DECEMBER
11, 2005 --
Thank
you Washington Mutual…
Recently,
I received balance transfer checks that, until June, 2006,
will carry an interest rate of 4.99%. As the checks carried
the name Providian, one of the banks hitting me with punitive
intertest rates of more than 20%, I called to make sure the
4.99% would apply to me. Not only did I have that interest
rate on the balance transfer checks, the bank agreed
to lower the interest rate -- if I heard right, to 7.9% Wow.
I also learned that Providian is now Washington Mutual. Thank you Washington
Mutual for your Christmas season expression of good-will and for understanding
that goodwill can be profitable, indeed.
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No
Change at Chase …
Having gotten a humane interest rate at Washington Mutual, I called Chase to
ask for reduction of my 27.99% interest rate. I think I did get a chuckle when
I pointed out to the Chase person that the bank's
name, letters rearrantged, spells: ACHES. But there would be no reduction of
the onerous 27.99% interest rate.
Politicians are still silent on interest rate levels that reflect the greedy
spirit of the company store of timesd past.
Economists,
too, seem to have been silent whether punitive interest rates
are, in the long run, more profitable than simple kindness.
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