Damned If You Do, Damned If You Bank

You could be Jesus, Buddha, Mohammad, or Abraham.

You’re still going to have to pay stupid credit card fees to your bank.

Next year, Bank of America will change an annual fee up to $99 to some of their best, most honest customers.

And if you bank with Citigroup, expect your annual fee for not putting more than $2,400 a year on your credit card.

That’s right.

Hell, you could be Mother Teresa of credit cards, but you must pay the fee for being an angel.

These new “punish the best customer fees” come after this year’s credit card reform passed forbidding credit card companies from raising interest rates on existing card balances.

So what happens to your credit score if you get hit with these annual fees?

According to Sandra Block, “Your Money” columnist for USA Today, you can do three basic things: call and complain, weigh the benefits, or leave.

“If your card issuer won’t waive the fee, you’ll have a choice: Pay the annoying fee or close your account. Unfortunately, this decision isn’t as clear-cut as it sounds, because closing an account could hurt your credit score,” Block wrote.

Unfortunately, she failed to suggest that you should call your senator or congressman and demand this theft not take place immediately.

But you’d think that credit card companies would welcome rules to limit consumer’s spending habits.

Instead, all of the top credit card companies except American Express are experiencing higher than normal delinquency rates.

Bank of America has the highest annualized card write-offs and payments at least 30 days overdue, which is why it is screwing with its best customers, you think?

To save its financial ass to the tune of $8 billion in the third quarter, Citibank cancelled hundreds of thousands of its gas station affiliated credit cards (namely Shell, Citgo, ExxonMobil, and Phillips 66-Conoco) with little warning, calling the closings a “routine review.”

And these cancellations occurred with good, active standing customers, too, MSNBC reported.

We must agree with Lita Epstein, author of “The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Improving Your Credit Score.” who wrote at WalletPop.com:

“By raising interest rates so high, they threw a lot of people over the edge. Sure, people should not have gotten themselves in so deep with credit card debt, but knowing they were there the banks should instead be working with people to help them get their debts paid off.”

In other words, Miss Epstein ought to write another book titled,

“The Complete Idiot’s Guide to NOT WRECKING THE GLOBAL ECONOMY!!!”

— Nathan Diebenow