October 9, 2009
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News: Conclusions on CC Industry Spank
This article is a follow-up to the series entitled: "Congress Must Spank CC Industry Again". When the new CCARDA regulations go into effect, all the abusive credit card industry practices described in the article series referred to by the link above will be disallowed. We all hope to see this happen by December 1 of this year. In the opinion of most of us, it couldn't be soon enough.
Of course, the credit card-issuing banks are crying that they need this extra time to convert their vast computer systems so customers won't be inconvenienced. They're so considerate, aren't they? ABA (American Bankers Association) senior VP of credit cards , Kenneth J. Clayton explains to us: "Behind every credit card account is a complex network of data systems, risk management systems, pricing mechanisms and funding sources." Their glaring inconsistency here should be obvious. They don't seem to be having any problem at all with completely changing everyone's long-standing terms to new ones. The skew here is that the "conversion" they're performing just happen to be much more lucrative for them to the detriment of the oppressed consumers.
In the end-up of it all, we should be able to dismiss the premise that the credit card lending community at large (headed by the ABA) has been sincere with us. It would have been reasonable to give it a try and let the industry have the chance to show some legitimacy for their concerns. They have been granted what they claimed necessary. But, what have they done with it? They've taken extreme liberty to rake the public in every way they could under the umbrella that they were trying to help reign in on the excessive abuses. Instead of trying to fix the problem, they have taken it to an even higher level of abuse. Even if the three months of grace would have been a good idea, they have completely spoiled it for themselves (and everyone else, as well). Now, it's time for a good spanking.
We must stop these last-minute maneuvers or the damage may become irreversible.