Silverbird
05-05-2008, 10:54 AM
From Stocktiming.com
Last week ... you probably heard that the Fed was going to get involved with the usury rates and practices being levied by charge card companies. The Fed noted that extremely high credit card rates were harmful to the economy and to consumers and that new restrictive credit card lending rules were going to be put in place relative to increasing credit card rates.
It was about time that somebody sat up and took notice .... however, the Fed said that December would be the earliest these rules would be put into affect.
The proposal was released last Thursday by the Office of Thrift Supervision and the National Credit Union Administration. The first key item in the proposal had this objective:
1. Bar credit issuers from raising interest rates on existing debt, except under certain default conditions.
But ... Credit card companies used this prior announcement to engage in more gouging and harmful activity.
On Friday, Citibank business customers received a "Notice of Change in Terms and Right to Opt Out" Notice. Was it an action to raise rates and "get all they could get" before regulatory changes stopped them from these harmful practices?
The NOTICE increased the APR on purchases to the U.S. Prime rate plus 11.99% with a MINIMUM APR of 17.99%. Citibank jumped the gun and started pushing rates up BEFORE the regulators had a chance to do anything.....
http://www.stocktiming.com/Monday-DailyMarketUpdate.htm
Ouch!:worried: Minimum APR of 18%!! ow.
Last week ... you probably heard that the Fed was going to get involved with the usury rates and practices being levied by charge card companies. The Fed noted that extremely high credit card rates were harmful to the economy and to consumers and that new restrictive credit card lending rules were going to be put in place relative to increasing credit card rates.
It was about time that somebody sat up and took notice .... however, the Fed said that December would be the earliest these rules would be put into affect.
The proposal was released last Thursday by the Office of Thrift Supervision and the National Credit Union Administration. The first key item in the proposal had this objective:
1. Bar credit issuers from raising interest rates on existing debt, except under certain default conditions.
But ... Credit card companies used this prior announcement to engage in more gouging and harmful activity.
On Friday, Citibank business customers received a "Notice of Change in Terms and Right to Opt Out" Notice. Was it an action to raise rates and "get all they could get" before regulatory changes stopped them from these harmful practices?
The NOTICE increased the APR on purchases to the U.S. Prime rate plus 11.99% with a MINIMUM APR of 17.99%. Citibank jumped the gun and started pushing rates up BEFORE the regulators had a chance to do anything.....
http://www.stocktiming.com/Monday-DailyMarketUpdate.htm
Ouch!:worried: Minimum APR of 18%!! ow.