Also, when I was in retail business for a number of years my merchant’s fee to credit card compnies was a whopping 5%…..I think different businesses are charged different percentages. I always try to pay by cash or check to local businesses and use credit card when shopping big boxs. We have one gas service station that advertises on their big tall sign one amount for cash and a higher amount for credit card….about 4%.

I heard that when this bill is enacted, the banks will find other ways to “enhance” their profits by charging interest on items as soon as they are purchased, reinstating the defunct yearly card fee, and arbitrarily raising interest rates on good customers as well as bad ones etc. Seems like they have a million tricks up their sleeve.

I would like to think that the “little guy wins” as Chuck Schumer said, but the jury is certainly way, way out on this one.

For people like me, it is just better to not own a card. Giving me a credit card is like giving an alcoholic a big bottle of scotch.

We presume that all “adults” should have credit cards. Why? How did this ridiculous idea come about? I don’t want to buy anything on credit. If I could, I’d buy a house with cash. We live in a society where the major things we need are set up to require credit and that’s just wrong. I should be able to get a reasonably priced car and house with cash saved up, and not have to wait 50 years to save.

Having said that, I don’t buy what I can’t afford and I still get screwed (see my earlier comment).

Fantasy?–not if we all hung together and they had nowhere to go but “down” (translation–into a lending service not usury).

Let’s see what Congress does today. The “reform” as I understand it is not a big enough deal and that higher fees may result.

This in itself may be bad news for credit card companies. There appears to be a shift, at least where I live, into buying less “stuff” altogeter and looking at used goods in a new light.

If people don’t like the credit card service, they should just quit using the cards. Meanwhile, the ones who are happy with their services (and use them responsibly) are probably going to get some kind of cost passed onto them because of the complaints of the irresponsible users.

Funny, just last night, Allidad and I were talking about what would happen if this resistance could be done on a large scale. We have to vote with our feet and our dollars. Anyone up for a movement that could REALLY change things?

I do not use credit cards anymore. I use debit mastercards for credit card purchases. I am actually not missing credit cards at all. They are like a drug and difficult to get off of, but once weaned off, best to stay off them in my opinion.

The credit card companies plus Pay Day Advance companies can make loan sharking a reasonable consumer friendly business. Whatever happened to Usury Laws? The credit companies may help more people to buy what they cannot afford, but they also raise the cost of everything for everyone else since the price for an item in cash or credit has to be the same. So in effect each item has to have a minimum of 10% added to the cost even for cash customers.

And since charging the merchant up to 3% for a transaction, plus charging customers up to 36% interest, it is so profitable for the credit card companies they can afford to put people into bankruptcy, which we all pay for in increasing fees and interest rates. And because they make so much money they can afford to buy politicians, who do not cost very much anyway. And that is why unless we all stand up and say we are not going to take it anymore, screwing the credit card companies is a fantasy.

Rich