Looking for More Credit Card Transparency
Jeffrey McManus raises some interesting points about the type of data credit card companies share with their customers along with that they hold back. They’re good at telling you your balance, due date, and minimum payment, but McManus would like to see:
* When will I pay off this ding-a-dang debt?
* What is this ding-a-dang debt costing me?
Good points
I get my credit card statements online, where the information – while more up to date – is generally thinner than what you’ll find in a printed statement. For example, I can’t find out the APR for my cards online. What’s up with that? If you’re going to charge me interest, shouldn’t you have the decency to publish the rate you’re charging me? Fortunately, I don’t carry a balance, but still feel like I’m being mislead by my credit card providers.
November 15th, 2008 at 12:25 pm
Thanks for the link. Not telling you your API is borderline criminal/fraudulent, as far as I’m concerned, particularly because credit card companies can alter the interest rate on money they’ve already lent you whenever they want.
November 18th, 2008 at 12:19 pm
I agree that the credit card companies need to be more transparent, but I think people also put a lot of blame on financial institutions for the current state of things (sub-prime lending etc). Yes, they should do a better job, but there’s plenty of blame to go around.
If consumers didn’t spend far more than they could afford, there wouldn’t be a problem.
March 11th, 2009 at 10:36 am
It’s challenging to know how much you can afford if your lenders won’t actually tell you. As a public relations person who gets paid to post on blog comments, you should know this.