Blogetary (Weblog + Commentary = Blogetary)

Really, I should. But I can’t. I have to say something. I’m sure I’ll get into trouble for saying this, but SOMEBODY needs to tell the emperors of America and the world that they’re wrong and evil and we won’t take it anymore.

About a month ago, I was hanging out with a friend and she mentioned to me that she’d just gotten a notification from her bank that they’d just raised the interest rate on her credit card. They’d raised the interest rates on all cards.  I know because I have (or maybe soon HAD) a credit card through the same bank – that is the now defunct Washington Mutual and then bought out from under them Chase Bank.  I have been trying to pay off this card for years and so tried to never use it. And it seemed like for every $50 payment I sent in, I was charged another $35. It was virtually impossible to pay off unless I could send them large chunks of cash, which I didn’t have. I think in the years I had this card I may have purchased $2000 worth of goods and paid at least 2 1/2 times that back. If not more. They made a lot of money off of me.To be fair, I was slow to pay it back. Still, it felt like one of those long nightmares where the more you run, the longer the road gets. It was awful.

Well, the miracle happened and I was able to come up with those large chunks of money to pay of that debt. And I finally sent in what I thought was the final *gasp* payment in one large hunk. I checked the balance. I checked that my check would be in by the due date. And guess what. Somewhere along the line they decided I still owed another $16-17 more dollars of crap charges even though I made the payment on time by the due date.

I swore under my breath and just paid it as soon as possible. And checked “done” on that credit card. It was frustrating but it still felt so good!

Until today.

I got a statement in my email. Now, some places email statements even when you owe nothing, but I thought I would check anyway. I’ve never liked Chase. I’d forgotten why and now I remembered.

They’d charged me a $1.

That’s right, a frikkin’ $1.

Apparently, even though I’d made that “last” $17 payment on time (and my balance had said zero when I checked it), it wasn’t before some random reason for a finance charge.  Sometime in the few hours between when I checked that balance and they received my payment, I’d accrued a teensy weensy finance charge. Tiny. Eeeny weeny. The minimum was a buck, so they charged me a buck.

GAUGH!

Oh, and finally. What really set me off to write this blog and pissed me off so I couldn’t think straight? I checked my percentage (APR) at the bottom of the PDF statement (the same statement that said I owed $1). It was 31.74% or .32 on every dollar. The effective APR? It was 57.06% or .57 for every $1.

Okay, so I’m not the best person in the world when it comes to credit. But I’ve been working on that, and these banks aren’t making it easy to get out of debt while constantly trying to tell you you need to get out of debt. When the big banks of the United States pull this kind of crap on the consumer on a regular basis it’s no wonder we’re all broke. What’s a wonder is that THEY’RE broke. And they aren’t really. They’re selfish bastards that need to be regulated!  Why is there even a question about this?!?!? Why do we even slow down in regulating them and putting caps on their salaries!?!? If there’s ANY industry out there that needs regulation and caps on salaries and bonuses it’s the banks in this country.