PIRATES OF THE CREDIT SEA – Part 1: My Treasure Is Taken!
Regular readers of The Skilled Investor have already been warned previously of the general dangers of consumer debt and of the risks associated with credit cards. Now, The Skilled Investor has himself become ensnared. In a series of articles, I will: A) summarize my current personal credit card problems, B) explain how and what I am doing to get restitution, and C) provide my readers with suggestions on how to prevent similar situations and how to manage when you become ensnared.
Go to Part #2: What are my rights? –>>
For a year, The Skilled Investor website have posted a link to the November 2005, Consumer Reports article entitled: Credit cards: They really are out to get you. Our commentary with this Consumer Reports link has been: “Lending practices by many credit card companies in this largely unregulated industry have ensnared millions of borrowers. Once in debt, many people stay trapped in virtually endless cycles of indebtedness caused by high fees and interest rates.”
If you want to read about the woes of a horde of really pissed off credit card company customers, just go to RipoffReport.com and enter the name of any credit card company.
To read an excellent summary of abusive credit card company practices, see: “The Credit Card Market and Regulation: In Need of Repair” by Carolyn Carter, Elizabeth Renuart, Margot Saunders, and Chi Chi Wu, who all are lawyers with the National Consumer Law Center. Published in March 2006, “this paper was originally one part of comprehensive comments submitted by the National Consumer Law Center (NCLC) to the Federal Reserve Board. The comments were submitted on behalf of the low income clients of the National Consumer Law Center, a variety of other national advocacy groups, and individual members of the Board’s Consumer Advisory Council.” The other national advocacy groups who participated in this submission to the Federal Reserve Bank include: The Consumer Federation of America (CFA), Consumers Union (CU) (publisher of Consumer Reports magazine), Demos, The National Association of Consumer Advocates (NACA), The U.S. Public Interest Research Group (U.S. PIRG), and The Woodstock Institute.
Here is a summary of what has happened to me. In future postings, I will address these subjects in greater depth and let you know how things are progressing:
1) My wife and I have an excellent credit rating, [...]