Credit Cards on Prime Time TV
Author: Ira
SENIOR MEMBER (Member for 2 yrs.+)
Joined: 19 May 2003
Posts: 777
Location: NJ
Posted: Tue Nov 16, 2004 10:21 pm
Post subject: Credit cards on prime time
Next week's edition of he thit PBS show, Frontline, is entitled "Secret History of the Credit Card." Here's the blurb from TV Guide:
Quote:
What's the "Secret History of the Credit Card?" If you're one of the 185 million Americans who hold at least one - and especially if you carry a balance (estimates have ranged beyond $8,000per household) - you might not want to know. Nonetheless, correspondent Lowell Bergman and New York Times reporters survey the credit-card industry to explore reasons why cards are so easy to get and so hard to pay off. The short answer, as Bergman puts it, is that "the most profitable part of the industry is when they get people into debt."Check local broadcast time & date for your area, and post your reactions to the show here after you watch it.
Do not let what you cannot do interfere with what you can do.
Ira
View our latest credit card ratings!
Author: Board Monitor
BOARD MONITOR-ADMINISTRATOR
Joined: 05 May 2003
Posts: 487
Posted: Wed Nov 17, 2004 10:11 am
Thanks for the post Ira! It should be an interesting show. Will be on this coming Tuesday night. I am proud to say that CardRatings.com has helped solicit consumer interviews for the show (see the post above entitled "Rate Gone Up Due to "Universal Default"? Tell Us!"). Anyway, everyone should watch the show if possible and please post your remarks!
Best Regards,
Curtis Arnold
Board Monitor
U.S. Citizens for Fair Credit Card Terms, Inc.
http://www.cardratings.com
501-663-0314 PH 501-301-8474 FX
View our latest credit card ratings!
Author: guessindigo
Joined: 19 Sep 2004
Posts: 51
Posted: Wed Nov 17, 2004 11:38 am
I hope it reaches a very wide audience. There are too many consumers who are ignorant about credit and frontline is excellent in driving home the point. I look forward to watching it and I hope many more credit card users are the wiser because of this show.
View our latest credit card ratings!
Author: Board Monitor
BOARD MONITOR-ADMINISTRATOR
Joined: 05 May 2003
Posts: 487
Posted: Sun Nov 21, 2004 5:07 pm
Post subject: NY Times Article Published Today
The NY Times article in conjunction with the Frontline show is in today's paper. You can read it online at NYTimes.com (Business section), but you must register in order to read the article (registration is free). Following is an excerpt from the article. It's an interesting read: THE PLASTIC TRAP Soaring Interest Compounds Credit Card Pain for Millions By PATRICK McGEEHAN Published: November 21, 2004 THE PLASTIC TRAP Debt That Binds TIMES ON T.V. "Secret History of the Credit Card," produced in conjunction with this article, will be shown Tuesday on "Frontline" (PBS, 9 p.m. in most cities). This article was reported by Patrick McGeehan, Lowell Bergman, Robin Stein and Marlena Telvick and written by Mr. McGeehan. When Ed Schwebel was whittling down his mound of credit card debt at an interest rate of 9.2 percent, the MBNA Corporation had a happy and profitable customer. But this summer, when MBNA suddenly doubled the rate on his account, Mr. Schwebel joined the growing ranks of irate cardholders stunned by lenders' harsh tactics. Mr. Schwebel, 58, a semiretired software engineer in Gilbert, Ariz., was not pleased that his minimum monthly payment jumped from $502 in June to $895 in July. But what really made him angry, he said, was the sense that he was being punished despite having held up his end of the bargain with MBNA. "I paid the bills the minute the envelope hit the desk," said Mr. Schwebel, who had accumulated $69,000 in debt over five years before the rate increase. "All of a sudden in July, they swapped it to 18 percent. No warning. No reason. It was like I was blindsided." Mr. Schwebel had stumbled into the new era of consumer credit, in which thousands of Americans are paying millions of dollars each month in fees that they did not expect and that strike them as unreasonable. Invoking clauses tucked into the fine print of their contract agreements, lenders are doubling or tripling interest rates with little warning or explanation. This year, credit card companies are changing the terms of their accounts at a historically high rate, said Michael Heller, an industry consultant. As those practices spread, they are creating a rift between the lenders and some of their more lucrative customers, according to cardholders, current and former bank consultants and regulators who were interviewed for a joint report by The New York Times and "Frontline," the PBS documentary program. People like Mr. Schwebel, who carry balances from month to month and pay finance charges regularly, feel they should be the favored customers of the credit card business, which is now the most lucrative segment of banking. They make up the profitable majority of the 144 million Americans who