CREDIT CARD COMPANIES ARE THEIVES!!!!!! I WAS A LOYAL CUSTOMER WITH AMEX FOR 12 YEARS. MY FINANCIAL SITUATION ( LIKE THOUSANDS OF OTHERS ) CHANGED FOR THE WORSE. I CONTACTED AMEX AND TALKED TO A CUSTOMER SERVICE REP. AFTER EXPLAINING MY SITUATION TO HIM SEVERAL TIMES. ( I COULD NO LONGER MAKE THE REQUIRED PAYMENT) HE TOLD ME RELUCTANTLY ABOUT A PLAN THEY HAD THAT WOULD HAVE LOWERED MY INTEREST FOR 6 MOS. HOWEVER MY ACCOUNT WOULD BE FROZEN. I THOUGHT ABOUT IT AND EVEN THOUGH THE TERMS WERE BETTER ( I'D SAVE $30. A MONTH IN INTEREST) I STILL COULD NOT AFFORD THE PAYMENTS! AGAIN PRIOR TO MY PAYMENT BEING DUE,I WROTE A LETTER TO THEM DETAILING MY CIRCUMSTANCES AND ASKING FOR A WAY TO WORK IT OUT WITH THEM. I ASKED IF THERE WERE ANY OTHER ALTERNATIVES. THE NEXT THING I GOT FROM THEM WAS A LETTER STATING MY PAYMENT WAS LATE! I AGAIN CALLED CUSTOMER SERVICE AND SPOKE WITH ANOTHER PERSON. SHE INFORMED THAT I HAD BEEN CHARGED OVER LIMIT AND LATE FEES AS WELL AS MY INTEREST HAD BEEN RAISED TO OVER 17%. SHE DID SAY THEY HAD A PROGRAM THAT WOULD BE BENEFICIAL TO ME IN THAT THE PAYMENTS WOULD GO DIRECTLY TO MY PRINCIPLE BUT THE CARD WOULD BE CLOSED! I HAD TOLD THEM IN MY LETTER TO CLOSE THE ACCOUNT IF THEY WISHED! THE PROBLEM WITH THE NEW PROGRAM WAS THAT MY PAYMENT WOULD HAVE BEEN FIXED @ 15% ABOVE MY CURRENT PAYMENT WHICH I CANNOT MAKE! SHE SAID THAT WAS THE BEST SHE COULD DO AND THAT SHE WOULD HAVE SOMEONE CONTACT ME. I'VE HEARD NOTHING IN 2 WEEKS! POINT IS AMERICAN EXPRESS INSTEAD OF HELPING SOMEONE THAT WANTS TO PAY,WILL NOT EFFECTIVELY WORK WITH THEM! AT THE SAME TIME THEY ARE TAKING BILLIONS IN TAXPAYER AID AND PROMISING TO HELP CONSUMERS WHILE THEY SCREW THEM TO THE WALL WITH EXORBITANT FEES AND INTEREST!!!!!!!!!!!

Uh Doug! Looks like you want to evoke some of emotions out of people b/c what you just wrote that "Credit card companies are up against a lot of canny and dishonest customers" has to be the most stupid/ignorant statement of the year. What? You got shares in V, or MA or AMEX, don't ya buddy? Obviously, a rational person like you couldn't be siding on the credit card company's side. But then again, I've seen some irrational things this year. Just go and grab and beer and let your mind cool off so you can re-write this ignorant article.

Saw this one comming a long time ago. We used to get as many as 4 credit card offers a DAY. I finally opted out because of the fraud danger. I never was able to contact the banks directly as they never offered a number to contact them to stop the cc offer flood. I know I was not the only one. Thakn God we did not fall for the trap. Now the card companies are crying. I say down the road with them and their crooked ways.

I beg to differ...Chase just wrote me a letter dated Dec. 3 stating they were lowering my credit card limit. Note they wrote it on the 3rd. I used my card on the 3rd unaware of what they had done. On the 15th of Dec. I received my statement. Then I found out I was overlimit because of their lowering my limit and they socked me with a $78.00 overlimit fee and raised my interest rate. To me that is downright stealing and unlawful and unethical. I am filing a formal complaint with the attorney generals office tomorrow. Tell me they aren't doing something very wrong....Bank of America has done it to me as well. Guess what? I am filing on them too.

Credit Card companies have been abusers, thieves and heartless bastards. They cannot be contacted personally, phones and letters are worthless, a customer cannot get consideration. They are charging usury rates and ruin the lives of many millions in every country. They must be severly punished for their greed and lack of flexibility and their business practice regulated. Interest rates on cards must be tied to the prime rate and be no higher than 4-5% of that and never exceed 12%.

Go on the web under attorney general. Find the one for your state and get the offical form. File a complaint on your credit card company. My attorney general is pushing for strict rules for the way these credit card companies do business. We need to do something about it rather than complain and talk to people who won't listen and don't care.

I call the credit card company ,legalized loan sharcking.we put the mafia in jail for loan sharck.the bigest contributer to bush are the credit card company.and congress too.there are no regulation on the credit card company, thanks to bush and congress.

