February 23rd, 2010

Has a credit card company ever treated you unfairly?

Have they ever given in? For me yes, but rarely.

On little things they’ll let you win.

But on the big things? Ah, the rub lies therein.

Take credit card interest, for example.

Of their behavior I’ll give you a sample.

If you always pay in full on time,

In interest you’ll never pay a dime.

But if your payment’s one day overdue,

It’s not just one day of interest that will accrue.

You’ve got to pay for the whole billing period,

Meaning you retroactively lose your grace period.

The $35 late fee they’ll waive once or maybe twice

To keep your business and convince you they’re nice.

But the $200 interest charge for that one day?

They won’t agree to give that away.

Or how about over the limit or overdraft fees?

Those always make me ill at ease.

But when I transfer money to cover funds disbursed,

Why do you always count the debit first?

If you take them to court, you don’t have a chance

It’s in the agreement which you signed in advance.

You had to sign it and you couldn’t change it

(That’s how credit card companies arrange it).

You could have gone to another company

But they have the same agreement exactly.

You don’t have a choice if you want a card,

And life without one of them can be pretty hard.

I’m all in favor

Of personal responsibility,

But when you mess up,

The “punishment” shouldn’t cause debility.

You see, in a business relationship

The big guy has the stronger grip.

It’s worthless to say “The customer is always right”

If the other side has all the might.

Customers can take their business elsewhere,

But that doesn’t help if everyone else is equally unfair.

A choice isn’t really a choice

If the customer has no voice.

With the passage of the Credit CARD Act

(Which banks and Republicans relentlessly attacked),

All that will change (at least a little bit),

And that’s a good thing, you have to admit.

***

Here’s Jon Stewart’s 2/23/10 “Make it Rain” report on the new credit card regs.

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart	Mon – Thurs 11p / 10c
Make it Rain – Bank of America
www.thedailyshow.com
Daily Show Full Episodes Political Humor Health Care Reform

Here’s your theme music for today, Pink Floyd’s Money.

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