I did read your websites, and they omit many things. Foremost is personal responsibility. I don’t care if a bank charges 1,000,000% interest, you don’t need to take the debt. You go into debt knowing full well the ramifications. People simply ignore those ramifications and continue to be late in payments, continue to have a running balance, continue to apply for more credit (lying in most cases), etc.

Your website, as I said before, also omits the fact that there are federal and state laws capping interest rates banks can charge. You make it sound as if this weren’t true.

You can NOT be robbed if you don’t take on more debt that you can afford. You can NOT be robbed if you pay your bills in full every month before interest accrues.

I’m not sure how you are getting 733% monthly interest when her credit card had been 18% and went up to 24.24% annual interest rate. The article does not break down the finance charges, which is too bad and serves the purpose of being biased in the article, but I’m guessing that there were other fees, probably like late fees, over limit fees, etc. This is not including the $8 fee she was paying to pay the bill.

If you read your terms and conditions, as you should as a responsible borrower, you would see that credit card companies can change rates and terms. It is in black and white when you get your credit card. And you in fact can refuse the new terms by closing the account and paying it off at the old terms.

It’s too bad Discover reduced Hard’s rate back to 18%, because she will never learn her lesson of taking on more debt than she can afford. There was nothing about her overall credit worthiness or history in the article. Again, with her rates, chances are they were below average. There was also nothing in the article about whether she continued to use her credit cards while she was paying them off.

Do you realize this family is paying a 733% monthly interest fee and you want to discuss an 8 dollar internet fee.

I’ve started two protest websites about credit cards that outline the problem and then show a solution. http://www.credit-card-cap.com and http://www.credit-protector.com

what was idiotic was the creditor’s comment during the hearings where she said people have the right to choose not to accept the new interest rate increases. Yeah, if you want to close the account you don’t have to accept the rate increase. while I disagree with this, i do feel having been there in debt, that you are well aware (especially with all the publicity out there) of the policies of credit card companies. If you choose to take on debt and no pay off each month, then you do have personal responsibility for knowing the terms and policies. i also think it is idiotic that cc companies charge to pay bills. however, knowing this, you can avoid it by billpay through your bank or by writing a check. Knowingly and willingly paying discovercard $8 to pay a bill is simply ludicrous and if the person is that dumb to continue paying it, then they do deserve their situation.

the real issue is NOT the increase in interest rate, although it sells nicely during election time, but the fact that Hard got herself into debt spending more than she could afford from the start. if she had an 18% rate to begin with, indicates she didn’t have very good credit to begin with, too. what is missing from the article is that it seems she took on more debt along the way through applying for more credit, resulting in a credit score hit. “Victim”, I think not.