Everybody is incensed over the fact that the idiotic banker/gamblers we had to bail out just a year ago are already back in the business of lavishing big bonuses on themselves as a reward for their incompetence.

But those huge payoffs to themselves didn’t start in just the last year or two. They’ve been congratulating themselves for decades. Every time they figure out a way to screw their customers, it adds to thast bonus pool, after all. In the banker/gambler method of doing things, screwing all the taxpayers must seem like the biggest score of all, so it’s pretty natural that they’d want to congratulate themselves once more.

Before they screwed the American taxpayers, of course, their most common method of sticking it to their customers was through credit cards. Fine print that allowed them to send interest rates through the roof for a payment that posted 5 minutes late, low “teaser” rates that turned into 20, 30, even 40% when the teaser period expired, participation fees…. man, there were so DAMNED many ways to bend over their customers with credit cards that bankers never tired of inventing new ways to give their “valued”  customers a good old yank by the trousers. I got tired of it years ago, and I never carried more than 2 credit cards after about 2003, and I only carried those out of necessity. In early 2008, I got tired of being fucked with on my remaining 2 cards as well; I paid the balances on time and mostly kept them in my wallet, but the bankers STILL figured out ways to hit me; participation fees leave a balance on your card, which then enables your card issuer to stick you with a higher interest rate because you didn’t “pay off your balance” you didn’t remember you had. When that happened to me the final time, I called the card issuer, got rid of my balances, and got rid of the cards the same day. They gave me 90 days to change my mind, and people predicted that I’d do exactly that since it is so hard to do a lot of things without a credit card. But you know, I just don’t do a lot of things anymore, and I never reinstated the cards-and here we are, 2 years and a Republican Depression later, and the only thing I’m “missing” about the stupid credit cards is the monthly payments.

I’m heartened to see that many other Americans have decided to do what I did, and end their contributions to some greedy asshat’s bonus pool. I’d like to see ALL Americans do this, sooner or later. The only power that commercial banks have to fuck us over is the power we, ourselves, give to them. The less power we give them, the less they can do to us.

But don’t stop here; if you bank with a commercial institution like BooFooA, or Hells Fargo, consider getting rid of your accounts and switching to a local credit union. I did that 10 years ago, and I’ve never looked back on that decision, either.

Emily Maddox, 24, of Knoxville, Tenn., is the kind of customer credit card companies covet. She has a good job as an Internet marketing coordinator, and she lives within her means. But she’s never had a credit card, and she has no plans to apply for one.

Credit cards, she says, “make me really nervous, and I’ve never felt comfortable having one.”

In a country where the average consumer owns five credit cards, Maddox may seem somewhat quaint, like an Amish farmer who drives a horse-drawn buggy. But proponents of a no-credit-card lifestyle say there’s nothing old-fashioned about their choices. And they’re convinced that their numbers will grow as consumers become increasingly disenchanted with credit card industry practices.

Credit card usage is slowing. Revolving credit — largely made up of credit card debt — fell by nearly 20% in November, the largest drop on record, according to the Federal Reserve, reflecting less borrowing by consumers and banks’ tighter lending standards. Through October, the number of new credit card accounts was down 46% from the same period in 2008, according to Equifax.

But abandoning credit cards is a much more radical step than using them less. Consumers who don’t own a credit card often have a hard time renting a car. Some hotels won’t book rooms to travelers who want to pay with a debit card or cash. Those that accept debit cards may place a hold on several hundred dollars in the customer’s bank account, which could cause checks to bounce. And many consumer experts say that responsible use of credit cards is one of the most effective ways to build a good credit record.

Those concerns haven’t swayed Dann Zinke, 22, of St. Paul, who works at a gas station to save money for college. He’s never owned a credit card and doesn’t plan to get one any time soon. “I refuse to recognize it as a rite of passage into adulthood,” he says. “I don’t want to go through the hassle of signing up and receiving other credit card offers.”

Reasons consumers are opting to live without credit cards:

•Desire for a simpler lifestyle. Two years ago, Adam and Courtney Baker decided to reduce their debts, sell most of their stuff, and spend a year or two traveling around the world. By selling their small business and a rental property, they were able to pay off more than $11,000 in credit card debt.

