Are credit card rates out of control?


	Are credit card rates out of control?

Melanie Lindner

4-24-2009 1:07 PM

86 views

tags:

credit cards, banks, obama

Melanie Lindner says:

As President Obama makes controlling credit card rates a priority, banks are pushing back saying they have to raise rates to accommodate for the rising costs of doing business in a challenging economic environment.

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<div style="margin: 12px 0px; font-family: arial; color: #333333; background: #ffffff; border: solid 4px #e5e5e5; width: 100%; clear: left;"><div class="CM_CTB_Content_Wrap" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;background-color: #ffffff;"><div style="border-bottom: solid 1px #dcdcdc; white-space: nowrap; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: #eeeeee ;background-image: url(http://clipmarks.com/images/source-bg.gif); background-repeat: repeat-x; height: 24px; line-height: 24px; vertical-align: middle; padding-bottom: 4px; color: #666666; font-size: 10px;" ><a href="http://clipmarks.com/clip-to-blog/" title="see clips that are hot right now"><img src="http://content.clipmarks.com/blog_embed/ee3db4a4-096e-45ae-94cc-5ecf14fddb30/B1595425-F5C4-4876-976B-AA8448872F6A/" alt="" width="19" height="19" border="0" style="vertical-align: middle; margin: 0px 4px; display: inline; border: none; float:none;" /></a>clipped from <a title="http://online.wsj.com/article/BT-CO-20090424-706929.html" href="http://online.wsj.com/article/BT-CO-20090424-706929.html" style="font-size: 11px;">online.wsj.com</a></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://online.wsj.com/article/BT-CO-20090424-706929.html"><P>
  Michael Burkholder, who has had a Bank of America credit card for the better part of the last decade, said his jaw dropped recently when the interest rate on his card nearly tripled to 14.99% from 5.5%. </P></blockquote><div style="height: 2px; font-size: 2px; background: #dcdcdc; border-bottom: solid 1px #f5f5f5; margin: 2px 4px;"></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://online.wsj.com/article/BT-CO-20090424-706929.html"><P>
  The 41-year-old Laurel, Md., resident insists that he always pays his bills on time and that while he typically carries a balance, he has made it a practice the last two decades to pay well over the minimum amount due on his accounts. </P></blockquote><div style="height: 2px; font-size: 2px; background: #dcdcdc; border-bottom: solid 1px #f5f5f5; margin: 2px 4px;"></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://online.wsj.com/article/BT-CO-20090424-706929.html"><P>
  When he called to complain, a customer-service representative told him the bank would lower the new rate to 7.9% for six months and that he should call back at a later time for another decrease. </P></blockquote><div style="height: 2px; font-size: 2px; background: #dcdcdc; border-bottom: solid 1px #f5f5f5; margin: 2px 4px;"></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://online.wsj.com/article/BT-CO-20090424-706929.html"><P>
  He asked why the bank jacked up his rate for what he believes was no apparent reason and was told it was necessary to offset losses from the growing numbers of low-performing or default accounts. </P></blockquote></div><div style="margin: 0px 6px 6px 4px;"><table style="font-size: 11px;border-spacing: 0px;padding: 0px;" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" width="100%"><tr><td style="background:transparent;border-width:0px;padding:0px;">&nbsp;</td><td align="right" style="background:transparent;border-width:0px;padding:0px;width:107px" width="107"><a href="http://clipmarks.com/share/B1595425-F5C4-4876-976B-AA8448872F6A/blog/" title="blog or email this clip"><img src="http://content8.clipmarks.com/images/c2b-foot.png" border="0" alt="blog it" width="107" height="17" style="border-width:0px;padding:0px;margin:0px;" /></a></td></tr></table></div></div>

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