Credit Cards are worse than the Mortgage industry being aloud and not controled by the past administration.

They are nothing but theives and should not be aloud to charge interest that is higher than any home, car loans out there.

Talk about a legalized scam, they are one of the worst next to payday loans.

There should be tighter regs. on credit card companies and or banks that have them.

The credit card companies HOPE something will happen in your life that will insure you are late on a payment--they can't wait to ratchet up your interest rate up to 30%--and they won't work with you. You can cxall until you are blue in the face, pressing all those stupid menu buttons, desperately trying to reach a human being, instead of dealing with their computer. The credit card companies are in this to make you pay them money and to steal your money--they don't care which, either way, they've got you.

I don't know how our government lets big business victimize us this way. Be fair, for god's sake.

everyone out there cryin about the credit card companys needs to shut the f up you knew all this before you applied for the card if you dident agree with it you shouldent have got it . but what most people see is oh look what i can go buy now, worry bout the pament later, well you got your self into this so shut up and pay the payment because nobody feels bad about your stupidity

The writing's been on the wall.

I would stay away from them for now.

- Sam
http://www.tickertoday.info

Anyone who has a credit card knows going in what the interest is and that there are penalties are. I don't want to help you.

Doug McIntyre is over inflating the problem of deadbeats targeting credit card companies.
Why the hell are deadbeats getting cards in the first place?
Credit card companies are deliberately sending card offers to such people hoping to make money on interest and late fees. If the companies stop sending cards to people who don't have good credit, this problem would not happen.
The new regulations help regular people who are paying off balances in good faith from the avaricious card companies.

Mr. McIntyre- Do you work for a bank? I've read other blogs from you and many of them seem to favor the banks highlighting how tough they got it. The credit card industry basically replaced the loan sharks of the past. They get what they deserve, and I hope they get burned three or four times. You mentioned some people are "deadbeats" not intending to pay. That's called business, and the credit card companies take this into account. The problem is they take it out on the consumer who actually wants to pay, but they make it harder with high interest and extortion like fess. They get what they deserve, and you Mr. McIntyre need to do something else, because you can't write and your blogs are BS.

The Gvt has tried a number ot times to put more regulation on the CC companies but they plead poverty and blame the deadbeats for their high cost of credit to those that do pay. They have no regulation on how and when they raise your interest or lower or raise your credit line. The most that they are required to do is notify you that your interest rate may increase if such and such of their requirements are not met by you. That is a piece of mail most people never read because of the lawyer speak that it`s written in and you are unable to make heads or tails of the agreement. If you don`t like their terms, you will be required to pay off the card in full and move on to another one that will repeat the process.
They do need very strict regulation.
bill

TO JASON & REALIST. THANKS FOR YOUR OPINIONS. OBVIOUSLY U R WELL OFF. CONGRATULATIONS! AS FOR YOUR CRUDE COMMENTS ,I WON'T RETURN THE SAME HOWEVER. WHEN YOUR SHIP STARTS TAKING ON WATER DON'T EXPECT A LIFE PRESERVER! JUDGEING FROM THE FEEDBACK HERE THERE ARE ALOT OF PEOPLE THAT HAVE BEEN VICTIMISED. AND IF YOU ARE INTO TRUTH AS A MEANS TO SET U FREE,ADMIT YOU 2 HAVE A VESTED INTEREST IN THE CREDIT CARD COMPANIES OR THEIR OWNING FINANCIAL INSTITUTIONS. ALSO PLEASE NOTE, AMERICAN EXPRESS WAS GRANTED STATUS AS A BANK AFTER THE BAILOUT STARTED SO THEY COULD FEED AT THE PUBLIC TROUGH. LAST I HEARD TO THE TUNE OF 5.5 BILLION TAXPAYER DOLLARS. OH U 2 COULD PROBABY CARE LESS AGAIN SINCE U R OBVIOUSLY IN THE 0% TAX BRACKET. IF U HAVEN'T BEEN THERE THEN JUST SHUT UP! YOUR ATTITUDES AND EXPRESSED WISDOM ONLY FUELS THE RAGING DISCONTENT OF THE SILENT MAJORITY THAT WILL BURY U!!!!!!!!!!!REPORT THIS!!!

See what Fred Thomson says about the economy. Lets get real.

http://www.youtube.com/freddthompson

Doug McIntyre Your a complete moron! Credit Card companys are thieves and deserve everything they get, deadbeats or not! They are a bunch of slimey worms and derserve to get beat when rendered!

Credit card companies should be able to do whatever they want in order to make a profit? They face dishonest customers? They chose their customers! They send us hundreds and hundreds of offers.
These guys send out millions of solicitations a week. They beg us to sign up for their cards, they beg us to run up our balances. They hide their confiscatory policies in the small print. They sent my sons multiple offers while they were in college and were not working.

These sharks get no sympathy. They are deceptive in their policies and try to find ways of making the customer slip up so they can charge usurous interest rates.

As Usual, everyone wants to blame someone else for their poor choice of using credit cards in the first place. Learn to live within your means and none of this happens. All of you that wish to blame Bush for the policies of the CC companies, Deregulation on banks and fees was under the idiot Clinton Presidency!