the future of greedy credit card companies

Since the installation of their friends and co conspirators, the Bushistas, along with the neocon element in the House and Senate, the Credit Card industry has pretty much had it handed to them on a platter. One potential competitor, the "upstart" payday loan industry was kicked in the teeth in several large cities for legal reasons.

Other than that, it has been pure profit.

The loser? Your average consumer.

But this was not enough. They got even greedier. Even though large corporations were more likely to pursue bankruptcy protections than the little guy, the credit card industry managed to convince both Dems and GOPers to go along with a plan which excludes credit card debt from bankruptcy protection.

The big loser? the poorest, average consumer.

At the same time, that segment is continually bombarded with offers for more and more credit.

What will happen? I suspect a very unpleasant surprise. A quiet revolution. A protest. A one month statement from the average Joe and Josephine.
Imagine what would happen to these large, immensely rich credit branches, should America stand up and state, just for one month, "We ain't paying." If even a sizable percentage, say, 10-12% of America refused to pay their cards just for one month, the earthquake-sized repercussions would be felt all the way up into the highest reaches of the executive offices.

I do not advocate such civil, financial disobedience, but I can easily see it happening if they put the screws any tighter to your average citizen.

the best revenge, when you can afford it, is to pay off you credit card bills in full.

If everybody could do that, and did, the credit card companies would be the ones needing bankruptcy protection (for real).

I'll bet that collectivly they spent a thousand bucks sending me their propaganda and bullshit for about two years. They couldn't believe, that I "just said no" to parasitic usury.

Pay up and use cash or checks. The credit card companies get a commision on every transaction.

The average consumer is going to be hammered so hard this winter that vast numbers of them will be missing payments because they simply don't have the cashflow. It looks like the banks have shot themselves in the foot. And, it couldn't happen to a scummier bunch... well, insurance companies come to mind, but I'll leave that for another day.


http://www.nytimes.com/2005/10/25/business/25place.html

Insurers are basically financial institutions these days. And most credit card companies are simply subsidiaries of banks and other financial institutions.

The way they go about setting up rules in their favor - well, insurers have their own subset of rules they use.

Eventually credit card companies will lose.

I give it a decade before consumers stop acquiring credit cards altogether.

There will be other ways.

The credit card companies are essentially loan sharks now, with the personal approval of your elected representatives.

As a former consultant to the board of Capital One, I can tell you (without giving details) that they sought the following (and got it):

1. Ability to charge interest on your late and overlimit fees
2. Waiver of notice for legal and collection actions (in many cases)
3. Ability to roll your term interest into the principle when offering car and other personal term loans so that even though there is no "penalty for prepayment" you still have to pay all the principle plus interest
4. Ability to exceed what were formerly known as "userous rates"
5. The ability to jack your interest rate if you have a credit notice anywhere on your credit record for any reason whatsoever, including if you are disputing it, and particularly if your credit score fluctuates downward (which may not even be related to late payments or credit problems).
6. Ability to share your detailed spending patterns with 3rd party marketers with whom they have a "pre-existing" affiliation (meaning, they have the marketing company's name on a list).

On and on - they have entire legal teams and lobbyists in each state and on capital hill who do nothing but dream up ways to fuck you harder. They really are fundamentally and truly evil, and quite proud of it behind closed doors. I would like to say that Capital One is alone in this, but in reality just about any popular credit card company you can think of regularly takes advantage of these laws.

(Oh and Capital One, if you're reading this, you know who I am. I double damn dare you.)