Get Rid of All Your Credit Cards NOW!!!

I'm sure with all the pressure on Washington to make changes in the way credit card companies do business, they had to come up with something. All of the politicians seemed so pleased with themselves that they got legislation passed to help reign in credit issuers. Well I got news for them, it's practically worthless.

I've never worried about paying off my credit cards, since I rarely carry large balances and the interest rates were manageable. Now it's a whole different ballgame. In order to make up for restrictions under the new laws and massive losses caused by their own poor business practices, credit card companies are jacking interest rates through the roof. I have never been late on a payment with any of my cards, have always paid more than minimum payments and have had a good credit score for some time now. Recently two of my credit cards sent notices that my rates were going up (one to 29.99% and the other to 19.99%). If I chose not to accept the changes, they will cancel my cards. What's most shocking about this is these are my longest held cards. So far the other 3 cards I carry have not sent any bad news.

I understand why they are doing this. However, I also understand how good businesses operate. If they mistreat customers, (and believe me I am shocked by the response I got from customer service from the above mentioned credit card company) they will not have customers. Without customers, they will go out of business! What they're doing reminds me of a recent commercial making fun of the cable TV companies and their ever increasing rates. The execs are sitting around a table trying to decide how to make more money, but instead of figuring out how to improve their businesses, they just charge customers more. The flaw in this type of business model is that the market will only bear so much. Frankly, I think they are making way too much already. The notices I got with my interest rate increases had the audacity to say something along line, "Rate increases reflect a desire on our part to earn more profit on your account." What is especially annoying about this particular company is the fact that they received billions in bail out money from the taxpayers and now they are trying to make the taxpayers who hold their cards pay the money back!

This is exactly why I'm urging everyone I know to do whatever it takes to pay off their credit cards and stop using them until the issuers come to their senses. I've decided to cancel any and all of my cards who try to charge me for their mistakes. We'd all be much better off without them anyway.