Busting Scams - From HYIPs to Identity Theft Insurance

I'm of the opinion that about 99% of consumer credit cards out there are SCAMs.  Hard to believe?  There are several aspects of credit cards that are beyond misleading.  Start with "Fixed APR" cards.  "Fixed" means unchanging right?  WRONG.  It just means they have to tell you before they raise your rate.  I had one "fixed APR" card jump from less than 10% to 27% (or something like that), and yes, they were kind enough to send me a notice beforehand (I cancelled the card immediately).  And I had never missed a payment on that card.  Chase seems to one of the worst offenders on this front.  When I called to cancel the card, the phone rep said she was sorry I was leaving, but perhaps Chase had other "products" I might consider using.  Doh!!!!

The next big SCAM is their "general default" interest rate.  Miss one payment and your rate can go from reasonable to outrageous.  There are cards out there now with default rates around 30%.  But you don't have to miss a payment on a card to be in "general default".  It may just mean your credit worthiness has "in general" descreased.  Maybe you were 30 days late on another payment.  Maybe you're actually using the credit line they gave you by carring a high balance.  Maybe you applied for a few car loans just to test the waters.  Who knows.  They don't really bother to tell you.  Oh and by the way, that rate jump covers your existing balance, not just new purchases.  A 30% rate means that in just over three months you will spend as much on interest as on your balance.  I don't know how these companies get away with this.  Kind of sounds like they have their own little HYIP scam running.

And you know all those cash advance checks they keep encouraging you to use?  Use them too often (like, say 1% of the time they suggest you do), and you'll find your rates going up.  "Overuse" of cash advances is considered a sign of poor credit responsibility.  So even with that tantalziing 0% promotional APR, don't touch those things.  In fact, ask the company to STOP SENDING THEM in the mail, where they could easily get stolen anyway.

Maybe the credit card industry is trying to send us all a message:  if you want to use credit on our lousy terms, you obviously don't know how to use credit responsibly.