have general-purpose credit cards. To a degree, they subsidize the 40 percent of credit card customers who pay in full each month without incurring any fees or charges. But increasingly, they say, what should be a warm embrace has turned into a painful squeeze as lenders employ new tactics to extract more and bigger penalties for even the slightest financial transgressions. In the last few years, lenders have more frequently raised customers' rates because of slip-ups elsewhere, like late payment of a phone or utility bill, or simply because they felt a customer had taken on too much debt. The practice, called universal default, started after a rash of bankruptcy filings in the mid-to-late 1990's and has increasingly become standard in the industry. While MBNA declined to comment on any specific customer's account, its general counsel, Louis J. Freeh, the former F.B.I. director, said in a statement that it was being prudent by raising rates when it had reason to think the risk of not being repaid had increased. Edward L. Yingling, executive vice president of the American Bankers Association, said bankers must have the flexibility to change terms on short notice. The bankruptcy filings of the 90's - many by customers who had been paying their bills on time - caught banks off-guard, he said. Lenders decided they needed to watch for signs of trouble elsewhere, like missed car payments, he said. In those cases, he added, there are only two logical responses: "We're not going to let you have this credit card loan anymore and we're going to say, 'Pay it off,' or we can say, 'You're now more risky; we're going to raise your rate.' " Still, some critics say the severity of the punishment does not match the risk of default. The suddenness and perceived unfairness of the penalties have left many consumers feeling burned by lenders who relentlessly courted them with promises of low rates. To some cardholders and consumer advocates, credit card companies are acting like modern-day loan sharks, strong-arming their customers to pay more - with no legal limit on how much they can charge. In eight years, the major card companies have increased the fee charged to cardholders for being even an hour late with a payment to $39, from $10 or less. Unleashing an Industry Duncan MacDonald, who, as a lawyer for Citibank was involved in its successful case for deregulation of fees before the United States Supreme Court in 1996, now says he fears that he helped to unleash a monster.
Best Regards,
Curtis Arnold
Board Monitor
U.S. Citizens for Fair Credit Card Terms, Inc.
http://www.cardratings.com
501-663-0314 PH 501-301-8474 FX
View our latest credit card ratings!
Author: Board Monitor
BOARD MONITOR-ADMINISTRATOR
Joined: 05 May 2003
Posts: 487
Posted: Wed Nov 24, 2004 7:25 am
The show was AMAZING!!! If you didn't see it, you need to!
You can view it online on the PBS website: www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/credit
Thanks to all who responded to my media request for help this investigative report. Production of this show has been going on for months- I was initially contacted back in the spring- and all of the hard work showed. The show was the best investigative report of the credit card industry that I've ever seen and, because of the broad reach of PBS and the NY Times, I am hopeful that there will be positive consumer credit developments in the not so distant future. I am also proud to say that CardRatings.com is listed as a consumer credit resource on the PBS website- this is incredible press! Thanks again to the board members here who have helped to make our site such a success... Please post comments regarding the show here- would like to get your feedback.
Happy Thanksgiving to All!
Best Regards,
Curtis Arnold
Board Monitor
U.S. Citizens for Fair Credit Card Terms, Inc.
http://www.cardratings.com
501-663-0314 PH 501-301-8474 FX
View our latest credit card ratings!
Author: Verne
SENIOR MEMBER (Member for 2 yrs.+)
Joined: 14 May 2003
Posts: 488
Location: Midwest
Posted: Wed Nov 24, 2004 9:52 am
discuss.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/zforum/04/style_frontline112404.htm
You can discuss the credit card industry in online chat with the producer of the program this morning at 11:00 ET at the above website. I liked the program but was dismayed if Senator Dodds is all we have for legislative reform. He wants more "disclosure", of what: an agreement or contract that is meaningless? We need real reform and the abolishment of the universal default clause, the arbitration clause, and repricing on previous loans. In what other industry would this be allowed? Even the contract lawyer who teaches at Harvard can't believe or understand how this continues to be possible. Does Sears call me up and tell me the refrigerator I bought a year ago, has gone up in price?
Verne
Any agreement that can be changed at any time, for any reason, is no agreement at all.
View our latest credit card ratings!
