Question: when credit card companies raise rates on credit cards, does it apply to existing balances or only on charges made after the effective date of the new rate? (I seldom use a credit card and have no balances, so I don't know the answer to this.) Anyone know?
WASHINGTON, May 8 (Reuters) - U.S. President Barack Obama will hold a town hall meeting next week in New Mexico to promote congressional efforts to reform credit card practices, the White House said on Friday.
Banks such as Bank of America Corp, JPMorgan Chase & Co, Citigroup Inc and Capital One Financial Corp face a new set of rules issued by the Federal Reserve last year aimed at reining in abusive credit card practices.
The rules are to be implemented by July 2010, a date some lawmakers and consumer groups complain is too far away to help struggling consumers.
U.S. lawmakers are trying to codify those rules in legislation and send it to Obama this month to sign into law. Legislative efforts are aimed at stopping credit card companies from imposing certain late fees, restricting retroactive rate increases, as well as other questionable billing practices and marketing to minors.
The Senate is expected to begin debating on Monday on legislation. The House of Representatives overwhelmingly approved its own legislation last month.
White House spokesman Robert Gibbs told reporters on Friday that Obama will focus on legislation and urge lawmakers to "get something done on an issue of tremendous importance to middle class families.
"For many people credit cards provide an opportunity to finance purchases," Gibbs said. "But we think there's a more equitable way to do that and I think that those reforms are on their way through Congress."
In 2007, Americans used an estimated 694.4 million credit cards with Visa, MasterCard, American Express and Discover logos, according to industry data.
The American Bankers Association trade group, which represents many of the biggest credit card issuers, have warned that legislation could reduce the amount of credit available and make it more expensive for card users going forward.
"We're in a difficult lending environment," Ken Clayton, the ABA's senior vice president for card policy, said during a conference call with reporters.
Re: Obama to hold townhall meeting on credit cards
May 8 2009, 6:26 PM
I'm pretty sure the scumsucking bastards would levy it on the entire balance. I don't carry a balance either, so I'm not sure.
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"We are all equal, but we definitely are not the same"
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Re: Obama to hold townhall meeting on credit cards
May 8 2009, 7:24 PM
LOFL! Do you not see the "Populist" horseshit! He's been elected! Stop with the prime time moron baiting...we all know horseshit when we smell it or step in it...all this spin isn't going to not make use believe it's something else!...but....but...but...you are popular with the hamsters aren't you....and the hamsters believe you don't they...and when push comes to shove the hamsters will be the last to realize how you and your ilk have fucked them and this country right...? and all the "Bush fucked you spin..." ...well, once you have eaten the poison the "truth" doesn't matter does it! LOL! Your partisan idiocy will be the last thing you see!!!
The language of priorities is the religion of Socialism.....Aneurin Bevan
Re: Obama to hold townhall meeting on credit cards
May 8 2009, 7:50 PM
Question: when credit card companies raise rates on credit cards, does it apply to existing balances or only on charges made after the effective date of the new rate?
DISCOVER does...and I know that for a 100% fact. It applies immediately to both existing balances and on new charges.
Re: Obama to hold townhall meeting on credit cards
May 8 2009, 7:54 PM
I'm pretty sure the scumsucking bastards would levy it on the entire balance. I don't carry a balance either, so I'm not sure.
LOL! But you go ahead and take advantage of the convenience offered by the scumsucking bastards anyway. Is that it? Most morons can claim at least two dimensions, in your case, I'm not so sure. *chortle*
Clinton's Tax Law Increases Tax Bill of Nation's Affluent
Journal Record, The (Oklahoma City) , Apr 14, 1995 by Tim Bovee
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WASHINGTON _ As the Monday filing deadline looms, miserable taxpayers can find company among the affluent. Well-to-do Americans' taxes surged 16 percent in 1993, the first year of revisions pressed into law by President Clinton.
People who earned $100,000 or more owed the government an additional $31 billion compared with 1992, according to an Associated Press computer-assisted analysis of Internal Revenue Service data. Everyone else together owed about $3 billion more.
