DISQUS

Will · 10 months ago

Banking board rooms allowed their illusionary (as if they actually 'bank' funds) industry to run into the ground...fleeced money from tax payers from an insider at the Treasury Department....and they've the nerve to monitor consumer's credit ratings???

Come on...it really ought to be the other way around eh. ffs...why the hell is anyone even still bothering to loan banks their savings?

reflux1000 · 10 months ago

Nothing will save them,the credit Card Companies created the Mother of all Ponzi Schemes and now out of fear they are cutting the base(that must expand at an ever increasing rate)of the pyramid off at the knees and without that new pool of credit card holders/victims the ponzi scheme collapses.

Indigo · 10 months ago

Meanwhile, a percentage of the population continue to keep up with their payments or to pay off the card at the end of each month. Credit cards will not disappear but they are receeding from the market while debit cards, drawing directly from a checking account, become more popular among the "little people." They're keeping a low profile, but all is well in some constituencies.

cassie · 10 months ago

I was on the receiving end of this crap in the last two months. One lender just out of the blue reduced my line of credit by $500 on a card that I rarely carried a balance on anyway because the interest rate was higher than my other cards. They cited my credit report as the reason. Funny how it was the same credit report they used to issue the line of credit three years ago except it is now a MUCH higher number....This week I got a notice from Capital One that :Due to the Extraordinary changes in the economic environment, we're reviewing our existing credit card accounts. Having considered these economic conditions, your accounts current Purchase rate (11.9%), and the length of time you've had this rate and account (3 years), we will be increasing your Purchase rate. We're also raising your Cash Advance (never used it) and Default rates (never late). They are raising my Purchase rate by 10%! Until this fall I rarely carried a balance on this card for more than a month or two and right now I am carrying less than 1/2 the available line! I called and opted out. So this account will be canceled as of May! I doubt that I will EVER again get a credit card from these morons!

sukabi1 · 10 months ago

Home Depot ( a Citi property) just did that to me as well, raised both the regular rate and the default rate to 29.99% but I can opt out if I choose... and when I do, they'll close my account... it's just as well, that's the only open cc acct I have and I'd planned to pay it off anyway, it'll just happen sooner...

I figure if I don't have the available cash on hand, I don't need it... working out pretty well actually.

Credit is Slavery · 10 months ago

All my creditors are raising their interest rates. Most of them are double now. They say it's because of my credit rating. But my credit rating is 150 points higher than when they loaned me the money in the first place. They're begging for the government to meddle in their business.

AC_in_Mich · 10 months ago

meanwhile "Fair Isaac has received notification from Experian of its decision to terminate the agreement which allows the distribution of Experian-based FICO® scores and reports from www.myfico.com

One Key Missing · 10 months ago

And yet you say a few hundred dollars a month in tax rebates to working class people would be useless--nothing more than some extra lattes at startbucks.

Hmmmm.

One Key Missing · 10 months ago

Uh oh.

Wall Streeters make the Ablog argument.

You Try to Live on 500K in This Town

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/08/fashion/08hal...

Spare Me · 10 months ago

Ha Ha Ha, I could retire on 500K.

TheAngryFag · 10 months ago

One thing they are doing too is harassing people the minute the payment is late. It is constant robo-calls calls and threatening letters. They are doing everything they can to skirt the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act and in some cases downright violating it. And it is not just creditors either. I was talking to my mom the other day and she told me on the same day she received both a late notice and a shut-off notice on the power because they supposedly had not received her payment. She checks her bank account and the check she sent them had cleared the day before.

Jeorge · 10 months ago

"She checks her bank account and the check she sent them had cleared the day before."

That's why I have all my utilities on credit cards with automatic debits. No late charges, no checks in the haphazard mail, no worrying about being shut off when it is -10 degrees outside. The biggest pain is when I have to call them up to change the expiration date on the card. Plus I get the added protection my credit card company does afford me. If they charge too much or the amount billed is different than what the actual invoice shows, I can use their muscle to push with, not just my own.

TheAngryFag · 10 months ago

The letters were printed before the due date though. Like they were anticipating her being late which she wasn't as the check cleared on the due date itself.

maudgonne · 10 months ago

"The American living standard will never be the same again," Davidowitz said. "And that means these luxury retailers have to change or die. This is the end of an era that has been a long time coming."
http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2009/feb/08/...

example · 10 months ago

Last year my credit card company had been sending me 'convience' checks every couple of months that would expire after a while. At really low rates like 4% or 6%. In September they sent me checks with a 1% interest rate! That wasn't a teaser rate, that was the real rate! There was a 3% surcharge though (that would only apply once)

The kicker, of course, was that if I missed a payment, the interest rates would jack up. They're trying to get me to use the card again, saying I can get 4% on purchases over $300. This is U.S. Bank, so I guess they're finally getting around to distributing those TARP funds.

Citibank has actually been jacking up people's rates just because they shop at the same stores as people with bad credit!

plong · 10 months ago

Re headline, they're falling behind in their _department_ payments? Huh? Which department? All of them?

leo · 10 months ago

The real scandal is the rates credit card companies are charging. They can send you convenience checks but they get to decide when the low rates no longer apply -- and we've seen how those decisions are based on anything but payment record.

'Hard times' means consumers are unable to pay off their bills or do pretty much anything about this. It's the very definition of usury.

waltsatan · 10 months ago

More importantly, why hasn't the headline been fixed after 18 hours of being misspelled?

wonderingneeds2know · 10 months ago

Equifax and other credit reporting agencies - are they monitored by any government agencies? As a social worker, I'm seeing every single person who comes to me with an unfairly closed credit card or other investigation, and their problem comes from the same source - Equifax. I don't even bother calling TransUnion anymore.