Initially, they planned to use an American Express card during their travels, says Adam Baker. But once the couple wiped out their debt, they decided to stick with debit cards and cash. Going without credit cards helps them keep a handle on their spending and suits their stripped-down lifestyle, says Baker, 25, a freelance writer whose blog about his family’s experience is titled Man Vs. Debt (www.manvsdebt.com).

“We enjoy not having them (credit cards) in our lives,” says Baker. “Getting 1.5% cash back for using four cards and juggling them is just not something that interests us. We have bigger and better things we want to focus our attention on.”

Louis Rosas-Guyon, 37, a business technology consultant in Miami, says his life has become less stressful since he stopped using credit cards 10 years ago. His epiphany came after he plugged his $18,000 in balances into an Excel spreadsheet and learned that, at the rate he was going, it would take him 180 years to pay off his credit card debts.

Instead, he went into what he calls “aggressive debt-payment mode.” He negotiated with his lenders, consolidated his debt and borrowed money from a relative, eventually paying off the balances.

“I have far fewer bills and headaches and fears about that monthly billing cycle,” Rosas-Guyon says. “My life has gotten substantially easier because I’ve offloaded 10 to 12 different credit cards that I no longer have to make a payment on.”

•Increased acceptance of debit cards. A decade ago, consumers who didn’t want to use credit cards had two choices: carry a lot of cash or write checks and hold up the supermarket line. Today, debit cards blend the discipline of cash with the convenience of plastic and are accepted by most merchants that accept credit cards. In recent years, their popularity has soared.

A July 2009 survey by Auriemma Consulting Group found that 28% of consumers had shifted the way they pay for purchases in the past year, with an increase in debit card usage coming at the expense of credit cards. Forty-six percent of consumers surveyed said they believed debit cards helped control their spending.

“There’s quietly been a debit card revolution,” says best-selling personal finance author Dave Ramsey, who urges fans of his radio and Fox Business TV show to cut up their credit cards. Now that debit cards are broadly accepted, he says, using a credit card “with all its fees and interest rates and traps with customer service is really stupid.”

Scott Talbott, senior vice president of government affairs for the Financial Services Roundtable, says the shift reflects a desire by consumers to get a better handle on their spending, rather than a rejection of credit cards.

“It’s easy to demagogue the big credit card industry,” he says. “Credit and debit card services play a vital role in our economy. Seventy percent of our GDP is based on consumer purchases, and credit cards and debit cards make that easy, safe and fast.”

•Outrage about industry practices. Tim McFarlin, a consumer bankruptcy attorney in Irvine, Calif., 34, stopped using credit cards eight years ago because he thought the industry’s business practices were unfair to consumers. “Any time there’s even a hint of a financial issue in the consumer’s life, the credit card company will raise the interest rate to the high 20s, or 30%,” he says. “They’ll do anything they can to make life as difficult as possible.”

Last year, Congress enacted legislation that will make it more difficult for credit card issuers to raise interest rates on existing balances and charge certain fees. But those rules don’t take effect until Feb. 22, and in anticipation of the change, credit card companies have aggressively raised interest rates and fees, even for borrowers who pay their bills on time. In addition, credit card companies have lowered credit limits for many customers.

The changes have been particularly hard on small-business owners who rely on credit cards for short-term business loans. Jennyvi Dizon, 29, a self-employed bridal wear fashion designer in Phoenix, says her credit card lenders cut her credit limit in half last year and raised the interest rate several times. Like many small-business owners, Dizon carried a balance, but says she always paid her credit card bills on time. About three months ago, she decided to stop using credit cards and resolved to pay off the remaining balances.

She now uses her savings to buy supplies, which hasn’t been easy. Sometimes, she has to negotiate with suppliers because she doesn’t have the cash on hand for a full order. But it’s been worth it, Dizon says. “It’s just a hassle these days to trust credit card companies,” she says.

We have a “store card” that did us this way. In spitte of us having never been late on a payment, and always paying well over the minimum balance, they took out rate from 6% to 18% to 26%, in the space of a year. They’ll soon be gone too.

Fuck the bankers. They are leeches who produce nothing and take, take, take.

Tags: credit cards, debt, financial crisis

This entry was posted on Monday, February 8th, 2010 at 12:35 am and is filed under Jolly Roger, The Republican Depression of 2008-?. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.