Loan Sharks in Three-Piece Suits
Sen. Bernie Sanders will introduce legislation this week to cap interest rates charged by credit card companies that now slap consumers with rates of up to 30 percent. "This is money that comes right out of their hides and it hurts," Sanders told The Burlington Free Press. His legislation would impose 15 percent interest rate ceiling. It also would limit fees. “We are going to introduce a national usury law which will prohibit any financial institution from charging these outrageous rates,” he told Thom Hartmann’s nationally-syndicated radio show. “These loan sharks wear three-piece suits, but they’re not much different than those guys who break people’s knee caps.”
At the same time that banks are receiving the largest taxpayer bailout in U.S. history and at the same time that the Federal Reserve has lowered short-term interest rates that banks pay to near zero percent, the same banks are charging consumers outrageous fees and sky-high interest rates on credit cards and other loans.
Maloney introduced credit card legislation in 2008
The Credit Cardholders’ Bill of Rights: Balanced Reform
Dodd introduced similar legislation
Dodd Introduces Major Reform of Credit Card Practices; Believes Industry Changes are Necessary to Protect American Consumers
Passing this sort of reform would give him an edge in CT
Please contact your representatives and let them know this legislation needs to be passed. We (and our children) have bailed out the banks - now we need protection from arbitrary rates, changes in terms, universal default, and unethical fee assessments (by changing due dates and credit line reduction).
Credit provider should provide ample notice prior to changing contractual terms.
We have this looming around the corner, and need our representatives to protect us - as our tax dollars have allowed these financial institutions to stay in business.
UPDATE: Thanks for getting this rec'd. Please ask everyone you know to contact their representatives for action!
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