Credit Card Tricks

A growing number of card issuers have increased their profits by loading their credit cards with practices that consumers find themselves caught in from which they cannot escape. In addition, these same credit card companies through intense lobbying have gotten a bankruptcy bill passed that makes it almost impossible for consumers to discharge their debt through Chapter 7 bankruptcy.

Credit card companies charge fees for things like paying your bill over the phone, which can average $5 to $15 per transaction, and there has been a 110 percent increase in charging over limit fee’s when it was other bank fee’s that put them over the limit in the first place.

These monthly fees are charged every month a consumer carries a credit balance higher than their credit limit, when the bank can simply enforce the credit limit to prevent consumers from exceeding it. They actually think they are doing the consumer a favor by accepting a charge that will trigger this over limit fee.

But the excess fees are only the tip of the iceberg. The disclosure statement that comes with every credit card issued, has gone from one to seven pages of small, incomprehensible print that even has some attorney’s scratching their heads as to what this statement is trying to say. The disclosure is loaded with one sided terms and conditions that are geared to bury a consumer with increased interest and fees. There is even one condition that allows the credit card issuer to change any of the terms at their whim.

That last sentence has me even scratching my head. Why would anyone ever agree to such an agreement?

Another hidden fee that traps consumers is one they never hear about at all, the "interchange fee" that retailers pay to process transactions made with credit cards. Merchants have been waging war with the credit and banking industries to disclose and standardize these fees, which they say amount to a "hidden tax" on consumers.

The credit card companies have long profited from placing hidden fees and practices on unsuspecting merchants and consumers. The interchange fee is the biggest fee consumers have never heard of and accounts for more than the total of all other consumer fees combined.

Now, the industry has come up with ever more aggressive marketing campaigns, usually targeting consumers through direct mail solicitations and on college campuses, developing a whole new market of consumers willing to accept subprime interest rates and an excessive fee structure.

The average household will receive between 50 and 75 credit card solicitations in the mail this year. The number of solicitations mailed in 2006 was a record 8 BILLION! That doesn’t even include their other, more aggressive, marketing strategies.

With the continuing slump of housing sales causing more defaults and foreclosures, and job growth continually shaky, consumers need help from their debt.

For more information, contact Dave Capra “The Debtonator” Visit him online at: www.yourguidetoperfectcredit.com or call 1.877.274.1260 (office) Email: dcapra@franklindebtrelief.com