US credit card holders beware!

Lucid Lounge
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US credit card holders beware!

There was a report on the news this morning so I thought I would share:

Recent changes in the law credit cards can now arbitrarily raise your interest rate with only 16 days notice and the credit card companies are making a fortune off this new law.

If you make too many charges or are reaching your max the credit card companies will raise your interest rate to as high as 30%. Even if you have never missed a payment.

Also, lets say you forget and mail your telephone bill (for example) late. The credit card companies will raise your interest rate even if you never missed a payment on your credit card.

The list goes on.

Watch your Christmas spending people!

I have not experienced this myself yet but I am outraged by the policy. To protest to this I am paying off my credit cards and closing all my accounts.

I mean 25-30% interest rates. We have a word for people who charge absurd rates like this. They are called loan sharks.

As for people in other countries:

How do the credit bureaus treat you guys? Do you even have such a thing? In many places here in the US, if you have bad or no credit, you might not be able to rent an apartment or get a job!

What about credit cards? Can they just raise your rates with no notice?

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:eek: :eek: :eek:

here there is no such thing. interest rates on the credit cards are about 7%. The payments due are automatically booked off your bank account, so you can never be late - unless you don’t have enough cash on your bank account. What happens then i don’t know but they definately cannot raise the interest rates. 30% :eek: that is way too much.

edit: that thing with bad or no credit, you don’t have that here. You don’t have to prove you are credit worthy to rent an appartment.

the only thing you have here if you want to get a loan or a higher credit card limit your credibility is checked by a specific organisation which checkes to see how many debts you have. That is also the case if you want to get a loan for buying a home.

But to rent an appartment, they don’t check it. They sometimes want to see a pay check to see if you earn enough.

over all, the credit cards here in holland are not so commonly used as in the US. Everybody has a bank account. Credit cards are considered a luxury. You cannot pay with them everywhere as well, like in the US where you can pay for everything with your credit card (even groceries), here it is only in the more expensive shops.

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Money grabbed little… Expletive deleted

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I agree! Interesting that this law is passed just in time for Christmas shopping.

What really angers me off is the lack of privacy. What business is it of my credit card company when I pay my phone or electric bill or what ever!!!

You have no Idea how lucky you are. I recently got a copy of my credit report and I could not believe the information contained in it. Every job I had, address I lived in, every account plus a few errors. Again, it is a privacy issue with me. Where does any agency get off having that much info about me. There are lots of lawmakers here that do not see privacy as a right and I think it should be. I mean anyone can get very personal info about me and I don’t like it. :devil:

Yes credit cards here are usually anywhere between 7 and 12% as well. However, with the new law, if you have increased activity on your card, say because of Christmas shopping :eh: , the company can and will raise your rate to 20-30% even if you never missed a payment. There is no reason for the increased rate since you are paying on time. They just want to suck more money out of you. :sly:

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here we have a privacy law where personal information is protected.

I find it a dirty trick from the CC companies. I hope all US members read your warning and don’t use their CC for christmas shopping.

unbelievable, if you make more charges they charge more interest… here in holland all consumers organisations would stand on their back legs and have a big riot over it, until it is reversed.

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Moving to the Netherlands sounds better to me every day. :smile: Just don’t know if I could stand the cold. :sad:

I do as well and I am going to close my credit accounts and throw my credit cards away. Unfortunately, I don’t think many people will even know about it until they are hit with a big bill. There was only a brief blurb about it on the morning news today.

The new law gives them the option to do that.

That may well happen here too.

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I don’t have credit, and I can speak as American that it is VERY hard to function in American society without credit.

Cars, houses, loans, apartments, telephones, … my ISP required a credit card, and the only form of broadband here so luckily a family member provided credit.

I once worked in a credit bureau, heh … evil evil place. I was a debt collector for medical bills. :neutral: That speaks for itself. … but it paid well for a student … until I was laid off after 1 month training, and only 2 weeks on the job. :neutral: the 1st week my supervisor told me to “update my attire” so I spent my first full check on a new “work wardrobe” … and a few days after this advice the same guy “lays off” me and 30 others. :grrr: … that “work wardrobe” is dusty in my closet.

We were not “fired” and so they were exempt from providing severence pay or unemplyment wages.

If that was not bad enough, the memories I have of that place is calling sick and elderly people and asking for money in my most polite way possible. Of my time there I never collected one debt! :lol: … that makes me feel a lot better.

DA:“Ms. (name I’m mispronouncing) this is an attempt to collect a debt, and any information obtained will be used for that purpose”
SICK: “WHAT? Let me turn up my hearing aid?”
DA:“I see you owe $3,846 dollars for a hip replacement from General Hospital”
SICK: “I can’t hear over this oxygen machine, let me put on my prosthesis leg and I’ll turn it off”
DA:“I can set up a payment program to help you resolve this matter”
SICK: “gasp, gasp just a second honey, I get out of breath walking with this pace maker”
DA:"You know, if you just tell me to never call this number by law we must never call again. Just say it! If we do, threaten us with harrassement and a lawsuit. Use the “harrassement” word because that scares them.
click

heh, I never said that because my first sentence explains how EVERYTHING is recorded, but my brain was SCREAMING it out loud.

When I was “fired” I got home and noticed I still had over 30 pages of customer info. So, they pissed me off and left me with sensitive data.

I don’t really want a credit card, but one day I will NEED one for sure.

milod789, do you have a URL to this info. This sounds like something actually worth email forwarding to some friends of mine.

