It’s the seductive nature of credit, I guess, that leads so many Americans into debt, and gives a bully pulpit to the Dave Ramseys and the Suze Ormans of the world. But, really, how do credit card companies get away with it? Great lobbyists, I suppose, and the (now seemingly passe) spend\/buy U.S. culture.<\/p>\n
Full disclosure – I learned a hard lesson just this past week. Spaced a payment on a sweet, sweet balance transfer deal, and as a result got hit with a huge interest rate jump. A moment of inattention, and it cost me dearly.<\/p>\n
So I was none too happy to see David Lazarus rub it in with warnings that such happenings might just be the beginning: http:\/\/www.latimes.com\/business\/la-fi-lazarus15-2009feb15,0,1994750.column<\/a>.<\/p>\n In these increasingly desperate times for some when it comes to the economic front, the big banks — Citibank, Bank of America Corp., Wells Fargo & Co. and American Express Co. — threaten rates can go up to 30 percent for missing a single payment. He notes that “JPMorgan Chase & Co., the nation’s largest issuer of plastic, has begun charging hundreds of thousands of cardholders a $10 monthly fee for having carried large balances for more than a couple years.”<\/p>\n So, with banks having blown the housing boom and incurred massive losses, they are turning to the already debt-ridden American consumer to carry part of the burden. “Gouging” customers to boost their bottom lines, according to Senate Banking Committee Chairman Christopher J. Dodd (D-Conn.). This, just as consumers are in more dire straights than in any time in recent memory.<\/p>\n