Below is my letter to one of the major banks whose credit card I've had for years. My financial situation has worsened over the past two years, and a recent trip to the ER left me with medical bills I've simply been unable to pay. Yes, I have insurance, but was forced into a very high deductible because of the incessant increases in my monthly premiums.
(Note to you young-uns: Premiums go up dramatically as you get older, even if you have no chronic illness that needs treatment and rarely go to the doctor.)
When I read that Wall Street's profits have skyrocketed along with their obscene bonuses, I made a decision. I'm not the least bit proud to be in this position, but it is what it is. One creditor, the hospital, helped me when I desperately needed it. The other... not so much.
7 November 2011
XX Corporation
To Whom It May Concern:
Please be advised that the enclosed payment will be my last to you.
Unlike you and your Wall Street brethren, I have not seen my monetary worth increase more during the 2.5 years of the present administration than during the entire 8 years of the previous one.
Unlike you and your ilk, I have never treated my money (and that of millions of others) as chips to be bet at a craps table in a casino. You’ve been reckless, in some cases fraudulent. When you tossed the dice and lost, the loss was so staggering it endangered the whole country - and beyond. To stay at the gaming table you needed a handout - and got it, at a ridiculously low interest rate.
It’s the interest rate you charge me now that prompts this letter. A few years ago I made a mistake based on the fact that another of my credit cards has a due date of the 15th while yours is the 14th. I confused the two. My payment to you was late by 10 hours. Instantly, my 10% interest rate was tripled.
In the ensuing years my income has drastically decreased. Two individuals for whom I worked as a personal assistant both died within 6 months of one another. My situation was suddenly so dire I seriously considered taking my life. Then a dear friend stepped in and gave me a job at her tiny church. My income is less than half what it once was. I live precariously from paycheck to paycheck. Surprise expenses can be catastrophic – as was the case in July when I was taken to the emergency room for an allergic reaction to a prescribed drug that could have killed me.
Recently I requested you lower my rate. Even a decrease of $20 per month would be helpful to me. Alas, your customer rep, whose first language is not English, refused. This was shortly after another day-late payment, the result of my unexpectedly having to stay later at work than usual on the due-date. I'd fully intended to pay on my way home from work. When I realized the late afternoon hour I tried your 800 number in hopes of explaining my dilemma, to ask for leniency, to show myself, at the very least, as a long-time customer making a good faith effort. But my call was too late to reach anyone with whom I could speak - because I live in the Central Time Zone, not the Eastern. Still, I tried to get to the closest of your local banks. Racing at illegal speeds, I arrived 8 minutes after it closed.
Two days later I told all this to your customer rep when I called asking for the lower interest rate. It didn't matter. In 7 years I've made 2 payments one day after they were due. Surely, I am viewed as a dead-beat reprobate unworthy of your assistance.
So, to recap:
▪ You needed help and got it. I did not.
▪ In the past two years your profit has been in the billions. Mine has decreased.
I have neglected making payments to a hospital that may have saved my life, in part, because of payments I make to you. That is going to change.
Knowing that profit is your primary focus, I suggest you not waste precious assets by continuing to send me bills – costly both in production and in postage. They will, from this point forward, be ignored, thrown in the trash. The same goes for hiring a collection agency to place annoying calls. My credit rating now is such that nothing you do could possibly make it worse.
Enjoy those bonuses - ever greater despite your penchant for putting the entire country at risk – after all, greed is good. Oh, and don't pass up all the fun to be had at the casino’s roulette wheel. I mean, what’s not to love about a system that enables you to bet obscene sums on black and, when the ball lands on red, your loss is covered by the same people whose money you used to buy the chips in the first place?
God bless America, which you and the other large corporations now own.
Tails you win, heads the rest of us lose.
Sincerely,