Congress to Screw Your Credit

[Wilbur]

With the congress getting ready to mandate how credit cards are to be used, everyone get ready to have their credit scores screwed and pay higher rates:

http://abcnews.go.com/Business/Politics/story?id=7625749&page=1

Banks will:

1.  Do away with 'no annual fee' cards (according to ABC News).
2.  Do away with the 30-day grace period on purchases.  Interest will be charged starting on the purchase date (according to ABC News).
3.  Credit cards will lower your available credit on your card.  Lower credit means lower credit scores.  Lower credit scores mean high rates on insurance, mortgages, credit cards, ....... (according to Clark Howard).

I guess I'm going back to the check book for everything.

Leave it to the feds.

[FOTD]

Congress sucks. How can they do away with the 30-day grace period on purchases when the article states: "Card issuers would be prohibited from imposing finance charges on balances repaid during the grace period. This billing process right now is hidden from consumers and difficult to understand."

Can't strong banks offer a more competitive card?

"Ladies and gentlemen, when you receive your next change of term letters raising your rates and your fees during the next nine months, from the companies that took your money for their bailout, you will know whom to thank.

Shame, shame, shame."

http://pundits.thehill.com/2009/05/19/obama-democrats-republicans-support-credit-card-rip-offs-and-rate-hikes/


Buy American Express stock.....

[nathanm]

Wow, that bill is weak sauce. It doesn't even do what they originally set out to do. Eliminate ratejacking without cause. Despite that, the bankers are screaming?

Don't they make enough on interchange fees and the current interest rate spread?

[TheArtist]

Don't have a credit card and don't ever want to have one. I do quite well without them. 

[Wilbur]

Congress sucks. How can they do away with the 30-day grace period on purchases when the article states: "Card issuers would be prohibited from imposing finance charges on balances repaid during the grace period. This billing process right now is hidden from consumers and difficult to understand."

To be clear (and I wasn't in my first post), congress isn't taking away the 30-day grace period, it is believed the banks will do this to make up for the loss of revenue that IS being imposed by congress.

[Conan71]

Congress again coddles an industry with obscene profits which finds itself in trouble once again due to their own stupidity.  After the royal screwing Congress gave consumers on bankruptcy reform in 2005 (Thanks Joe Biden D-MBNA), no one should be surprised that Congress would have only the best interests of the credit card issuers at heart and make it sound like they are helping the consumer.

I can't say I've never used credit cards like Artist, but I've not used a personal CC in about 6-7 years now and never will again.  F*&K the slimy bastards.

If you think you hate CC companies as a consumer, open a merchant account then try and get them to do something about fraud at some point.  I had a major go 'round with MBNA on about an $800 charge-back due to fraud when I had my own business.  Somehow, someone was getting information from the inside on brand-new cards being issued and was using them with on-line merchants.  They did not even offer a toll-free line to report fraud.  I waited for over an hour to get someone on the line. 

Their line about losing billions to fraud each year is total bullshit.  They charge back the merchant every penny so long as the merchant is still in business. 

[Hoss]

Congress again coddles an industry with obscene profits which finds itself in trouble once again due to their own stupidity.  After the royal screwing Congress gave consumers on bankruptcy reform in 2005 (Thanks Joe Biden D-MBNA), no one should be surprised that Congress would have only the best interests of the credit card issuers at heart and make it sound like they are helping the consumer.

I can't say I've never used credit cards like Artist, but I've not used a personal CC in about 6-7 years now and never will again.  F*&K the slimy bastards.

If you think you hate CC companies as a consumer, open a merchant account then try and get them to do something about fraud at some point.  I had a major go 'round with MBNA on about an $800 charge-back due to fraud when I had my own business.  Somehow, someone was getting information from the inside on brand-new cards being issued and was using them with on-line merchants.  They did not even offer a toll-free line to report fraud.  I waited for over an hour to get someone on the line. 

Their line about losing billions to fraud each year is total bullshit.  They charge back the merchant every penny so long as the merchant is still in business. 

I can sympathize with you Conan, except my fraud case involved my Debit Card (which at the time was BoA) and someone charging up domain site registrations on it.  It took me several weeks to get that straightened out, and was ultimately the reason I left BoA for BoK.  Now I'm thinking about leaving BoK for Arvest.

Does anyone have any insight about Arvest?  Are they OK to deal with?  What I did miss in my change from BoA to BoK was the eBill.  BoK is SORELY lacking in this department.

PM me if you wish; I don't wish to threadjack.

[nathanm]

Does anyone have any insight about Arvest?  Are they OK to deal with?  What I did miss in my change from BoA to BoK was the eBill.  BoK is SORELY lacking in this department.

eBill? They have an online site where you can pay bills, transfer money between accounts, and whatever else, if that's what you're talking about. It isn't the prettiest thing in the world, but it's functional enough.

