The Debtors Revolution Has Begun

[The Girl from Ipanema]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jGC1mCS4OVo

Let me say up front, that I am NOT looking for government intervention. This is a free market battle, imo.

Many people that I know, including myself, have had their credit card companies notify them that their interest rates and monthly payments are going up, in some cases to or beyond the point of usury, and their monthly payment amounts almost doubled.

We are not slouches who don't pay or slow pay. In my case, I have always paid more than the monthly minimums and have been on time, save the one or two times that I realized after midnight, "crap, my payment was due today" at which point I jumped on line and scheduled the payment immediately.

We can't MAIL our payments in, because there's no assurance that the post office can actually get it there or that once it arrives, it won't get lost on someone's desk. Because of this, I make a point to make my payments online and maintain a database that includes the payment information and confirmation numbers.

I find it interesting, suspicious even, that some companies can process an online payment that day if made by 4pm, some even up until midnight, and some require you to schedule the payment at least 2 days in advance or pay a fee for same day processing.

I understand their stated position, of risk factors, or at least I thought that I did, but have suspected for some time, and am becoming increasingly convinced, that the increasing defaults are by design and here's why.

I did not study business in college, but I DO understand that there is a point of diminishing returns and I believe that the banks are well beyond that.

Now these guys who run these banks, they have studied business and should understand that point well. With that in mind, they have to be either incompetent or doing this intentionally. I suspect that it is intentional.

I understand that some people run up debt with no intention of paying, but I believe that to be a very very miniscule percentage and that most people do want to pay.

In one case, the bank that carries the balance on our, now never to be used, Home Depot card (we go to Lowe's now because of this) increased our rate and increased our monthly minimum payment after I had been regularly paying between $75 and $100 more than the minimum EVERY time. To add insult to injury, the very next time that I logged into our online account, they made me an offer: Set up automatic payments for $50 above the minimum and get a paltry amount of money ($50 or $100 iirc). I don't want to give them license to take money from my account without my specific authorization for EACH and every transaction because I don't trust these greedy bastards AND I was ALREADY paying beyond their $50 more.

I have called some of them to request lower interest rates only to be told they can't do that and that they review accounts every 6 months for changes. Yeah, they review them to see if there is any excuse to raise our rates.

I called WAMU some time ago and gave them an ultimatum, because they were the first to do this. I told them that they could reduce my interest rate or I would stop paying. They called my bluff and I stopped paying. They sold off to Chase shortly thereafter.

This woman has fired the first "OFFICIAL" shot in the debtors revolution and I will be firing off my own shot sometime this weekend.

Bankers, let this serve as notice. We will not live in indentured servitude any longer.

I recognize my responsibility in that I did accept the credit. I never took a card that had a variable interest rate, but they took it upon themselves to change the rules once the game had started. I have done business in good faith and they have not, save for a few.

Household bank and JC Penney have not participated in these bad faith dealings and I will continue to pay them. The rest of you can kiss my ass.

I had no budget problems prior to their increases. Now there is no end in sight.
Do business in good faith or go broke. It's your call.

[johnrocks]

I realize credit cards are used a lot , my Mom's best friend puts everything on her CC and then pays the entire balance when she gets the bill, it's her way of keeping a record of how she and her husband spend their money, me, I have a debit card with a Visa logo on it, if I don't have the money, I don't get it. Credit card companies have little competition and are about as untrusty as government,lol.

[The Girl from Ipanema]

I realize credit cards are used a lot , my Mom's best friend puts everything on her CC and then pays the entire balance when she gets the bill, it's her way of keeping a record of how she and her husband spend their money, me, I have a debit card with a Visa logo on it, if I don't have the money, I don't get it. Credit card companies have little competition and are about as untrusty as government,lol.

I didn't even address the fact that, through our tax dollars, we have already covered their "risk" and I gotta go to work or I could rant about this all day.

[lwdc]

Now these guys who run these banks, they have studied business and should understand that point well. Yes. Usury is a business in and of itself. The worst part of this reality is that it is a business which controls all other businesses.

When buildings are built, they are not initially owned by those whose blood and sweat went into the building. They are owned by the lending institutions who sat on their fat asses during the entire process. The worst part of that reality is that the lending institutions didn’t even lend anything; they had nothing of substance to lend. They simply wrote phantom money into existence, where none existed before. The "money" is only as real as a notation in a book.

It is the worst fraud ever committed in world history, and no person is unaffected by it.

[MrShotShot]

I generally pay my credit card off every month, except in the case of a planned large purchase and then I generally pay it off over a couple of payments.

I've noticed that my bank is continually shifting my due dates every month. Sometimes it's as early as the 7th and sometimes it's as late as the 18th. I can think of no other reason they are doing this than to trip people up so that they can nail them with late fees.

I also had the experience of realizing that the bill was due that day. I went online when I got home from work to pay it, only to realize that "all transactions processed after 2:00 pm were credited on the next business day."

So I paid the bill and then called customer service asking if I would be charged a late fee. They said I would be and when I complained, they simply said that the bill was due on such and such date. My response, "well it is such and such date. I just didn't realize that your such and such date ended 10 hours sooner than mine did."

I'd dump the card, but I do get lots of travel perks with it.