeatedly. Thanks. Take your time. LOL!

[Tall_Texan]

The company had increased her interest rate from 18 percent to 24.24 percent

That's a bad deal at 18% even before it was raised.

I agree that there should be specific justifications for raising interest rates not "cause we said so". But, more importantly, I think it should be illegal for *any* business to charge you both a late fee and interest. Charge one or the other but what cc companies do now is they charge you the late fee then hit you with interest. If you protest, they cheerfully remove the late fee but they are still hitting you with the additional interest from the late fee. That's simply unfair.