I think Arvest is great. Their fees are generally low or nonexistent, and they are one of the few banks that credits deposits before debits. Most banks do it the other way around, processing all charges against your account before the deposits, and worse, run the checks and electronic transactions in whatever way generates the most fees. (Usually starting with the largest transaction and moving on to the smallest)

http://www.arvestblog.com/blog/2009/3/6/adsfasd.aspx

[Hoss]

eBill? They have an online site where you can pay bills, transfer money between accounts, and whatever else, if that's what you're talking about. It isn't the prettiest thing in the world, but it's functional enough.

I think Arvest is great. Their fees are generally low or nonexistent, and they are one of the few banks that credits deposits before debits. Most banks do it the other way around, processing all charges against your account before the deposits, and worse, run the checks and electronic transactions in whatever way generates the most fees. (Usually starting with the largest transaction and moving on to the smallest)

http://www.arvestblog.com/blog/2009/3/6/adsfasd.aspx

I should elaborate.  I'm talking about eBill initiated payments.  I got spoiled using BoA and having this feature.  BoK does NOT have it.  You can make payments online electronically, but you have to manually initiate it, even if it's recurring you may have to tweak it.

What I liked about BoA's ebill was it was pretty much 'set and forget'.  Guess I'm a little lazy in that aspect.  I had email notifications telling me when an Ebill was about to initiate a payment, or when an ebill was late (which did happen on occasion).

[nathanm]

I should elaborate.  I'm talking about eBill initiated payments.  I got spoiled using BoA and having this feature.  BoK does NOT have it.  You can make payments online electronically, but you have to manually initiate it, even if it's recurring you may have to tweak it.

What I liked about BoA's ebill was it was pretty much 'set and forget'.  Guess I'm a little lazy in that aspect.  I had email notifications telling me when an Ebill was about to initiate a payment, or when an ebill was late (which did happen on occasion).

Arvest uses checkfree for their online payments now. I don't use it for much (mainly just the alarm system, which a recurring monthly payment is good enough for), so I can't really say how or if it works with a biller who can bill through checkfree.

[Conan71]

I've been an IBC customer for something like 15 years now and am very happy with them.  I'm not sure about e-bill capability, I manually input for their online bill-pay.  The tellers remember my name and they don't engage in sneaky BS on crediting deposits.  I refuse to deal with Chase, or BOA.

[Wilbur]

I use a credit card for every single transaction, no matter how small or how large.  I only use cards with no annual fee, and I only use cards that pay cash back (Amex Blue is the best).  I pay off the balance every month in full, and once a year, I get a big fat check from the credit card companies for my cash back.  I anticipate most of this going away with the passage of this new bill, not to mention the other problems already mentioned.

[Cats Cats Cats]

I use a credit card for every single transaction, no matter how small or how large.  I only use cards with no annual fee, and I only use cards that pay cash back (Amex Blue is the best).  I pay off the balance every month in full, and once a year, I get a big fat check from the credit card companies for my cash back.  I anticipate most of this going away with the passage of this new bill, not to mention the other problems already mentioned.

I used to use a countrywide card and got 2% back on all purchases towards a mortgage payment.

Some nice provisions
_Requires that gift cards remain valid for five years.  (I think this still allows the monthly service charge BS)
_Bans "pay-to-pay" fees, which are charged when someone pays the bill by phone or on the Internet.
_Prohibits retroactive rate increases unless the cardholder is at least 60 days behind in paying the bill.


http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090519/ap_on_go_co/us_congress_credit_cards_glance_1

[sgrizzle]

With the congress getting ready to mandate how credit cards are to be used, everyone get ready to have their credit scores screwed and pay higher rates:

http://abcnews.go.com/Business/Politics/story?id=7625749&page=1

Banks will:

1.  Do away with 'no annual fee' cards (according to ABC News).
2.  Do away with the 30-day grace period on purchases.  Interest will be charged starting on the purchase date (according to ABC News).
3.  Credit cards will lower your available credit on your card.  Lower credit means lower credit scores.  Lower credit scores mean high rates on insurance, mortgages, credit cards, ....... (according to Clark Howard).

I guess I'm going back to the check book for everything.

Leave it to the feds.

1&2 are just credit card companies trying to get you scared so you would tell your congressperson to vote against.

#3 they've been doing already all year.

[nathanm]

I use a credit card for every single transaction, no matter how small or how large.  I only use cards with no annual fee, and I only use cards that pay cash back (Amex Blue is the best).  I pay off the balance every month in full, and once a year, I get a big fat check from the credit card companies for my cash back.  I anticipate most of this going away with the passage of this new bill, not to mention the other problems already mentioned.

As I think I mentioned earlier, it's doubtful that anything will go away. The interchange percentage is higher on rewards cards and people with rewards cards tend to spend more. They're making a killing (especially Amex, have you ever seen their merchant fees?!) even if you pay off the balance every month. Interest is just gravy.