Wednesday, May 11, 2011

Why Do We Allow the Big Banks to Bilk Us?

  I received a letter from Card Member Service informing me of a change in my credit card account. My APR was being "revised" from 8.99% to 12.99%. Naturally, I wondered why since I pay the minimum required or more and am not late.. I read further and was astonished at the blatancy of the  following statement: "The change in the APR on your credit card Account was made as a result of a review of your Account and our decision was based on the net level of profitability on the Account."

 Banks can borrow money at 0%. My savings account earns .15%. The bank uses my money and offers me a credit card at 12.99%. Do the math - who is being served here? Have you noticed similar changes in your account?

Do you know the profits of the "poor" banks that we bailed out? Here is one example: Bank of America received a  $1.9 billion tax refund from the IRS last year, although it made $4.4 billion in profits and received a bailout from the Federal Reserve and the Treasury Department of nearly $1 trillion.  The question we all have to  ask is: Why do we put up with a banking system that is so clearly "taking us to the cleaners"? What are your ideas for change? I'm looking at my credit card habit.

1 comment:

dp said...

I got the same notice on both of my credit cards sometime last year. We had the option of opting out of the higher APR, but when you opt out, you also opt out of having an account with them, because they close it! Our democracy has become a plutocracy, and people are JUST NOW waking up to the fact. The only solution I see is revolution--people taking to the streets, as they did in Wisconsin. What will it take to get people angry enough to revolt en masse? I am hoping we all don't wait to late for someone to start a revolution; we must all start NOW, speaking out and protesting, before it gets even worse, and it will if we remain silent and separated from each other.