MARCH
12, 2006 --
LPR
intended, this week, mainly to post some photos and include
just a passing reference to the punitive credit card interest
rate issue.
Just as this writer was about to send copy to Terri Fassio, the best webmaster
in the country at skullco.com,
I noticed an AP business story on Yahoo, March 12 with this headline: "Mimimum
Credit Card Payments May Hurt Bank."
Apparently Citibank, Inc. and JP Morgan Case are concerned that the higher
monthly minimum payments required by the Comptroller of the Currency will lead
to delinquencies, among other things.
Perhaps, due to seething, I did not read the story by AP business writer Joe
Bel Bruno carefully -- but I saw no mention of punitive credit card interest
rates of 29.99% in the article.
What I did see, while still seething, was a quote attributed to a Jason Goldberg,
described as an analyst with Lehman Bros. - "For some customers, the banks
will have to reduce interest payments."
It is not clear to LPR what kind of
"analyst" Mr. Goldberg is -- for Lehman, and perhaps he was not fully
quoted by the AP writer -- still, it seems to LPR that analyst Goldberg might
have emphasized the apparent boon banks are getting with their 29,99% interest
rates to customers they choose to punish severely.
I could tell Mr. Goldberg that 29.99% interest means that on debt of some $8,000,
payment of $500 reduces principal by only $300 -- giving $200 in vig to the
bank (Chase, in this case).
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The
continued explanation to me for this punitive interest rate is
that I have, among other things, too high balances. None of my
accounts is in default -- and the 29.99% interest rate simply keep
the balances high even without using the card.
There are plenty of websites that criticize interest rates (one site referred
to these rates as "loan-sharking") -- and yet, our REPRESENTATIVES,
to my knowledge are silent as bank execs squeeze credit cardholders -- with
financial "analysts"
apparently warning (complaining) that interest rates might have to be reduced.
If banks did not worship at the altar of the fictional Henry F. Potter, the
interest rates would never have gone beyond 15%.
If our elected officials were with the people, we would not be burdened with
interest rates apparently intended to break our spirit.
Office of the Comptroller of the Currency --how about looking into the punitive
abuse of credit card interest rates -- abuse that, LPR believes, harms our
economic well-being -- the banks, as well as the people's?
Isn't it time to rescue the banks from the folly of their interest rate aggrandizement?
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