Plastic Hell

About 2-3 weeks ago, one of our credit cards - SST - jacked our rate from 29% (from a previous arbitrary rate hike) to 37.99%. Knowing these guys to be the bastards they are, we just sucked it up. Yesterday however, we received notice that they are jacking our Cap 1 card from 13% to 33.99% for no reason. We have never missed or been late with a payment on these cards. When my husband called Cap 1, they told him that it was just arbitrary; however if he closed the account the rate would lock in at 13% (their policy, not a law). Obviously, he closed the account.

We figure this is in anticipation of pending regulatory legislation and it is just WRONG! I feel as if these banks have the working American by the short hairs and just keep on pulling. We're paying to bail their butts out and now we're going to pay higher interest rates to line their pockets too? With this kind of hike and the economy the way it is, I figure many people will be forced to make minimal payments or may even start getting behind on payments. At that rate, even a small balance will take a lifetime to pay off. I know if it is happening to us, it is happening to other people as well.

Don't these guys get it? If they continue to maintain their lifestyle at the expense of the middle/working class, eventually there will be no middle class to support their lifestyle. This country will be in complete financial ruins. And as much as the rest of the world may not want to acknowledge how dependent they are on our economy, the fact is if we fall so will many other countries with us. To me it speaks volumes about the very root of the problem with big businesses, including the banking industry, which is they only see as far as their current bottom line. Without an eye to the future - and I don't mean the end of the current fiscal year -that involves looking at the bigger picture and how the decisions they make today will affect it, they are doomed to failure. Unfortunately, when enough of them make poor decisions they take the rest of the country with them - as we are currently seeing. If each of us as individuals is expected to "tighten our belts" and scale back our lifestyles in order to ride out the current economic crisis, why doesn't that apply to businesses, and especially banking businesses as well?

Ann (from Salem)