Credit Card Companies Still Ripping Us Off

The United States House of Representatives is working to introduce further measures that will protect American consumers from predatory credit card interest rates.

While each of us are responsible for our spending actions, in these difficult economic times, many credit card users in middle to lower income brackets are using credit cards for daily survival -- not necessarily for casual purchases.

The Wall Street Journal has published an article which calls this phenomenon the end of "Democratization of Credit." It explains that as credit card companies refuse and reduce the levels in which they will lend to poorer -- or higher risk -- applicants, the non-discriminatory lending policies of the 1970s will come to an abrupt end.

But with more and more people turning to credit just to put food on the table, credit companies are not reducing interest rates for credit cards, but rather hiking the rates.

In response to Congress' efforts to curb predatory interest rates for those most affected by this economic downturn, credit companies like Wells Fargo and JP Morgan have selfishly increased their interest rates by as much as 3% -- due to take effect November 30th.

The Congressional Credit CARD bill is due to take effect December 1st.

Here in New Mexico, our entire House delegation has signed on to a statement (along with 15 other House members) which seeks to put a stop to unfair rate hikes.

Reps. Martin Heinrich, Harry Teague and Ben Ray Lujan have all added to this strongly worded statement.

While their efforts may seem like an uphill battle against corporate interests, our Congressmen have achieved victories already -- Bank of America has pledged not to raise their interest rates for cardholders.

Thank you to Reps. Heinrich, Teague and Lujan for fighting to make a positive difference in all New Mexicans' lives.