The tax-law revisions were aimed specifically at reducing the deficit by tapping people with big incomes. When President Clinton proposed raising taxes on high incomes, experts expected the affluent to create shelters and loopholes to blunt the impact.
More Articles of Interest
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It didn't happen.
The law took effect in August 1993, but the new rules were applied retroactively to January. That took some tax planners by surprise.
"We did not see a new surge of tax shelters," said Robert McIntyre of Citizens for Tax Justice, a Washington advocacy group. "It's hard to do, and it takes time."
Clinton had argued that upper-income Americans had paid less than their share of taxes in the years when Republican presidents Reagan and Bush sat in the White House.
He said the law asked "the well-off to pay their fair share, requiring that at least 80 percent of the new tax burden fall on those making more than $200,000 a year, and very little on any other Americans, not to punish the successful, but simply to ask something of the very people whose incomes went up most and whose taxes went down during the 1980s."
The bill added two new tax brackets _ 36 percent for income beginning at $115,000 and 39.6 percent beginning at $250,000 _ but generally left other tax rates alone.
While tax liability declined for people in many brackets, for those making more than $100,000 it amounted to 25.5 percent of their income before deductions, up from 23 percent the previous year. The law allowed them to spread actual payment of their taxes over several years.
The tax increases, while aimed at the wealthy, made no distinction between taxpayers living in high-cost and low-cost areas. Also, the bill didn't differentiate between single-income and dual-income households.
Tax returns reporting $100,000 or more in income accounted for just 4 percent of the 114.6 million returns filed for 1993. But they amounted to 24 percent of the $3.7 trillion in individual income reported.
"They have very substantial incomes," said Clint
This message has been edited by Poetse12 on May 8, 2009 8:03 PM
Re: Obama to hold townhall meeting on credit cards
May 8 2009, 8:11 PM
There is a real need for reform of the credit card horseshit...Bush had the chance to do it...but Clinton too had the chance to do it....but they both had been caught-up in the scam of the "Credit Card" boondoggle and did nothing...and now we see just where that and the "Money-For-Nothing" scam, has gotten us....but we all need to realize and understand that it was the "string pullers" that got us into the sewer we find ourselves in today! And people...for God's sake------------> WHO GOT OBAMA ELECTED??? Do you not realize that we're ALL being PLAYED!!! Wake-The-Fuck-Up...This IS really happening! and we MUST stop it!...Get away from your partisan politics and look at what being done---->This isn't spin,...this is our country!
The language of priorities is the religion of Socialism.....Aneurin Bevan
Re: Obama to hold townhall meeting on credit cards
May 9 2009, 11:06 AM
Hey, do you recall the Clnton tax increases that were applied retroactively? Got a good name for that one Roby?
Do you recall when ronald "the vegetable" reagan took away your tax deduction for interest on credit cards and all unsecured loans? Fucking hypochrite.
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"We are all equal, but we definitely are not the same"
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Re: Obama to hold townhall meeting on credit cards
May 9 2009, 11:11 AM
LOL! But you go ahead and take advantage of the convenience offered by the scumsucking bastards anyway. Is that it? Most morons can claim at least two dimensions, in your case, I'm not so sure. *chortle*
gus.
Well, I'm sure glad you like paying 21% interest on an account in good standing. Everytime I use my card, they get money from the business I charged to, 3% to 5%, I hear. You just don't get it do you?
Pffft...snort...chortle....fart!
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"We are all equal, but we definitely are not the same"
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Please pardon my roby imitation, but Janie has established herself beyond any reasonable doubt as one of the stupidest fucking human beings I have ever witnessed, in print, or in person. Compounded perfectly, of course, by the boundless arrogance, and total absence of introspection, which blinds her completely to her own stupidity, resulting in exchanges like the above.(Tim Bovee is/was a writer/editor for the Associated Press, having zero indications in his bio of any "neoCON" connections.) Now I will be accused of either "projecting", "obsession", or "stalking", the results of the limited capacity of stupid's actual intellect removed from the crutches of her cut & paste.
gus.
This message has been edited by gus-mccrea on May 9, 2009 11:37 AM
Re: Obama to hold townhall meeting on credit cards
May 9 2009, 1:19 PM
Roby writes:
Do you recall when ronald "the vegetable" reagan took away your tax deduction for interest on credit cards and all unsecured loans? Fucking hypochrite.
