DaveO -

I think I sense that you've realized that credit card offers are now one of the most serious scams going.

The offer always quotes a ridiculously low rate, but in the fine print it's "subject to approved credit." It really doesn't matter if you actually get the rate quoted because -

Also in the fine print:

They have the right to charge "penalties" for late payments or for other undefined "infractions."

They have the right to charge "bad credit rates" for any "change in your credit status."

One of the principal excuses used for changing the agreement is late payment. NO PAYMENT can be credited as "on time" unless it is accompanied by their bill for the current payment cycle. Many of them allow you only 10 days to make the payment, after a fictitious "mailing date" that's pre-printed on the statement - sometimes several days before the statement actually goes into the mail. Regardless of when the P.O. gets the payment to them, it's not "received" until they get around to posting it to your account.

(ALL CREDIT CARD ACCOUNTS IN THE US, with very rare exceptions, currently are posted by "cheap labor" in one or two small towns in India.)

They have total control over whether you CAN MAKE THE PAYMENT ON TIME, and use that as an excuse to charge, in many cases now, an extra $50 per payment. I've seen none recently for whom the late payment penalty is less than $35. The penalty payment does not reduce the balance owed.

One industry spokesman testified in recent Banking Commission hearings that penalty fees average about 30% of their gross income. He was probably fired shortly after.

If your "credit is damaged" by more than one late payment per year they claim the right to raise your interest rate, in some cases to 39% (only the highest common rate I've seen in the fine print on "offers" I've received recently, few claim less than 27% in recent fine print).

They claim the right to, and often do, invoke the same (39%) interest rate if any other credit card or other source of credit claims you are in default in any way on any payment. In a few publicised cases, a protest of a fraudulent charge on one credit card has been used as an excuse by other cards to raise the rate.

The new US Federal Bankruptcy Law that goes into effect tomorrow (November 1) exempts credit card debt from relief by filing of bankruptcy.

And the "wimpout" argument that you can always pay off an offending card by borrowing on another card ignores the fact that if one credit card has put you in a "high risk" category (i.e. has extorted penalty rates) you'll pay the same rates just to get another card.

They can make it impossible for you to meet their terms.
They can extort any interest rate they choose once your name is on their card.
You can't even file bankruptcy to get relief from their extortion.

Why wouldn't they tell you their credit card is wonderful. They just don't say for whom.

They actually are not too happy about new Banking Commission regulations that force them increase minimum monthly payments to the point where someone might actually pay off an account. (Your minimum monthly amount likely will increase by a modest bit on the next statement.)

John