Next time your credit card company raises interest rates, or imposes an annual fee, or cuts back on your rewards program, or suddenly charges you for your “free” debit card and checking account…blame Rep. Barney Frank
and Sen. Chris Dodd.
They were the key sponsors of laws passed this year that promised to “protect” you from unfair penalties, fees and interest rate hikes.
Stopping credit card companies from imposing penalties or raising interest rates on customers who pay late doesn’t make those costs disappear.
It means the rest of us now pay for them. Since the politicians “protected” us, credit card interest rates have risen nearly 2% … while rates on mortgages and treasury bills dropped.
Story by John Stossel for Fox News
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Seriously, did you actually read Stossel’s blame-the-victim article? I expect more from you, George, than the parroting of extremist trash.
Thanks for writing. Would appreciate specifics on what facts you think in the blog were trash.
John Stossel is known for being tough on stupidity. But it becomes pointless to attack someone when they are trapped in a deep hole. Standing at the edge of the deep hole and lecturing someone in the hole is about the best Stossel can muster.
The Country needs a CREDIT CARD DEBT REDUCTION INCENTIVE PROGRAM. It would be soooo easy to implement.
Over the past couple of years several ideas that I have shared on the internet have been scooped up by either the credit card industry or the credit card reform act of 2009-10, except for the three most important ones.
1. The right to opt out of a change in terms for up to 90 days after the change was implemented,
2. The filing of a massive class action lawsuit against the various credit protector programs that represent one of the biggest thefts of consumer money of anything ever sold in the United States.
3. A credit card incentive program that allows a consumer to steadily reduce their debt while receiving a very low interest rate of 2.9 percent. This would allow for a portion of the monthly payment to be re-spent even the next month even as the credit card slowly drops the credit line.
I see Stossell as an obfuscater who gets people talking about the wrong and less important things.
This is another attempt by the banksters to camouflage an attack against consumers by trying to create class warfare.
Until banksters offer credit card paydown incentive programs, they are the bad guys. http://wallstreetchange.blogspot.com/2010/11/2010-after-election-4-point-economic.html