Credit Cards

This is a general rant that I felt was holiday related. I’m putting it on GMA as well because I feel the problems with credit cards are because of our system of the U.S. campaign system; politicians have to raise huge amounts of money to run, or worse feel that one of the ‘perks’ of being elected is to get ‘corporate sponsorship’. That is why hundreds/ thousands of Katrina victims are going to run afoul with debts in the coming months. Last year before Katrina hit, the credit card companies wrote a bill that made it harder for peoples to declare bankruptcy. This law makes it harder for poor people to get out from under their problems- like what happened to people due to the mishandling of Katrina.

What truly bothers me about credit cards is the fine print. Basically the credit card companies have been given government approval to screw you over. No matter how LOW the rates you sign up with Visa/ Mastercard/ or Discover, they have the right to change the rate whenever THEY want. The card companies don’t even have to give you a warning before they change things. So imagine you have a $200 debt at a good 4% interest rate… and then they change it on the 10th of the month to 7%. Now if they had bothered to warn you, you could have decided to pay off the $200 and canceled the card… But they don’t and by the law of the land- they don’t have to. The laws help the banks and not the people because the banks give more money to the law makers.

This is why whenever possible I pay via cash or debit card. I bank currently at a small bank, which I have to go out of my way to use one of their ATMs, and suggest others do the same. I know it’s hard to go through life without racking up debt, but here in the US I feel racking up debt is tantamount to the Debtor’s prison that existed in Victorian England.