new Credit card rules

[popolarbear]

so i heard on the news alittle info that has me wondering if i should stop carring credit cards or continue.

many places you can not do business without a credit card.

so the new rules were to do with the rates being fixed(i remember that last month i think they standardized everyone at 38% for many cards) by the way at 38% they are doubling their money every 2 years. with 10,000 in debt you would be paying nearly 10,000 in interest every two years! i  know at least 2 pals that have $50,000 in debt and are facing complete financial melt down.

other rules to prevent this over charging of credit cards is the new way they plan to make money. every transaction will have a transaction fee associated with it!
so if you purchased a $40 item you might have an extra $5 added to process the transaction..

i might be off in my details, but this seems excessive for a service that is insured, and required.

[DiverQueen]

Set up a "Cash Back" checking account with M&I Bank and have direct deposits to the account....

The bank pays you instead of you paying the bank all the time!~  ;D

[popolarbear]

that sound good.

you know if someone took so much as one dollar from the bank it would be club fed.
but if the bank takes it from you, that is correct. even if you didnt sign up for that.

my problem with debit cards is that most have little insurance against fraud, or loss of card etc. you have to upgrade to get that feature, and unless you do a ton of transactions the upgraded insurance dosent offset the price

[DetectorGuy]

I even received a credit card offer from Diver Alert Network last week. They are linked with Mastercard. I think they should stick to what they do best, and not the bank business.

[goaliemn]

I think what you were watching was blowing it a bit out of proportion.  I've had afew credit cards change how they do business, but nothing like what you've said.

I do know alot of banks are changing their fee-free cards to a fee-free card if you spend at least X amount on them per year.  I had 2 do that to me, but I can meet their thresholds.. they were both about $2K a year.

As far as the DAN card, it makes them money.  usually those cards have bad interest rates and DAN gets a cut, plus a small % each transaction.

[popolarbear]

yes that was one of the things they were talking about. if you dont do a minimum transaction then you will have an inactivity fee charged. ..lots of changes comming to credit cards
i dont know if these changes are comming in 2010 as the news sugested or later

[goaliemn]

The law kicks in on Monday, so if you haven't heard by now, odds are not much will change with your cards.. If they make changes after monday, there are lots more restrictions.

[joekarels]

Berkshire Hathaway just sold off their Geico credit card portion of their business at 55 cents on the dollar. He called it a bad business judgement on his part.