Did anyone watch Frontline last night: The Secret Life of Credit Cards?

What an eye opener.

Re: Did anyone watch Frontline last night: The Secret Life of Credit Cards?

What did they say?

Re: Did anyone watch Frontline last night: The Secret Life of Credit Cards?

yeah, I didn't see it, what happened?

do they go out and party when you're not watching. They leap from your wallet and hit a night club, then a diner at 4am.

Re: Did anyone watch Frontline last night: The Secret Life of Credit Cards?

All kinds of stuff I never new...

Souix Falls, SD is the "home" of the credit card industry, thats where your payments are sent. It grew in that particular town because of the lack of usury laws, which limit the amount of interest they can charge.

They reported that CC's are becoming the loan sharks of the financial industry- there are some incredibly shady practices going on there.

This one in particular was just amazing: by Universal Default your CC can increase your interest rate if you are late on ANY payment you owe- not just theirs. So lets say you are late a day in paying your gas bill, they can raise your interest rate. They say it is because you have become a higher risk customer. i had no idea they even had access to you other accounts.

In addition, they can also change it based on your credit rating. If I have a $500 balance on my Visa, but charge 20k on my Mastercard- Visa can charge me more interest AND increase my minumum monthly payment- again using the argument I have become a high risk customer.

There was a huge class action lawsuit in San Fransisco against Providian who had some of the worst complaints ever. Among their offenses were cashing payments but not crediting their accounts, resulting in late fees, higher interest rates and lower credit ratings. They "won" $300 million dollars, but I don't know what money was awarded to whom, if anyone was paid at all.

The most interesting thing is that the credit card companies are not accountable to the State. So all of the complaints to the Better Business Bureau, the Attorney General of your state, etc are useless. Banks fall under Federal laws, and are governed by the Office of the Comptroller of Currency. And that agency has pretty much decided to ignore ALL of the complaints and take no action.

You can watch the program online here: Secret Life of Credit Cards

Re: Did anyone watch Frontline last night: The Secret Life of Credit Cards?

Wow - I have to check this out. I had no idea this was all happening. Very important to know.

Re: Did anyone watch Frontline last night: The Secret Life of Credit Cards?

We don't have any credit cards and haven't had them for many years. We pay for everything with cash or use a debit card (we do carry a very small mortgage). You would think that this would be a good thing as for as the credit reporting bureaus are concerned. You don't owe any money, you are not behind in any payments, you are not late in paying anything and you have not been denied for a credit card. On the contrary, this affects your credit rating just as much. You can't win no matter what you do. So, if my credit rating is going to be affected either way, I would rather not owe anyone anything.
The system really stinks and the government is not going to do anything about it. This started when Reagan was in office and he de-regulated the banking industry and it, obviously, is going to continue. The banking industry is a powerful lobby in Washington and what the consumer needs means nothing. Makes you want to do this