Will they be as comfortable as this one?
I have absolutely no sympathy for the CC companies. They use every dirty trick in the book to get people tied up in debt and paying their usurious rates. Among the things that peeve me:
1) Obscene interest rates as high as 30%.
2) Over limit fees (hey, if there's a limit, why aren't you stopped from going over it?)
3) Cancelling promotional rates if a payment is a day late. Say you've run up 15K in charges or balance transfers at a promotional rate. If you're just one day late, they can impose their published rate that can go as high as 30%! I have no reason to believe that they would not post timely payments as late.
4) Arbitrary rate hikes. If your credit score goes down, they reserve the right to raise your rate! Even if you've paid your payments on time and have made no late payments on any other loans! They can still raise your rate just because you may have run up a high balance on another card. This makes it more difficult for the credit-challenged lender to pay off their balance. It does nothing to protect the CC company, since they've already extended the credit.
5) Fine print that can confuse or trick the less savvy. I.E. offering a 3% promotional rate for six months but charging a 3% transfer fee. This makes the actual rate 9%. Do the math!
Of course, the goal of these companies is to get people of limited means to run up big balances at 15 - 30% that they can't pay (and thus forcing them to borrow some more).
However, if your're smart, you can outfox them for ahwile, using balance transfers and taking advantages of miles and reward points.
People should certainly be responsible with their finances. However, I find it absurd when CC companies cry to the government while hooking high-risk borrowers into charging up big blances at usurious rates. If we're going to tighten the bankruptcy laws, I would urge imposing some reform on this industry. (i.e. a grace period on cancelling promotional rates due to late payments, maxing the APR @ say 20%, prohibiting arbitrary rate hikes due to a change in credit).
Peace!