Yes and I recall that the tax laws change every year. Does that make them "Fucking hypocrites"?
Not at all, but it definitely shows that you are too ignorant to recognize the difference between tax being retroactive and not retroactive. It is one thing to wait until August to raise taxes to make them retroactive--and completely different to pass a law in August so that Credit Card interest will not be deductible the following year. You are not very astuter because we need to draw you pictures. Janie is not very astute because she can look at a picture and never know what she sees. And Jim is not very astute because he believes you are astute. Or may he believes you are republicans.
Anyway, it would be great to have some liberals on this board who were astute enough to keep up with what is going on. No wonder you think you are always right.l It's because when you are proven wrong, you cannot imagine such a thing.
This message has been edited by Poetse12 on May 9, 2009 1:58 PM
Re: Obama to hold townhall meeting on credit cards
May 9 2009, 2:41 PM
Reagan did take away the interest deductions. You are saying Clinton raised taxes and I remarked about the reagan deduction elimination (otherwise called "raising taxes").
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"We are all equal, but we definitely are not the same"
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Re: Obama to hold townhall meeting on credit cards
May 9 2009, 2:55 PM
My thoughts:
Credit card companies should only be able raise rates for the portions billed to the card after the effective date of the increase. Any previous balance should be charged the rate in effect at the time the purchase was made.
I have no issue with Obama cracking down on predatory credit card practices.
Too many people abuse credit cards and have gotten themselves in financial trouble. The cost of those losses just get passed on to responsible consumers and taxpayers. I expect there will be people in the past who were issued cards, or granted limits, that will now fall off the eligibility rolls. Fine by me.
Re: Obama to hold townhall meeting on credit cards
May 9 2009, 3:15 PM
My thoughts:
Credit card companies should only be able raise rates for the portions billed to the card after the effective date of the increase. Any previous balance should be charged the rate in effect at the time the purchase was made.
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I wish this were the case, or we wouldn't be in a debt management plan right now. My wife had a credit card with a $2,000.00 balance and a 8.9% interest rate. Never a late payment. Gets close to maxing it, they raise the rate. A couple months later, its up again to $5,000.00. Still, she didn't increase the balance until they raised it again to $7,000.00. At this point, she was searching for a professional video camera. She got this great deal, and it would supplement her income. 8.9% wasn't too shabby because we made double payments each month. Three months later, Bank of America bought her credit card company. And one of the first things she noticed on her new bill was over DOUBLE the minimum payment. A closer look at the fine print, and the interest rate was up to 27.9%!!!
We battled, and battled, and got nowhere. We tried finding another credit card to transfer, but couldn't find another card that would give her the minimum starting balance we needed because she had too much debt already. It was insane.
Re: Obama to hold townhall meeting on credit cards
May 9 2009, 3:21 PM
Mike, have you asked at your bank if they have a loan consolidation product that might help you. Or do you have a credit union in your area that you could talk to. They are often more reasonable to work with than large national banks.
Re: Obama to hold townhall meeting on credit cards
May 9 2009, 3:34 PM
Yes, Carolyn, we tried. We tried everything. We were making things work but getting nowhere. At the current rate we would be debt free in 30+ years.
But then, my wife lost over half of her income this winter because of business slowing. I did get a bit better job. But it wasn't enough, and it was the wrong time. We fell really behind and literally received between 20 and 30 phone calls a day from various creditors.
We ended up going in to a debt management program which is helping a lot. They helped us get a budget together that was reasonable, and our minimum payments went from a total of $550.00 per month to $316.00. We receive no more phone calls, all of our balances show current, and our average interest rate went from 24.9% to 6.9%. At the current rate, we will be completely debt free in 4 and a half years. We kept one credit card with a small balance for emergencies, and to help establish a credit background for when we exit the management plan. The credit card companies cannot touch her credit score (which is not great anymore, but still in the 600's). But they can note the account is in a 'Credit Counseling' state - which pretty much ensures we won't be able to get any credit for the duration of the management plan. But afterward, they MUST, by law, remove that notation and show the balance paid in full with satisfaction, by the debtor.