Author: Verne
SENIOR MEMBER (Member for 2 yrs.+)
Joined: 14 May 2003
Posts: 488
Location: Midwest
Posted: Wed Nov 24, 2004 1:37 pm
I commented and posed a question at the online chatfest. Another possible legislator who wants credit card reform is: bernie.house.gov/
I would like to compile a list of legislators who are serious about credit card reform. Any others?
verne
Any agreement that can be changed at any time, for any reason, is no agreement at all.
View our latest credit card ratings!
Author: credithelp
Joined: 23 Aug 2004
Posts: 47
Posted: Tue Nov 30, 2004 8:38 pm
I saw the show, it was great and all credit card holders need to see it. The problems that people had with mbna is a prime example that even the prime cards can rip you off.
View our latest credit card ratings!
Author: Verne
SENIOR MEMBER (Member for 2 yrs.+)
Joined: 14 May 2003
Posts: 488
Location: Midwest
Posted: Wed Dec 01, 2004 4:42 am
From what I've been seeing lately, MBNA is to be avoided. They've exhibited a pattern of anti-consumer behavior in the great tradition of Chase. I've been liking Bank of America. But We'll see. At this very moment I'm "testing" a balance transfer. What happens when you actually transfer up to 95% of the available credit? And then make a couple errant charges that inch it close to the unthinkable limit? Of a Truth, I'm 99% at this moment. I calculated this down to space-probe accuracy. I'm that close to Logans Run, combust when I reach the ceiling. Got sick, went crazy, and used my BOA card which I had just transferred $4,500 into at 0%. My other card was compromised with credit card fraud so I had no choice. It was either that or fly to Barcelona. I guess I'll stay and make a stand. I know that banks, lawyers, and doctors own everything in the end, and that loans are part of the big game and that we only think we "own" anything in this country. That in the end, the hospital, lawyers, nursing home, and more lawyers will own everything you once "thought" you had. The American Dream: the lawyers and doctors will get everything you have or dreamed of having. They make $250 an hour and belittle their "servants" at the fast-food place making $6.50 an hour. And later, if the slaves work hard to actually buy property, the rulers will take that little bit away too. Serfdom is alive and well. And did I say that the American Government is completely PAID FOR by special interests and big money? No one seems to care. Amazing that we have such a corrupt government that isn't remotely representative of the people.
verne
Any agreement that can be changed at any time, for any reason, is no agreement at all.
View our latest credit card ratings!
SENIOR MEMBER (Member for 2 yrs.+)
Joined: 19 May 2003
Posts: 777
Location: NJ
Posted: Tue Nov 16, 2004 10:21 pm
Post subject: Credit cards on prime time
Next week's edition of he thit PBS show, Frontline, is entitled "Secret History of the Credit Card." Here's the blurb from TV Guide:
Quote:
What's the "Secret History of the Credit Card?" If you're one of the 185 million Americans who hold at least one - and especially if you carry a balance (estimates have ranged beyond $8,000per household) - you might not want to know. Nonetheless, correspondent Lowell Bergman and New York Times reporters survey the credit-card industry to explore reasons why cards are so easy to get and so hard to pay off. The short answer, as Bergman puts it, is that "the most profitable part of the industry is when they get people into debt."Check local broadcast time & date for your area, and post your reactions to the show here after you watch it.
Do not let what you cannot do interfere with what you can do.
Ira
View our latest credit card ratings!
Author: Board Monitor
BOARD MONITOR-ADMINISTRATOR
Joined: 05 May 2003
Posts: 487
Posted: Wed Nov 17, 2004 10:11 am
Thanks for the post Ira! It should be an interesting show. Will be on this coming Tuesday night. I am proud to say that CardRatings.com has helped solicit consumer interviews for the show (see the post above entitled "Rate Gone Up Due to "Universal Default"? Tell Us!"). Anyway, everyone should watch the show if possible and please post your remarks!
Best Regards,
Curtis Arnold
Board Monitor
U.S. Citizens for Fair Credit Card Terms, Inc.
http://www.cardratings.com
501-663-0314 PH 501-301-8474 FX
View our latest credit card ratings!
Author: guessindigo
Joined: 19 Sep 2004
Posts: 51
Posted: Wed Nov 17, 2004 11:38 am
I hope it reaches a very wide audience. There are too many consumers who are ignorant about credit and frontline is excellent in driving home the point. I look forward to watching it and I hope many more credit card users are the wiser because of this show.
View our latest credit card ratings!
