Tuesday, May 12, 2009
Give me a break, please.
A credit card company called me about a month ago. Told me they appreciated me as a customer. And wondered if I had any suggestions as to how the company could serve me better. And I said I was satisfied. But that I traveled a lot. Overseas. And that their credit cards were accepted only in the USA. But they informed me that would change. They have plans to expand. To other countries. Maybe in a year or so. Anyway, I've used this credit card often. Since 1987. And I never carry over a balance. I always pay in full. Every month. So I was surprised when last week the company sent me a notice. That it was raising my interest rate. Apparently for no solid reason. Just for the heck of it. Because credit card companies are allowed to do it. Willy-nilly. Well, now I no longer have that good impression of the company. Called Discover. I think I will tell Discover to go to hell. And start using other credit cards that don't raise my rates arbitrarily. Of course, I don't have to worry about paying interest. Because I pay up on time. All the time. But it's the principle of the thing. Most of these credit card companies are linked to banks that recently got government bailouts amounting to billions of taxpayers dollars. Yes, you and I are helping these banks survive with our tax monies. And yet they have the audacity to charge us more in these hard economic times. Give me a break, please. --Jim Broede
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Well, I called Discover. To complain. To gripe about the interest rate increase. Knowing it would do me little good. Because I'm dealing with a corporation. A big business. They could care less. And I suppose I really shouldn't care. Because the interest rate increase doesn't affect me. Because I pay up every month. And so there's no interest charge. But hey, I'm thinking about the little guy who isn't as fortunate as me. The ones struggling to get by, especially in times of a bad economy and spiraling unemployment. The last thing they need is an interest rate increase on their credit card bill. They end up going deeper and deeper into debt. Maybe to the delight of the credit card companies. Or am I being a cynic? I assumed it was a low-ranking Discover employee that listened to me. And she told me politely that Discover needed to rake in more dough in these difficult times. That's life. But I'll bet that at year's end, Discover will show an obscene profit. Made at the expense of its beleaguered, financially-strapped customers. Just like the big oil companies do. Ain't fair, seems to me. And I told Discover so. And I suggested that the Discover employee I was talking to couldn't do anything about it. But she offered to connect me to her supervisor, a woman named Melody. But this Melody wasn't so sweet. Because I said that in my opinion Discover was royally screwing its customers. Melody said she objected to my use of the term "screw" because she's a lady. And that if I persisted in using the word, she'd hang up. She hung up. But believe me, we're being screwed. And Melody knows it. No matter what you want to call it. --Jim Broede
The Obama Administration seems receptive to putting the screws on the credit card companies. For screwing its customers by arbitrarily raising interest rates. Yes, we need government regulation. To protect the interests of the lower and middle classes. Big business is out to make profits. Obscene profits. Greed. Greed. Greed. Business is in business to make money. And, when possible, to exploit the little people. That's how the rich become richer and the poor become poorer. Yes, an ever-widening gap between the rich and the poor. That's why we are in economic trouble these days. Unregulated private enterprise. American-style capitalism. Immoral. Immoral. Immoral. The credit card companies screw us. Right and left. Any and every which way. It's a disgrace. A shame. That we let 'em get away with it. Under Bush and the Republicans, they've had free rein. But Obama and some Democrats are about to draw the line, or so it seems. Let's hope so. But big business won't go down without a fight. They have the moola. The wherewithal. And they may still bribe our representatives to allow big business to continue to have its greedy ways. And we'll all be screwed once again. --Jim
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