Monday, June 1, 2009

My Country ’Tis A Fee

The very idea that a credit card company would raise rates – as all the major credit card issuers have doubled their rates in the last year – seems absurd in a time of global credit crisis. Raising interest rates now is kicking the American people when they are down. And, there is no accountability on the credit card company to stop making the credit problem worse. The credit card corporations are turning this country into “the land of the fee.” How free are we, really, if strapped by ever increasing fees?

It is this corporate ignorance and arrogance that forces me to stop using my credit card. I thought my bank was better than that, but it turns out they are just like all the other credit card issuers. The bank made the bad choice of doubling its interest rates for its best customers, pushing me into the growing consensus of angry Americans who are tired of credit issuers changing the terms of their “agreements” without their customers’ protests heard.

Today, June 1st, I paid off my credit card and I am rising to the challenge of being credit card free. True freedom is being free of debt and I would rather have this freedom than a credit card any day.