Author: Board Monitor
BOARD MONITOR-ADMINISTRATOR
Joined: 05 May 2003
Posts: 487
Posted: Sun Nov 21, 2004 5:07 pm
Post subject: NY Times Article Published Today
The NY Times article in conjunction with the Frontline show is in today's paper. You can read it online at NYTimes.com (Business section), but you must register in order to read the article (registration is free). Following is an excerpt from the article. It's an interesting read: THE PLASTIC TRAP Soaring Interest Compounds Credit Card Pain for Millions By PATRICK McGEEHAN Published: November 21, 2004 THE PLASTIC TRAP Debt That Binds TIMES ON T.V. "Secret History of the Credit Card," produced in conjunction with this article, will be shown Tuesday on "Frontline" (PBS, 9 p.m. in most cities). This article was reported by Patrick McGeehan, Lowell Bergman, Robin Stein and Marlena Telvick and written by Mr. McGeehan. When Ed Schwebel was whittling down his mound of credit card debt at an interest rate of 9.2 percent, the MBNA Corporation had a happy and profitable customer. But this summer, when MBNA suddenly doubled the rate on his account, Mr. Schwebel joined the growing ranks of irate cardholders stunned by lenders' harsh tactics. Mr. Schwebel, 58, a semiretired software engineer in Gilbert, Ariz., was not pleased that his minimum monthly payment jumped from $502 in June to $895 in July. But what really made him angry, he said, was the sense that he was being punished despite having held up his end of the bargain with MBNA. "I paid the bills the minute the envelope hit the desk," said Mr. Schwebel, who had accumulated $69,000 in debt over five years before the rate increase. "All of a sudden in July, they swapped it to 18 percent. No warning. No reason. It was like I was blindsided." Mr. Schwebel had stumbled into the new era of consumer credit, in which thousands of Americans are paying millions of dollars each month in fees that they did not expect and that strike them as unreasonable. Invoking clauses tucked into the fine print of their contract agreements, lenders are doubling or tripling interest rates with little warning or explanation. This year, credit card companies are changing the terms of their accounts at a historically high rate, said Michael Heller, an industry consultant. As those practices spread, they are creating a rift between the lenders and some of their more lucrative customers, according to cardholders, current and former bank consultants and regulators who were interviewed for a joint report by The New York Times and "Frontline," the PBS documentary program. People like Mr. Schwebel, who carry balances from month to month and pay finance charges regularly, feel they should be the favored customers of the credit card business, which is now the most lucrative segment of banking. They make up the profitable majority of the 144 million Americans who have general-purpose credit cards. To a degree, they subsidize the 40 percent of credit card customers who pay in full each month without incurring any fees or charges. But increasingly, they say, what should be a warm embrace has turned into a painful squeeze as lenders employ new tactics to extract more and bigger penalties for even the slightest financial transgressions. In the last few years, lenders have more frequently raised customers' rates because of slip-ups elsewhere, like late payment of a phone or utility bill, or simply because they felt a customer had taken on too much debt. The practice, called universal default, started after a rash of bankruptcy filings in the mid-to-late 1990's and has increasingly become standard in the industry. While MBNA declined to comment on any specific customer's account, its general counsel, Louis J. Freeh, the former F.B.I. director, said in a statement that it was being prudent by raising rates when it had reason to think the risk of not being repaid had increased. Edward L. Yingling, executive vice president of the American Bankers Association, said bankers must have the flexibility to change terms on short notice. The bankruptcy filings of the 90's - many by customers who had been paying their bills on time - caught banks off-guard, he said. Lenders decided they needed to watch for signs of trouble elsewhere, like missed car payments, he said. In those cases, he added, there are only two logical responses: "We're not going to let you have this credit card loan anymore and we're going to say, 'Pay it off,' or we can say, 'You're now more risky; we're going to raise your rate.' " Still, some critics say the severity of the punishment does not match the risk of default. The suddenness and perceived unfairness of the penalties have left many consumers feeling burned by lenders who relentlessly courted them with promises of low rates. To some cardholders and consumer advocates, credit card companies are acting like modern-day loan sharks, strong-arming their customers to pay more - with no legal limit on how much they can charge. In eight years, the major card companies have increased the fee charged to cardholders for being even an hour late with a payment to $39, from $10 or less. Unleashing an Industry Duncan MacDonald, who, as a lawyer for Citibank was involved in its successful case for deregulation of fees before the United States Supreme Court in 1996, now says he fears that he helped to unleash a monster.
Best Regards,
Curtis Arnold
Board Monitor
U.S. Citizens for Fair Credit Card Terms, Inc.
http://www.cardratings.com
501-663-0314 PH 501-301-8474 FX
View our latest credit card ratings!
