Anyone who has worked in the credit card business for any length of time has seen periods like this one, in which masses of credit cardholders are hit with significant changes in the terms of their credit card accounts.  

We, who are not the CEO’s making these decisions, recognize that these changes are an integral part of profit making and the profit-taking cycle that credit card companies engineer, and that they seldom have anything to do with any current economic conditions.  

As far as I can tell, the company for which I work has billions in assets and is in no economic danger.  

So it seems, to me, that right now is a bad time for lenders to be aggressively pursuing this profit making strategy when it is at the expense of people who are already struggling.  

A lot of customers agree. And they are fighting back. [Read more →]

My original intent in the post below was to write about my visit to a credit card debt reduction site in the U.K. and, specifically, about a post I read on that site’s forum.

The author is a 29-year old man who ran up debt going to school. His life is further complicated by being in relationship with a Canadian woman who is returning to Canada.

He wrote to ask for advice on how he could handle his debts from Canada if he followed her and emigrated. The U.K. credit counselor basically told him he should find a debt counselor in Canada.

But the guy was grappling with whether he should follow his partner to Canada or not.  

An idea occurred to me then that I felt spoke to his needs. I felt compelled to post it. [Read more →]