This morning I happened to see exactly one story on CNN but it was a good one about consumers being raped by the fine print in credit card agreements. Once again some meaningful reforms are stuck in the US Senate, specifically the Finance Committee Chaired by Sen Chris Dodd of Connecticut. IMHO Dodd’s tap dance is worse than Mike Chaney’s and make no mistake ladies and gents, the esteemed Senator has again pissed on the common man’s back claiming rain. CNN has the story:
It arrived in Rich Stevens’ mailbox a few weeks ago: the notice that Citibank had “rate-jacked” the Visa cards belonging to him and his wife.
Some credit card holders have seen their interest rates go up dramatically, a practice called “rate-jacking.”
“In my case, from 9.5 percent to 16.99,” the 54-year-old nurse from the Long Island hamlet of Merrick, New York, told CNN. And his wife’s rate zoomed from 7.95 percent to 16.99 percent, he said.
Stevens said he did not know why the rates had soared; his credit rating is great.
But, like thousands of other credit card customers around the nation, he has been notified his rate is skyrocketing.
“It almost borders on loan-sharking, from my perspective,” he said.
In the blogosphere, writers are livid at the instant rate hikes — called “rate-jacking.” Continue reading “Chris Dodd on the Side of the People? No Way Buttercup.”