re: #231 marjoriemoon

hehe! Well I have to say that Chase is undoubtedly the worst. They were the first to charge 25% interest after one late payment on a credit card. That was back, oh maybe 10-12 years ago.

May I interrupt to say that Obama stopped this “legal” usury??

Their customer service is non-existent. They hung up on me, as I was in midsentence explaining my payment was sitting in their account, I heard “click”. Three of them did this to me. Obviously, they are told to hang up on customers. Either that, or they are those Japanese robots we’ve heard tell about.

Uh - during the several months between passage and enactment of the recent credit card reform legislation, every major credit card issuer jacked up their rates across the board, before the new, more restrictive rules on rate changes took effect. I’ve never been late on a payment - ever - in twenty years, and pay my balance in full every month (I know, that’s a negative mark in the eyes of the credit card companies, but still..) and saw my rate jump from 11% last fall to 24.95% today. I never pay interested, because I never carry a balance, but those usurious rates you’re talking about are now the norm for everyone - at a time when Federal interest rates remain at historic lows of 0%, and other interest rates are similarly bottomed.

So you can say that, if you like, but there are a lot more people paying such rates now than at any time in the past, and it’s thanks mostly to the reforms that were passed without backdated protections to the date the bills were passed.