[Goldsborough]

There are many credit card apologists here on FR who, (naively IMO), blame credit customers for all of the "problems" that have resulted in the jackasses taking aim at card issuers. Were only that true, the outrage would be justified.

I am a lawyer and therefore equipped by both interest and training to read my cardholder agreements thoroughly. Part of the trouble is that one shouldn't have to be legally trained in order to clearly understand all of the terms and rights of the respective parties.

I particularly love it when apologists for lenders say "don't sign something if you don't understand it." My bet would be that even most of them only have a rudimentary understanding of what they themselves have signed, be it their mortgage, their car financing papers, or the documents that resulted in the plastic in their wallets and purses.

I have no beef with people who are careful with their money, but most of those who are self-righteous about their observance of their obligations are mainly doing the right thing on principle, and not because of their increased acumen about credit card companies.

Of course the safest way to use a credit card is to never carry a balance. Shy of that however, say for a medical or vehicle repair situation where budgeting and savings have fallen short in covering the sudden expense, many ordinary folks have found that what their credit card companies are doing is not so much providing a contracted service on concrete terms as they are into gaming their "customers" for every dime they can be taken for.

Hell, even carrying no balance is fraught with risk these days. When my toddler put her sister's flute into my TV a few months ago, I charged its replacement with the intent of paying if off so that I could get some more airlines "miles" as a "benefit." My timely payment in full was electronically sent via Bank of America, but was not "processed" by the issuer until after it was one day "late" for which I was hit with a penalty surcharge which was added to my balance. One voice jail ridden phone call later, the charge was rescinded after I had threatened to shred the card. If that is how a card issuer tries to game someone who makes every effort to not owe on the card, I can only imagine what they attempt to do to people that cannot pay them off in a month.

After being subjected to "processing" tricks personally, all I have to say is that the "reforms" that these issuers are having imposed upon them by politicians could have been easily avoided by their being more honorable in the first place.

When the term "late" in a contract has been perverted millions of times against millions of people by including the issuer's foot dragging on electronic transfers, the word "late" is going to be redefined in the law for them, like it or not.

If it is a "no brainer" to not carry a card balance, it should also be a reciprocal "no brainer" to not piss off so many card holders as to draw the unwanted attention of grandstanding congressmen.

In some other reality I might have mounted some opposition to what is happening to credit card issuers, but in this world they tried to screw me unnecessarily for a paltry $35.00 to which they had no legitimate claim. Burn baby burn. If they try to dodge their stupidity tax by taking it out on me via increased fees, the end of "rewards" etc., I simply walk.

The issuers have no one else to blame. They built a business of convenience that in the beginning was simply financed by giving good credit risks a service for which merchants paid a transaction fee and balance carrying customers paid interest. Eventually, this model must have seemed unequal to the task of fattening the bottom line for it was made Kafkaesque, and cards issued willy-nilly to the unworthy, (losses to be borne by squeezing merchants and those customers who did the right thing with their balances), in order to maximize their capacity to nickel and dime ALL customers in every way possible. Screw 'em.

[the invisib1e hand]

too bad you’re a lawyer. you seem like good people.

[Virginia Ridgerunner]

Great post! Thank you!

[CottonBall]

Whether your complaints about credit card companies are valid or not, the responsibility still lies with the person that holds the card and uses it. Nobody forces them to do so.

And you have a very dim view of people’s intelligence. Contracts are not that difficult to comprehend. Your condescension and elitist attitude bespeaks much.

[Richard Kimball]

Wow. Excellent post. I've been wanting to post the same thoughts, but you did it perfectly.

If I can add a couple of things.

Everyone wants to blame 0bama, but when they overhauled the bankruptcy laws was when the CC companies turned the dogs loose. That was under Bush and the Republicans. CC companies used to try to work with people to get them to pay their debts off, as if the individual declared bankruptcy, they got nothing. Now, they have no fear of jacking up the interest rate and tacking on fees. They want people so far in debt that they'll never pay it off. It's almost like a defined annuity for them.

Also, many of the CC companies sell off the debt, but continue to service the loans. This means they have a vested interest in inducing people to go over line or make late payments. Hence, the sitting on payments, sending out monthly bills late, making payments due on Saturday, Sunday, or a holiday, crediting payments made after noon on the following day, and arbitrarily upping the required payment by fifty dollars one period, hoping your automatic payment will be short.

[jeannineinsd]

I appreciate your post.

There is plenty of blame to go around with the credit mess. I do agree that individuals do need to be responsible with their money, and not run up bills that they can’t pay. And I also agree with your point, that the credit card issuers have not behaved responsibily, have issued too many cards, played too fast and loose with interest rates and excessive fees.

I also agree with you that it is not a good business model to anger such a large portion of the businesses’ own customers.

Jeannine

[sitetest]

Excellent post. Thanks.