I have a vehicle with a very low payment that will be paid off in a year. Her car is a lease, so we do have to worry about that situation in two years. But we will have at least one vehicle that is in good shape and paid off. Neither of us currently work more than 12 miles from where we live. So we can manage in even the worst scenario at that time (her work is only 3 miles away).
We did overextend ourselves slightly. I can admit that. We were fine until basically the perfect storm hit, and we were left without a lifeboat.
Re: Obama to hold townhall meeting on credit cards
May 9 2009, 3:38 PM
Good for you Mike. You developed a plan and took the right steps. Now all you have to do is stick with it. I know, easier said than done. But you can do it. Hang in there. It will be worth it in the end.
Re: Obama to hold townhall meeting on credit cards
May 9 2009, 5:42 PM
Roby writes:
Reagan did take away the interest deductions. You are saying Clinton raised taxes and I remarked about the reagan deduction elimination (otherwise called "raising taxes").
Obviously you do not understand the term "retroactive." Everone knows that when a deduction is removed a tax increase is made. But is it retroactive? Clinton's increase was the only retroactive tax increase in history. Now quit acting as though tax increases are crimes if enacted by Republicans.
Re: Obama to hold townhall meeting on credit cards
May 9 2009, 5:50 PM
Peter Wallison, who was White House counsel to President Reagan, responded to my analysis in the New York Times on October 26. He pointed to Ronald Reagan's resistance to tax increases in 1982, citing passages from Reagan's diary that were published in his autobiography, An American Life. The gist of Wallison's article is that Ronald Reagan successfully resisted efforts by his staff and many in Congress to raise taxes, thereby ensuring the victory of Reaganomics.
The only problem with this analysis is that it is historically inaccurate. Reagan may have resisted calls for tax increases, but he ultimately supported them. In 1982 alone, he signed into law not one but two major tax increases. The Tax Equity and Fiscal Responsibility Act (TEFRA) raised taxes by $37.5 billion per year and the Highway Revenue Act raised the gasoline tax by another $3.3 billion.
According to a recent Treasury Department study, TEFRA alone raised taxes by almost 1 percent of the gross domestic product, making it the largest peacetime tax increase in American history. An increase of similar magnitude today would raise more than $100 billion per year.
In 1983, Reagan signed legislation raising the Social Security tax rate. This is a tax increase that lives with us still, since it initiated automatic increases in the taxable wage base. As a consequence, those with moderately high earnings see their payroll taxes rise every single year.
In 1984, Reagan signed another big tax increase in the Deficit Reduction Act. This raised taxes by $18 billion per year or 0.4 percent of GDP. A similar-sized tax increase today would be about $44 billion.
The Consolidated Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1985 raised taxes yet again. Even the Tax Reform Act of 1986, which was designed to be revenue-neutral, contained a net tax increase in its first 2 years. And the Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1987 raised taxes still more.
The year 1988 appears to be the only year of the Reagan presidency, other than the first, in which taxes were not raised legislatively. Of course, previous tax increases remained in effect. According to a table in the 1990 budget, the net effect of all these tax increases was to raise taxes by $164 billion in 1992, or 2.6 percent of GDP. This is equivalent to almost $300 billion in today's economy.
Re: Obama to hold townhall meeting on credit cards
May 9 2009, 8:05 PM
Janie, why must you be so terribly dense. You are like most liberals--not very astute.
The premise has never been that Democrats always raise taxes and Republicans always cut taxes.
Notr has it ever been that Democrats never cut taxes and Republicans never raise taxes.
You just throw crap against the wall and hope it sticks.
Do you not know that Clinton raised taxes retroactively? You couldn't find it in the article; therefore, I shgowed your spoecifically that it was in the article.. You then denied that the point was proved because it was a neoCon who wrote the article.
And now you are trying to show us that Reagan raised taxes. No one ever said he didn't raise taxes.
So quit tryi9ng to change the subject and throwing junk out on the board. You are wrong as you always are. And it's here for everyone to see. And they all see it except you liberals.
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