Author: Board Monitor
BOARD MONITOR-ADMINISTRATOR
Joined: 05 May 2003
Posts: 487
Posted: Wed Nov 24, 2004 7:25 am
The show was AMAZING!!! If you didn't see it, you need to!
You can view it online on the PBS website: www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/credit
Thanks to all who responded to my media request for help this investigative report. Production of this show has been going on for months- I was initially contacted back in the spring- and all of the hard work showed. The show was the best investigative report of the credit card industry that I've ever seen and, because of the broad reach of PBS and the NY Times, I am hopeful that there will be positive consumer credit developments in the not so distant future. I am also proud to say that CardRatings.com is listed as a consumer credit resource on the PBS website- this is incredible press! Thanks again to the board members here who have helped to make our site such a success... Please post comments regarding the show here- would like to get your feedback.
Happy Thanksgiving to All!
Best Regards,
Curtis Arnold
Board Monitor
U.S. Citizens for Fair Credit Card Terms, Inc.
http://www.cardratings.com
501-663-0314 PH 501-301-8474 FX
View our latest credit card ratings!
Author: Verne
SENIOR MEMBER (Member for 2 yrs.+)
Joined: 14 May 2003
Posts: 488
Location: Midwest
Posted: Wed Nov 24, 2004 9:52 am
discuss.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/zforum/04/style_frontline112404.htm
You can discuss the credit card industry in online chat with the producer of the program this morning at 11:00 ET at the above website. I liked the program but was dismayed if Senator Dodds is all we have for legislative reform. He wants more "disclosure", of what: an agreement or contract that is meaningless? We need real reform and the abolishment of the universal default clause, the arbitration clause, and repricing on previous loans. In what other industry would this be allowed? Even the contract lawyer who teaches at Harvard can't believe or understand how this continues to be possible. Does Sears call me up and tell me the refrigerator I bought a year ago, has gone up in price?
Verne
Any agreement that can be changed at any time, for any reason, is no agreement at all.
View our latest credit card ratings!
Author: Verne
SENIOR MEMBER (Member for 2 yrs.+)
Joined: 14 May 2003
Posts: 488
Location: Midwest
Posted: Wed Nov 24, 2004 1:37 pm
I commented and posed a question at the online chatfest. Another possible legislator who wants credit card reform is: bernie.house.gov/
I would like to compile a list of legislators who are serious about credit card reform. Any others?
verne
Any agreement that can be changed at any time, for any reason, is no agreement at all.
View our latest credit card ratings!
Author: credithelp
Joined: 23 Aug 2004
Posts: 47
Posted: Tue Nov 30, 2004 8:38 pm
I saw the show, it was great and all credit card holders need to see it. The problems that people had with mbna is a prime example that even the prime cards can rip you off.
View our latest credit card ratings!
Author: Verne
SENIOR MEMBER (Member for 2 yrs.+)
Joined: 14 May 2003
Posts: 488
Location: Midwest
Posted: Wed Dec 01, 2004 4:42 am
From what I've been seeing lately, MBNA is to be avoided. They've exhibited a pattern of anti-consumer behavior in the great tradition of Chase. I've been liking Bank of America. But We'll see. At this very moment I'm "testing" a balance transfer. What happens when you actually transfer up to 95% of the available credit? And then make a couple errant charges that inch it close to the unthinkable limit? Of a Truth, I'm 99% at this moment. I calculated this down to space-probe accuracy. I'm that close to Logans Run, combust when I reach the ceiling. Got sick, went crazy, and used my BOA card which I had just transferred $4,500 into at 0%. My other card was compromised with credit card fraud so I had no choice. It was either that or fly to Barcelona. I guess I'll stay and make a stand. I know that banks, lawyers, and doctors own everything in the end, and that loans are part of the big game and that we only think we "own" anything in this country. That in the end, the hospital, lawyers, nursing home, and more lawyers will own everything you once "thought" you had. The American Dream: the lawyers and doctors will get everything you have or dreamed of having. They make $250 an hour and belittle their "servants" at the fast-food place making $6.50 an hour. And later, if the slaves work hard to actually buy property, the rulers will take that little bit away too. Serfdom is alive and well. And did I say that the American Government is completely PAID FOR by special interests and big money? No one seems to care. Amazing that we have such a corrupt government that isn't remotely representative of the people.
verne
Any agreement that can be changed at any time, for any reason, is no agreement at all.
View our latest credit card ratings!
posted by CardRatings.com at 12:46 PM
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