It's just like having the wolves guard the sheep or the fox guard the hen house. I just don't understand how the big three credit reporting companies stole so much of our power away from our government. Or how these credit card companies expect to make unreasonable demands from their consumers and then run crying to the government for handouts in the form of taxes collected from the very people they are loan sharking.
It's like the inmates have taken over the asylum..........
More of this stuff is going to go on.
1, I got a notice of increased rates also, with the stip that I could opt out. Kicker: if I opt out, the credit card is cancelled. Further kicker: if the card is cancelled, your credit rating suffers.
2. Then several offers to "lower my interest payments" -- The advice? If you pay off your balance quicker, you'll be paying less interest. DUH!
3. Two MORE offers to "lower interest payments" -- The kicker? The callers wanted me to give them my credit card number and when I refused, they hung up on me.
You can sometimes get the credit card companies to lower your interest/payment if you can prove financial hardship, but it means closing the account out and as Zach's grandma noted, that adversely affects your credit rating too.
This really goes back to balance of power. Our government was set up to make sure that everyone was represented and treated as fairly as possible. With the massive deregulation that occurred with the last administration, that balance has tipped in favor of the uber rich and now the working class is shouldering the financial burden of their failures by continuing to support them. It's like welfare payments for the wealthy!
NEWS FLASH! April 30, 2009: "And the banks -- hard to believe in a time when we're facing a banking crisis that many of the banks created -- are still the most powerful lobby on Capitol Hill. And they frankly own the place," - Sen. Dick Durbin.
Traditional cultures across the globe have considered usery to be a sin, a taboo or bad juju, depending on the vernacular of the local peasantry. But that has been swept away in the face of the corporatist usurpation of democratic rule first in the states, then at the federal level and soon globally.
One score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent, an old nation, conceived in corporatism, and dedicated to the proposition that all dollars are created equal.
Therefore, be it resoilved, it is for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us -- that from these honored consumers we take increased userous interest to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion -- that we here highly resolve that these prols shall not have been bled in vain.
That a government of the corporations by the corporations and for the corporations shall not perish from the earth.
Pssst, Those governed in the interet of others ARE NOT FREE!
Orthodoxy is unconsciousness. Have a nice day.
I certainly don't feel very free. Even if I were to have everything paid off, to live in America (unless you can afford to live completely off the grid) I would still would be beholden to someone for monthly expenses for food and energy/fuel. That would be assuming that I don't have a phone, internet, etc. Freedom is an illusion unless you look at it as a spectrum with varying degrees of freedom, which really is a more realistic view.
Oh and lets not forget TAXES!
At the risk if sounding simplistic, here are two things that every consumer can do to prevent credit card companies from taking advantage of them.
1. Do NOT carry an unpaid balance or EVER take a cash advance. (That's how these thieving cockroaches make their $ in the first place.)
2. Pay cash for all day-to-day expenses and only use a credit card when it's unavoidable.
If the credit card issuers insist on hitting me with annual fees (my cards are currently free), I plan to switch to cash supplemented by occasional bartering.
I use the old bank card and never rack up any fees unless it's the $2 for a cash withdrawl, which I'm okay with since it saves me the gas of driving to the bank or finding the right ATM.
I don't trust banks, insurance companies, or particularly investment companies.
There were times this was hard to live with. Now, it's gotten to be my way of life. However, now I'm sort of worried about what I'm going to do when I need to buy my next car. It turns out that if you don't use credit it makes you have bad credit ratings. I think maybe there needs to be federal guidelines on those credit reporting agencies and what constitutes poor credit.
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