and that's all we going to get for our bailing out the banksters. think of it as a stimulus check, except it can't be used to pay your rent.

Good PR spin: they are "cracking down" althogh better than a kick up the backside, what is that maximum interest rate (usury) again? 38%? Funny the article does not mention that.

Yesterday, Cliff Pletschet, a conservative columnist who appears in several newspapers business section, basically says this is our fault. It is not the credit card companies/banks' fault for trickery and taking advantage of others misfortune, or govt. de-regulation either. He says if people were not smart enough to figure out they were getting ripped off, too f'in bad. He blames the victims. What constructive and helpful advice he gives. http://www.insidebayarea.com/columnists/cliffpletschet

According to him and other shills, it is OK for the taxpayer to reward the banks for fraudulent behavior, OK to bail them out, and OK to re-lend that taxpayer money back to taxpayers at interest. In theory at least, the taxpayer is borrowing his/her own money and having to pay steep interest for the privelege. How lovely, subsidizing kleptocracy. Now that is a win win situation for the banksters

Obama as Senator voted in favor of raising the APR to 33%. He is no friend to the little man.

When a bill was forwarded last week to lower the APR back down to 15% with an emergency rate of 18%, Obama was no where to be found. The bill failed.

The above "credit card crackdown" is a hustle. Credit card companies will be what, "forced" to allow you 45 days (gosh, thanks) to accept or decline your rate "adjustment"? Decline means your account will be canceled if you do not accept the terms set by Chase.

And what's this? opening the possibility for rate reductions if warranted?! WTF? Who warrants those rates and what is the reasoning -are they legally bound to a series of warrants the consumer can hold them to in a court of law? NO THEY ARE NOT. The reality is still to this day and after this bill is past, the credit card lender can and will raise your rates whenever, however, and forever depending on whatever they decide. Your only option is to "opt out" which results in your account being closed, aka a F-You that you can't do a thing about.

For everyone who's been screwed in the past, tough love baby. There is no retroactive clause. In other words, Obama and the shills refuse to investigate the hustling of the American people by credit cards. They are going to pass a bill "and look to the future"....

and the future is what? A toothless bureaucracy that will hold no official power over the credit cards continual game manipulation.

Are they going to ratchet down the rates before they crack down, or just hold them at their all time high?

Thats not a crack down but a smackdown to the consumer. They think the public is that dumb to think that what they did contributes to any change, Pleeeeez. They just supplied a wet bandaid.
Lock the interest rates, no greater the 15%, thats change.

Another peanut to quiet the proles, from the Obamanation.

I'm sure you have all received those "Important information about your account" letters from the various credit card companies. Page after page of almost microscopic text, filled with figures, if's and's or but's, and ending that this will take place at your next billing. You have ten days to object to this, in which case we will cancel your account and expect immediate payment of your balance.

This is not to mention the bait and switch offers on low interest for balance transfers.

It sounds like the new bill lets all, or most, of that to remain in place.

I said long before the election that it looked to me like the choice narrowed down to whether we got it dry or with Vaseline.

I think the Obamanation is about to declare a shortage of Vaseline. It is needed for the war effort. You know how it goes.

Considering how other progressive legislation has been stalled or hi-jacked by those interests who would stand to loose money, it is a dubious testament to the sheer greed of the credit card companies (whom for all intents and purposes, had become legalized loan sharks) that their prior protectors dropped them like a hot potato.

Imagine the conversation between a credit card lobbyist and a legislator or two, "Come on, we've been there for you for years...you've got to help us out!" pleads the lobbyist. "Sorry guys, if we don't do anything, the public will punish us in the only way they can...by voting us out. Its' your turn to be the sacrificial lamb," intones the sympathetic congressman.

"Difficile est saturam non scribere." Juvenal

Thank GOD ! At least the Democrats finally stood for the working class and weren't afraid of it. I look forward to Obama signing this legislation. It's too bad the purists on this site and on other likewise progressive sites will join the rightwingers and not give Obama and the Democrats credit where it's due.

I like the idea of a Boston Credit Card Party. Let's all go into credit card default for six months at the same time to drive home the point that we aren't thrilled about lending our own money to ourselves via the TARP scams.

Kill the Federal Reserve Bank and let the people issue their own money. Is that so damn hard to figure out?

TJ

"‘I believe that banking institutions are more dangerous to our liberties than standing armies. If the American people ever allow private banks to control the issue of their currency, first by inflation, then by deflation, the banks and corporations that will grow up around the banks will deprive the people of all property until their children wake-up homeless on the continent their fathers conquered.’." - Thomas Jefferson, 1802

"In addition, the bill would require more disclosure of the terms of card agreements"

And how many people read the disclosure terms of card agreements to start with?

Lawyers can't understand all that gibberish either - it's written that way so everybody gets screwed, no matter how smart they think they are - PBS has aired programs regarding this fraudulent practice. Credit card companies do it because they can - with impunity. Nothing will change.

but the credit card rate cap at 15% Bernie Sanders amendment was defeated (65-30 ) in the Senate. A few states do cap rates-- these rate caps are called usury law. Usury is a sin in any religious tradition I am aware of and is considered preditory by any moral or ethical standard-- but usury is just fine with our Senate. The credit card "reform" is a usury law alright-- it is a law that says usury is OK. What else would you expect from the oligarchs and their suck up pals in the Senate.

There is one thing you can do-- tear up your old cards and join a credit union. Their rates are regulated and capped at 15%-- and their rates are usually lower--8.3%APR at my credit union. Oh, and we could show those Democrats who vote with Republicans the door--as Norman Goldman says, with Democrats like these-- who needs Republicans.

.
GOOD FIRST STEP.........

Next step cap max credit interest at 13%........

Split Major Credit card companies from any Bank ownership or control.......

Setup an independent agency to review all credit card customer complaints.........

.

Usury used to be illegal in most religions and cultures. A 12% interest rate (or 1% per month) was traditionally the maximum. It is good that Congress is doing something. But we can use the "free market" against them. Check your credit card rates. Cancel any card that is charging above 12%. Try to get a card from local savings bank or store. We did just that when we noticed our rate had crept up to 18% for no good reason.

Joe

Credit card companies charge up to 3 percent of every transaction submitted by a merchant as a fee. Writers rarely point this out. If credit card issuers can't make a profit despite charging up-front fees, outlandish interest (uh, my savings account is at 1.6%, McFly, so what's wrong with an 18 percent cap?), late fees, over-limit fees, foreign exchange fees, expedited payment fees, etc.

Then what's the problem?? Maybe they shouldn't have been sending card solicitations to my unemployed college students, my cat, and others with similar inability to pay, all these years?