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CC Disclosures - did you read em? (rates)

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Anonymous
Not applicable

CC Disclosures - did you read em? (rates)

Mods, not trying to be rude.  If this post angers you, it's probably because you know it's the truth.

 

So many posts about people being 'rate jacked' and angry.  I want to ask you, did you read your disclosures?  If you did, then you should accept that the banks are doing what they told you they CAN (and obviously will) do.  You accepted the terms of a variable rate open ended line of credit.  The banks have chosen to extend a service with the idea that there will be a return for the amount of risk they are accepting.

 

Consider this, would you loan your neighbor $1,000?  He appears honest, hard working, and capable of repaying the loan on paper.  I wouldn't.  Even if I could ask him to repay it with a return of 10% (much better than my current savings rate of 1.3%) it wouldn't be worth the risk to me.  Yet this is exactly what banks are doing.  Banks are now setting aside billions of dollars because they KNOW that people who were previously capable of repaying their cards are now using them as life rafts as they float through these tough economic waters.  Maybe this has happened to you, and if so, I am sorry about your circumstances.

 

The maximum APR was in the print (however fine it may have been) and those terms were accepted knowingly or unknowingly.  The sense I am getting is everyone believes 'I am too good for this.'  Maybe you are, maybe you aren't.  But that doesn't change the fact that the bank views you as higher risk and therefore wants a higher return for the risk.  For investors, risk has always equalled reward.  But as risk goes up, investors demand higher compensation.  For myself, when you consider it this way, it makes sense.

Message 1 of 16
15 REPLIES 15
DI
Super Contributor

Re: CC Disclosures - did you read em? (rates)

Yes, I read all of them and place them  in my laptop case.  I must have read over them at least 4 times already.
Message 2 of 16
Anonymous
Not applicable

Re: CC Disclosures - did you read em? (rates)

I'll take a slightly different approach. Yes, everyone with a CC agreed to these possibilities. Some of the current anger stems from the fact that while everyone knows this is a possibility, what is happening typically in the past only happened to people who were naughty and it was considered to be a form of punishment. Now it's happening regardless of your credit history and people feel they are being punished unfairly. This, although not entirely rational (they did have the agreements up front), is a normal reaction to these events and sometimes people just need to vent - so vent. 

 

It's important to remember these are business decisions and not personal decisions. Somewhere a pencil pusher with a computer decided to do this and it's not a personal attack on you. I'm not saying you have to like it, many people will make decisions to stop using certain credit products based on this and that may not be a bad thing.

 

Just my two cents. 

Message 3 of 16
Anonymous
Not applicable

Re: CC Disclosures - did you read em? (rates)

Yes,  but just because someone has a legal right to do something doesn't mean it's fun or enjoyable when they do it.
Message 4 of 16
Anonymous
Not applicable

Re: CC Disclosures - did you read em? (rates)


@Anonymous wrote:
Yes,  but just because someone has a legal right to do something doesn't mean it's fun or enjoyable when they do it.
Agreed..... 

 

Message 5 of 16
score_building
Senior Contributor

Re: CC Disclosures - did you read em? (rates)

while personal responsibility is key, the banks continue to play a major role in the credit debacle and having a team of mba's dream up clever pitfalls to place in the fine print doesn't make it excusable. 

 

not sure how many, or which posts you've read here, but the majority of us are well aware of the mechanisms by which banks afford themselves billions of dollars in profits and choose to PIF in any case which tends to short circuit the AA now rampant in today's climate. 

FTR- even so, it is an outrage and a scandal that banks can, for eg., triple the cost of an item that was already purchased, gouging its consumer base (which are its bread and butter) with impunity regardless of disclosures.  

 

whether or not one agrees with enacting the new CARD law-it was prompted by the fact that the government has felt constrained to interevene on behalf of consumers, fallen victim to modern day usury- it had spiraled out of control.  how long were we suppose to just sit and watch it?

 

 

 

 

DCU EQ 5.0, Citi EQ 08 Bankcard, PenFed EX NG2
EX 08: AFCU, Amex, Chase, PSECU EX 98(?)
TU 08: Barclays, Discover
Message 6 of 16
DI
Super Contributor

Re: CC Disclosures - did you read em? (rates)


@Anonymous wrote:

I'll take a slightly different approach. Yes, everyone with a CC agreed to these possibilities. Some of the current anger stems from the fact that while everyone knows this is a possibility, what is happening typically in the past only happened to people who were naughty and it was considered to be a form of punishment. Now it's happening regardless of your credit history and people feel they are being punished unfairly. This, although not entirely rational (they did have the agreements up front), is a normal reaction to these events and sometimes people just need to vent - so vent. 

 

It's important to remember these are business decisions and not personal decisions. Somewhere a pencil pusher with a computer decided to do this and it's not a personal attack on you. I'm not saying you have to like it, many people will make decisions to stop using certain credit products based on this and that may not be a bad thing.

 

Just my two cents. 


Maybe Myfico should start a thread for people to vent about their rate increases and slashed credit lines.  It's becoming a nuisance to see it in the credit card thread almost daily.  Smiley Wink

Message 7 of 16
score_building
Senior Contributor

Re: CC Disclosures - did you read em? (rates)

AA seems to happen in waves and the threads it prompts are reflective of this...if i am not interested in a thread i simply skip over it, i recommend you do the same, since anything cc related is fair game in this forum Smiley Wink 


@DI wrote:

Maybe Myfico should start a thread for people to vent about their rate increases and slashed credit lines.  It's becoming a nuisance to see it in the credit card thread almost daily.  Smiley Wink


 

DCU EQ 5.0, Citi EQ 08 Bankcard, PenFed EX NG2
EX 08: AFCU, Amex, Chase, PSECU EX 98(?)
TU 08: Barclays, Discover
Message 8 of 16
DI
Super Contributor

Re: CC Disclosures - did you read em? (rates)


@score_building wrote:

AA seems to happen in waves and the threads it prompts are reflective of this...if i am not interested in a thread i simply skip over it, i recommend you do the same, since anything cc related is fair game in this forum Smiley Wink 


@DI wrote:

Maybe Myfico should start a thread for people to vent about their rate increases and slashed credit lines.  It's becoming a nuisance to see it in the credit card thread almost daily.  Smiley Wink


 


I'll try, but I would say reading the vents are hilarious.  I do hate that people are getting RJ'ed...expecially if they have a balance.  All of sudden that $50 steak dinner one charged last month is going to have an actual cost of about $75.  Smiley Sad

Message 9 of 16
creditwherecreditisdue
Senior Contributor

Re: CC Disclosures - did you read em? (rates)

The vents are not hillarious. They are actually rather sad.

 

While a lot of us here are pretty clued in, there are also a lot of members/lurkers who are striving every day to recover their damaged credit. Those who are on top on things and PIF their accounts are very fortunate. They have mitigated the damage of any forthcoming AA. Those who can't PIF (perhaps they are reducing their balances on their way to PIF) are between a rock and a hard place when these massive AA pogroms strike. I can completely understand the frustration engendered as a result of having your APR jacked from x to 29.99%. It hurts. It hurts financially, and anything that hurts financially these days hurts emotionally. Things are really tough for a lot of people. The heavy handedness of the major banks is only making matters worse.

 

As for MBA's: I knew they were the bane of society when I got mine over 30 years ago. That's why I took my MBA in finance somewhere other than a bank and did something else with it. At least I can sleep at night.

 

As for the OP, speculating post facto in regard to whether folks have bothered to read their Cardholder Agreement isn't very helpful. It also isn't terriblly FSR.

Message 10 of 16
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