The New Credit Card

If you re-read my blog from January, you can view the real picture of the new credit card legislation. This blog tells the true story. What you see on CNN and the other media, TV for example, masquerades as information, but it is not. I read the legislation not just the headlines.

Remember - credit card legislation is primarily written by the credit card companies- the banks if you will-And they are not going to pass legislation that denies them the opportunity to borrow your tax money from the Feds at less than 1% and loan it to you at 10-20%. Where is the outrage? The headlines of this type of legislation read like a victory for the consumer, brought to you courtesy of your congressman. And the President takes the credit, the card that he is. BTW--The image to the left is the largest screw in the world. You be the judge.

Consumers will still pay more and more interest on their own money--lest I be redundant-we send several hundred billion dollars to the feds in the form of taxes, they take a cut of 20% to collect the taxes in the first place, then they loan it to the banks at less than 1%, then the banks loan it to the consumer at 15%. Credit card interest used to be tax deductible--but they changed that too so the consumer could not use the interest it is paying on its own money as a tax deduction and so on. Do you follow? And oh the ultimate BTW is should the Feds increase the interest rate that banks must pay to borrow your money, then the banks will just increase the rate it charges you.

One final example of legislative nonsense that you will not believe. If you have a credit card, you may have received a letter in the mail stating that your credit card interest rate is being increased. On the second page of the letter typically in fine print, there is a phone number you can call and reject the interest rate increase. If you call the number and say I reject the increase, you will not be subject to an interest rate increase. The new legislation spells out this option as if it was new. Wrong, it has been around since January 2009. Woe to the people who do not read each letter you get from your credit card company. I know it makes no sense that if you call you receive special consideration, that is not automatically provided to those elderly or other people who did not read, or could not read and understand. The truth is always more unbelievable than the opposite.

What is my point? Keep this blog in mind for the next election. And always, I mean always read beyond the headlines. My January blog link is below. And finally do not forget, there is no "u" in "credit card interest rate."

Check out the January blog.