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Senate Loan Sharks
The President told listeners at a town hall meeting in New Mexico yesterday that they have a right not to be “ripped off” by credit-card issuers, the day after the Senate rejected a proposal to limit banks to the 15 percent interest rate of credit unions.
“When banks are charging 30 percent interest rates, they are not making credit available,” said Sen. Bernie Sanders, who proposed the cap. “They are engaged in loan-sharking.”
But his colleagues, who have approved billions of bailout money for banks, voted him down with only 33 votes to enforce the limit as Sen. Chris Dodd, who chairs the banking committee, suggested the Federal Reserve “study” the question.
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3 Responses to “Senate Loan Sharks”
Credit card companies have jacked up their rates in anticipation of not being allowed to feed at the trough of racketeering any more.
I have sterling credit and recently was notified that my rates were being jacked from around 7% to 22% with no qualifying reason. When I asked the clerk on their info line about the reason, he said it was because the government was being unfair to credit card companies so they had to make up the difference. Which amounts to robbery of course.
They're squirrelling away cash now in anticipation of not being able to bilk tomorrow. That in inself needs to be addressed. All it would take is an inquiry into consumer's credit history and arbitrary rate hikes. Any surplus should be mined in the form of fines. I'd be happy to retroactively donate my overcharges to bail out old Uncle Sam. Hey, they're looking for ways to augment the budget right?
1. Fine credit card companies for racketeering.
2. Fine BigOil for equally arbitrary gas price increases.
3. Withdraw troops from Bigoil's efforts in Iraq, and our agreement with the Brits to help them protect their resouces in India over in Af/Pak.
That should help the $$$ a little bit..?
Let's kill the credit card companies. I have ditched Chase for a credit union debit card. Screw Chase, BOA, MBNA, Wells Fargo. All of them. They want to use MY money to lobby against legislation that is in the public interest? Well they'll not have another dime from me as a former customer.
The credit card companies don't get much money from me. I pay off my balance at the end of the month. The best way to stick it to the credit card companies and help yourself is to pay off all credit card debt as soon as possible and to never carry a balance again unless you can be certain it is very short term and not very much money.