Yet Another Blow To The Little Man
Sean Faye
Issue date: 3/24/09 Section: Impact Staff Blogs
As bad as the economy is affecting everyone, it seems that little steps that could potentially help big companies simply are not being taken. Instead, some of these companies are doing the exact opposite and thinking only of themselves.
Recently, I got a letter in the mail. Normally, I probably would've just discarded this letter, figuring it was just more of those annoying checks the credit card companies constantly send or yet another attempt at accepting a new card and falling even more into debt.
Yet this time, the envelope alone peaked my curiosity; a blue, slightly larger than normal, envelope with perforated edges.
So I opened it, and the message inside took a long route in delivering a very simple statement, that my APR was going up.
It was nice enough to remind me not once, not twice, but three times that the economy is not doing well. Interesting, you let me in on a little known secret that the economy is in shambles, and you go ahead and raise prices on my credit card, and even write the notice with a small bit of self pity. Way to go Capital One!
The worst part is, what am I supposed to do? Sure they give me the option of cancelling, but that would leave me without a credit card, and in today's mostly plastic society, a credit card is imperative.
So, of course, all I can do is accept the reality that the little bit I've been paying off already is not going to be even less, even though I'll basically be giving the same amount. Great, I'm not even out of college yet, I have loads of friends who are who either cannot find a job or recently got laid off, and now I have to come up with a way to pay off the debt that is increasingly accumulating.
I'm not a business man and I don't claim to be, but I also consider myself to have at least some form of common sense, and this really makes no sense to me. Think about it, if you are running a credit card company, and are right smack in the middle of an economic collapse, does it not seem best to lower prices rather than raise them?
Recently, I got a letter in the mail. Normally, I probably would've just discarded this letter, figuring it was just more of those annoying checks the credit card companies constantly send or yet another attempt at accepting a new card and falling even more into debt.
Yet this time, the envelope alone peaked my curiosity; a blue, slightly larger than normal, envelope with perforated edges.
So I opened it, and the message inside took a long route in delivering a very simple statement, that my APR was going up.
It was nice enough to remind me not once, not twice, but three times that the economy is not doing well. Interesting, you let me in on a little known secret that the economy is in shambles, and you go ahead and raise prices on my credit card, and even write the notice with a small bit of self pity. Way to go Capital One!
The worst part is, what am I supposed to do? Sure they give me the option of cancelling, but that would leave me without a credit card, and in today's mostly plastic society, a credit card is imperative.
So, of course, all I can do is accept the reality that the little bit I've been paying off already is not going to be even less, even though I'll basically be giving the same amount. Great, I'm not even out of college yet, I have loads of friends who are who either cannot find a job or recently got laid off, and now I have to come up with a way to pay off the debt that is increasingly accumulating.
I'm not a business man and I don't claim to be, but I also consider myself to have at least some form of common sense, and this really makes no sense to me. Think about it, if you are running a credit card company, and are right smack in the middle of an economic collapse, does it not seem best to lower prices rather than raise them?
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