Massachusetts Moving Money Out of Three Big Banks to Protest Credit Card Rates

Massachusetts officials on Wednesday announced plans to move millions of dollars in state investments out of some of the nation’s biggest banks to protest credit card interest rates.

State Treasurer Timothy Cahill said the state has removed Bank of America, Citi and Wells Fargo from a list of institutions approved for new state investments. Massachusetts, which is the only state to make such a move, is also beginning to divest $243 million in funds held at those banks, though the process could take up to six months.

“We want to bring some fairness into the issue,” said Cahill, who is running for governor. “I don’t think what we’re asking is . . . out of line".'

Read more...

Credit-Card Fees: the New Traps

A new federal credit-card law that takes effect Monday could erase billions of dollars a year in fees and interest charges paid by consumers. But card issuers are already deploying new tactics that could prove costly for even the most cautious cardholder.

Banning these and other profitable tactics is expected to cost the card industry at least $12 billion a year in lost revenue, according to law firm Morrison & Foerster. This has sent the industry scrambling to find new sources of revenue. So get ready for higher annual fees, higher balance-transfer charges, and growing charges for overseas transactions.'

Read more...

The Slimy World of Credit Card Lending.

Credit card companies have made it their passion to ensure that every eligible American has access to a credit card. They have also created a financial labyrinth with traps in every corner from tricky financial statements to interest rates that would make loan sharks blush. The credit card has become some form of financial rite of passage. Even colleges are plastered with credit card pushers trying to get their new batch of Americans hooked on the world of debt financing. In a way, this is an early initiation into the world of spending what you don’t have so when the U.S. Treasury and Federal Reserve create money out of thin air many Americans don’t find this concept foreign.'

Read more...

Credit Card's Newest Trick: 79.9 Percent Interest

It’s no mistake. This credit card’s interest rate is 79.9 percent.

The bloated APR is how First Premier Bank, a subprime credit card issuer, is skirting new regulations intended to curb abusive practices in the industry. It’s a strategy other subprime card issuers could start adopting to get around the new rules.'

Read more...

Use Cash

Big Banking is out of control. Many corporate financial institutions, considered too big to fail, received a share of a trillion dollars of taxpayer money. To thank us, they are hiking interest rates on existing credit card debt, lowering and cancelling small business credit lines, and imposing more and higher fees and penalties with impunity.

As taxpayers, workers, citizens and merchants we can fight back. Not with letters to the editor nor with calls to our government representatives. There is an easy, immediate and direct path toward banking and monetary reform that benefits people, not corporations, through everyday transactions in the marketplace.

Use cash.'

Read more...

The Christmas Credit Crunch: Greedy Finance Firms Push Interest Rate Towards 40%

Credit card firms are pushing up interest rates by as much as 7 per cent ahead of Christmas.
The move by Capital One means some customers will be paying almost 40 per cent interest on their Christmas gifts and January sale purchases unless they clear the balance on their cards.

The American-owned finance giant said the rises were to reflect the higher risk of certain customers and 'market conditions'.

But there are concerns that Capital One, which has 4million British customers, will be followed by other banks.
The decision has angered customers, who described the increases as 'legalised extortion'.

Read more...

Your Credit Card Company Is Building A Psychological Profile Of You

The next time you apply for a credit card, your credit report and income will be only a part of the criteria used to determine your creditworthiness. For that matter, as long as you have the card, what you use it for will be noted and added to a growing set of data that makes up your psychological profile, which will then be referred to every time the bank deals with your or reevaluates your risk as a customer.

Read more...

Dutch Supermarkets Set to Refuse Cash

Dutch supermarkets are hoping to phase out the use of cash by 2014, the Financieele Dagblad reports on Thursday, quoting the retail board CBL.

The aim of the ban on cash is to make supermarkets less vulnerable to armed robberies, the paper says.

Read more...

Card Fraud Probe Targets 300 Detectives

The scale of the suspected fraud, disclosed in an internal Metropolitan Police Authority report, will send shock waves through the force. Until now, the investigation into expenses fraud was thought to have focused on fewer than 40 officers. It comes days after Sir Paul Stephenson, the Met Commissioner, faced the potentially damaging disclosure that six officers face investigation over claims that a drug suspect's head was forced into a lavatory that was flushed repeatedly.

Read more...

Credit Card Giants Mock Pleas to be Fair

Credit card giants have dramatically increased interest rates and found other back-door methods to wring cash from hard-pressed customers.

Despite cuts in the Bank of England base rate to a record low of 0.5 per cent, banks and others have imposed punishing increases on the cost of using cards.

Some have added as much as 4 points to the headline interest rate charged to customers over the past year, taking the figure up to almost 20 per cent.

The moves directly contradict demands from the Prime Minister for banks to treat credit card customers fairly.

Read more...