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:uh: That is weird you should have been able to collect unemployment even though you were laid off. Usually, you just cant get unemployment unless you quit or are fired for misconduct. But, that is just my state and these laws vary from state to state. Did you actually apply for unemployment and get denied or did you just take your companies word for it that you were not eligible.

Well you have my sympathy. You worked for the first most hated occupation and I once worked for the second, telemarketing. I think I lasted a hole 2 weeks. I hated that job. Selling overpriced products, that no one needs, to people who cant afford them. :sad:

That is true however, if you have a checking account you can get a check card. Most of these cards will have a visa or master card logo on them and you can use them just like a credit card.

Yes the credit bureaus really have people by the … You need a credit rating for everything. Without it you would have to pay outrageous fees sometimes up to $200.00 for things like cable, electric, phone, etc.

Well you don’t necessarily need a credit card but, you do need a credit rating. You can establish credit simply by scraping together say $250.00 to $500.00 dollars. Take that money down to your bank and tell them you want to apply for a secured (against your cash) loan. Then you use the money you borrowed to pay it back. Of course you have to pay the interest out of your own pocket but, that should be minimal. Just make sure you take at least 3-6 months to pay it back. Now the thing with some credit cards is they do not report you as a costumer to the credit bureaus. Therefore, having those cards does nothing to improve your credit. Aspire is infamous for this. No one would ever know that you had a card with them unless you default and they send your account to a collection agency. As you know all debt collection agencies report to credit bureaus however, not all credit cards do. :sly:

I did not see it on the internet it was on TV. It was on either fox or CNN I think. It was also a very quick blurb on the news. If I blinked I likely would have missed it. :smile:

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Dream addict can you really legally tell them to stop calling and they must listen to you? The reason i ask this is because my dad is bieng harrassed(sorry if misspelled) for a broken leg in which the accident wasnt his fault but ruled that way due to the man…no coward who hit him didnt own up too it.soi was wondering if we could really say that too them.Thank you for responding when you do.

(God i hate that motherf@#%er for hitting him and being a loser)

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(Shinta, I’d probly edit out that last bit in your post, or at the very least the last word…)

Way to go DA! Destroy 'em from the inside out :razz:

Any other Americans getting really sick of US vs World comparisons? Gotta tell ya, the rest of the world is looking better and better everyday…Shakes fist at Bush

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PLEASE do Shinta of Wu!!

When you get another call try to say something along the lines of:

“I don’t accept this harassment to my phone number. I demand you remove my number from your list.”

hopefully they will began the process of removing your number, but it is in a machine … and so you may get additional calls for a day or two. If so, number the calls since stating your demand and tell them “I don’t accept your 2nd call of harassment, Never call again, I demand you remove my number from your list”

Say it as you wish, a simple “remove my number from the calling list” does the trick too, but be firm and serious about it. Make them think you are angry enough to phone a helpful lawyer happy enough to make you both money. Harassment is the case used in court.

… this was 2000 law … I expect it to be the same.

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was bush really a problem? i mean the war was gonna happen and everything so can we really blame bush?please dunt think i am stupid.i mean anyone would of dun this same action sure bush has some bad views but was it all his fault. (i am an independent) sorry for o.t. this is for neo.

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Yes that is true if it is an outside collection agency. What you should do is send them a letter telling them to stop contacting you. This is also known as a cease communication letter. They will honor it because it is big trouble for them if they don’t. Now that just stops them from calling you and sending you letters. Some state laws will also allow you to do the same thing with the original creditor.

Some times though it may not be in your interest to do so. If they are in contact with you there is a chance they will violate some of the elaborate rules that govern what a collector may or may not do. Perhaps you could even antagonize them into becoming abusive. Just remember a debt collector will make you think he is god almighty but, in reality, they are powerless against you. Also, remember you can always hang up the phone. Just make sure that you document and can prove everything they do or say so you can bring it all to a lawyer.

edit- DA beat me to it. However, I do disagree with one thing. While telling them over the phone will likely put a stop to future contact. You want to be able to prove that you told them to stop calling you and the best way to do that is in writing sent return receipt.

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thank you guys. very much for the answers i will se what i can do they havent really called in a while,somaybe they left and got tired.it been since friday u.s. time.

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Um, as to not change this into a whole 'nother Bush thread I’m pretty sure there is a thread for that specifically. I do blame the war on Bush, not saying that otherwise it would have never ever happened later, but it was completely preventable now… And yeah obviously not every single thing wrong in America is his fault, I’m just generalizing.

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okay

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Oh they will call again of that you can be sure. Like DA said it is all computerized sooner or later your number will roll around again.

Keep us updated about this. Let us know what they do and say. Either DA or I can tell you how to react to them or trap them. I love messing with these guys. :smile:

You can PM me if you want.

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This happened to a friend of mine. He was pretty mad about it. Even though I must admit that maybe it is needed. People need to not depend on credit cards as much as they do. It has become a problem.

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I feel sorry for your friend. I am curious st to why you think it is needed? If a person is consistently missing payment then, yes I could understand why a card company might want to increase the persons rate. However, I see great flaws with that. If a person is missing payments with an interest rate of say 12% so, the company raises his/her rate to 25%. Do you really think the person is going to be able to pay the higher rate. I guarantee that this new law is going to cause lots of people to default on their credit accounts and just walk away from them. What about the people who never miss a payment? Why should they have their rate raised? If you ask me they should reward people who pay on time not penalize them!

Anyway, I am staying true to my boycott of the credit card industry. I no longer have a single credit card. All I have now is my checking account with a check card which can be used just like a credit card. I encourage credit card holders everywhere to join me in this boycott and say NO to the abusive powers of big business!