While Congress makes a big show of reining in the credit card companies, Bank (Bailout) of America (BOA) and others are stepping up their abuses.
After recently slashing my credit availability by half (though I have no outstanding credit card balances and have excellent credit history), I received the following gems in the mail today from BOA.
"We are adding or [make that and/or] increasing certain transaction fees associated with your account."
Between two cards, these changes include:
"The definition of what constitutes a "Foreign Transacton" is being expanded."
"We are modifying one or more of the World Point redemption options."
"Effective June 1, 2009, the transaction fee (Finance Charge) we asses on each of the transactions identified below will be equal to 4% of each such transacton (Fee: Min $10)
ATM
Balance Transfers
Bank Cash Advances
Cas Equivalents
Check Cash Advances
Direct Deposit Cash Advances
Wire-Transfer Purchases"
"Travel Rewards (Basic Air Rewards):
You will no longer be able to redeem Points for Basic Air Rewards. If you wish to redeem Points for air travel, you must now use our more popular FlexAir Rewards."
The news, NPR, and MSM, keeps saying, "Congress is tightening up credit card regulations."
Every news story ends with a pithy quote from a credit card company spokesman saying, "If Congress does tighten the regulations, credit is going to be harder to come by for consumers."
I say, credit card companies and the big banks have already abused consumers, are still abusing consumers, and will continue to abuse consumers and Congress needs to get a lot tougher. Credit is already tough to come by and Congress hasn't tightened the regulations nearly enough.