Credit Card Companies’ Generosity Is Waning
So it seems that some credit card companies may not be quite as generous as they once appeared to be. High annual fees and questionable marketing hooks have appeared alongside sudden, significant, and, consumer advocates say, unjustified interest rate hikes. The following news comes from Liz Moyer and Tatyana Shumsky of Forbes.com:
Bank of America gave a choice to thousands of cardholders this month - either pay off the card balances at the current 9% APR and quit using the cards or see an interest rate hike to 28%.
New Millenium Bank’s New Millenium card is a secured card with a higher-than-average $59 annual fee.
“Adding up the other costs to open an account, cardholders have to fork over $140 just to have access to money they put on deposit with the bank to back their spending on the card,” Forbes writes of the New Millenium card. “It’s basically like paying money for access to your money.”
HSBC, meanwhile, is marketing its American Dream card. At a 14.99% APR, cardholders can enter a glorified lottery with each and every purchase.
The long and short of it is that there are a lot of gimmicks out there - especially now. Don’t get caught up in the hype and glitz. Pay attention to the important basics of credit card offers - APR, annual fees, credit limits, secured vs. unsecured, etc. Rewards are not all they’re cracked up to be, and sometimes, neither are credit card companies in general.
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March 8th, 2008 at 9:56 pm
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June 6th, 2008 at 10:54 pm
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June 6th, 2008 at 10:57 pm
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