I hear what you are saying and agree with your sentiment, but technically credit card companies do not violate the terms of the original contract as the signed contract states they reserve the right to change interest rates at whim, or ay least with some minimal amount of notice.
I know what you mean, it’s just unfortunate that boilerplate like that is enforceable. Capital One just raised my rate to a near-usurious amount and when I called to complain they admitted I was never late or anything, and always paid early, but that they raised them due to economic conditions.
I have been making every effort to pay them down but it’s been tough—dating back to when I was underemployed and my wife lost her job. Now she’s going to massage therapy school and once she gets done there I think we’ll be okay. Until then, I just have to stay afloat.
I am mad at the credit card companies, but I am also mad at myself for finding myself so deep in debt. But that’s life I guess.
You are correct. That is the typical statement on the contract, but, and I add this at fear of the torch throwers, there is supposed to be a certain amount of reasonable trust between parties if any capitalist system is to function properly.
Can they raise rates on a whim, sure. Is it in their own financial best interest, not always. Especially if it is being done willy-nilly on good customers, then they have broken the contract of basic trust between the two parties. At which point they begin to lose customers or should begin to lose customers.
As long as there is no viable virtue of trust between the card holder and the issuer, we will need regulation. Good customers don't and shouldn't expect to be punished. And there was even a time that being late once or twice wasn't considered a major event, but waived as part of normal human behavior.
Much has changed since I worked at the banks. Before I left they started taking away the Branch Manager's ability to review the nightly overdraft reports. The manager used to be able to waive those O/D fees, make calls to the customer to let them know or get authorization to transfer funds for them. They took that ability away before I left. The banks often worked on the individual level to help consumers learn to stay in check. Now they are in it to just collect the fee.
There are a lot of reasons people hate credit card companies, banks, mortgage people...they've gone from being part of the community to a necessary evil in the community. And they did it all pretty much of their own free choice. A choice to stop serving the customer. It will cost them dearly as time goes on.