Should Rick Santelli Care that Credit Card Companies are Raising Rates?

Where is Rick Santelli when you really need him? Ready to call people current on their mortgage--losers, Rick Santelli is no where to be found as credit card companies raise interest rates on customers--good or bad. Here is an issue you could sink your teeth into Rick, and I am going to help you understand it. No ignorance is bliss on this one.

Lets start with the reason credit card companies are raising rates. They will tell you, Rick, more customers are defaulting on their credit cards so they have to raise rates on good customers to make up the difference. So the losers--those unable to pay their credit card bills-- are causing the winners--those that are paying their credit card bills--to pay more (higher interest rates).

Credit card rates can go as high as 25-30 percent depending on state. This might get your Republican (or is it Liberatarian?) blood boiling Rick. Hillary Clinton while running for President told Ohioans,

“I’ve advocated that we rein in the credit card interest rates, cap them at 30 percent and get them below,” she said.

Ohioans owe around $30 billion on their credit cards. Gee, thanks Hillary.

Regardless of credit rating, credit card companies can charge you any rate they see fit as long as they keep it below 30 percent or the highest allowable rate in a given state. Politicians clearly in the pocket of the credit card companies are allowing these high rates of interest. Some might think of 25 percent as usury. Not as bad as loan sharking--but close.

Any of those guys that live in Barrington, Illinois that were cheering for you the other day getting screwed Rick? Would you call someone who has been paying their credit card bill month after month, year after year, a loser Rick? And, if they have been paying faithfully is it fair to raise their interest rate because "losers" aren't paying?

Rick, Help for Homeowners got you in a tizzy the other day--the rant. All of housing accounts for about 16 percent of GDP. The biggest category in GDP is retail sales. Retail sales account for about 66-70 percent of GDP. So when a credit card company raises interest rates they take money away from retail sales the lifeblood of GDP. I think it is safe to assume that most people paying interest on a credit cards are living pay check to pay check. So, their disposal income goes down if they have to send more bucks to the credit card company. As an aside, credit card companies are also raising minimum payments. Isn't this anti-American Rick?

Rick, someone needs to wake up the Obama administration about this. You seem to have their attention, and I bet if you attack on this issue not only will your blackberry freeze it will likely explode--this is the stuff that makes hero's. Somebody has to do it Rick--and you are the best man for the job.

By the way Rick, the banks that received TARP money are raising credit cards interest rates on existing credit card customers. This means they are taking your hard earned bucks and robbing the winners. I think its time for you to get your constituency riled up.

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Source of these quotes: Credit Card Companies Raising Rates on Consumers

• “I received notice that the interest on my Chase card will go up from 4.24% APR to 9.24%,” Chase customer John Biek said in an email to FOX Business.


• Gary Barrett told FOX Business that his Capital One card rate was going to increase from 14.3% to 17.9%. “This is a card that normally I carry a balance of less than $800, and frequently it has no balance due, and I have never been late on a payment,” Barrett wrote in an email.


• And Patricia of York, Pa., said in an email that her Capital One Visa will see a hike as well: “My current rate of interest is 5.37%. The notice states that [the] rate increase will go to 13.9% on purchases [and] 24.9% on cash advance.”


• “Bank of America is doing the most dramatic changes I’ve seen,” said Emily Peters, a personal-finance expert for Credit.com. She said she has heard of cases where BofA card rates have been going up 10 to 20 percentage points.

Feel free to email this to Rick Santelli.

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