Credit Card Companies
Capital One Says- Thank You for Your Business!
No, no, no… thank YOU! I really appreciate you extending me credit at 20% interest and charging me outrageous fees if I pay a day late or go over my limit by a couple dollars. I’m confused, is your goal to push me into bankruptcy?
In all seriousness, credit card companies and predatory loan companies really frighten me. I believe these people are quite possibly the worst people on the face of the earth (hey doctor’s, at least you can say you give better service than these people!). Take a look at what Capital One sent me a few days ago:
Where do I even begin with this one?
Take a look at the first red arrow at the top. As you can see, the larger your balance gets, the larger your late fee becomes. But why does the increase stop at $250? Why is the max fee $39? I’m not going to try and answer those questions, all I can say is that they have their reasons… Just rest assured that it’s the people who are worse off that are paying the higher fees.
Look at the red arrow below the top one. Over the Credit Limit Fee!!!! Yay! “Is your balance higher than $500? Great!!! We are going to charge you double the fee!” This just isn’t right and I really don’t have to say anything to make that point. I bet the executives at Capital One even blush when asked about that one.
Let’s assume you had a bad month and you have to pay your credit card bill at the last minute. Let’s also assume that you have a $675 balance and a $750 credit limit. A week goes by and then you notice that the check you sent to Capital One arrived one day late, and to make matters worse, the money you deposited didn’t clear before the check was cashed so your check bounced! Holy crap, what just happened? I’ll tell you…
Late payment fee: $39
Returned payment fee: $39
So that puts us at $675 + $78 in fees = $753
Oh no, that put us over our credit limit!
Over the limit fee: $39
New balance = $792.00
Capital one just added $117 to your tab (17% of your balance, not a bad ROI for 1 month), and are now probably going to increase your APR to a criminally high percentage. Now for next month, you not only have to come up with your normal payment, you have to come up with enough money to bring the balance below your credit limit.
I know most of you reading this may not appreciate this scenario but I assure you it happens thousands of times a day. The poor get abused while the rich get richer. We can all sit on our high horses and say, “Well, they should have thought about the consequences before they used the card.” But even the most cynical have to admit that the policies as written in the above agreement are not advantageous to people in debt or people who need help. It’s almost as if the policies were put into place in order to keep people in debt!! I know, it’s hard to believe. It’s very, very sad, but I’ve read cases of this cycle happening to people, even young college students, who don’t see a way out and end up committing suicide.
One last thing, Capital One graciously allows you to opt out by canceling your card. But hey, if you don’t carry a balance, this Agreement doesn’t pertain to you anyway! What’s in your wallet??
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Good post. I agree we need to help other people because what goes around comes around!...
