Political commentator says credit card bill is a fraud

Not everyone is rejoicing over President Obama signing the Credit CARD Act today.  Controversial author and political commentator, Jim Morris, is circulating his skeptical views in an article entitled “Obama’s Credit Card Reform is a Fraud”.

As suggested by its title, the article focuses on the president’s failure to “reform the most basic offense” of credit card companies: their usuary.  Morris calls for concrete restrictions in the form of interest rate caps that would prohibit extremely high interest rates and ridiculous, punitive rate hikes.  

Do you agree with Morris that President Obama and the Congress sold out to the powerful influence of credit card companies?  Does the legislation do enough?  

[ Read Dick Morris’ article. ]

Comments

[students credit card articles]

people nowadays re highly dependent on credit cards. It's not bad at all as long as you know how to use it the right way so to prevent debt problems with your banks. beforehand, you should choose a credit card company with low interest and as much as possible pay your bills before the deadline to gain good credit points.

[Consumer Complaints]

I tried to order Dell all in one v313 printer online on December 31st. The original price was 99 dollars, there was 30 dollars off due to holiday. I was charged additional for a black cable because it is not wireless when I tried to customerize it, but anyway I got additional 25 dollars off because I didn't want one year warranty. I thought it was a great deal. then I received acknowledge email from dell saying we have received your order and estimated delivery date is january 8th. I didn't received my order, then I called dell on january 9th. They told me I need to have order number in order to look up their system about my order, but I nerve received order number from dell and I only received purchase ID from the acknowlege email, but they told me purchase ID won't work, they asked my name and phone number, but my order record still wasn't showed up. (I think they found my record, but pretend not able to find my record because I somehow got 25 dollars off from elimination of 1 year warranty), anyway the person who answered the phone told me she can't do anything about it if I want the original price, therefore she said she would transfer me to electronic department, after that I was transfered three more times, they kept telling me they can't do anything about it and I talked to wrong department, the last person who answered the phone told me to hold and she hang up after five minutes. I was regret I didn't wirte down their names, then I called again, the first person who answered named Nigel, he told me he would transfer me to electronic department, the person named hussein (at least that is what him told me) told he was not the right person I need to talk to right after I did my explanation, then he said to me he would transfer me to right person, anyways the last person I talked to named Daphne. I gave a five minutes explanation, she told me she was not the right person to talk to. She told me she would transfer me to customer care center. I explained to her that I have spent almost one and half hours to get a printer at a price that I try to get form the first time, but she still told me she was the one I suppose to talk to, then she put me on hold, I decided to wait for my last chance, at last Daphne hanged up after I have spent 20 minutes waiting. I decided to call again to make a complain to someone who is in charge. As soon as I required to speak to a manager, the guy who answer the phone put me on hold first, then hanged up again. The reason I post it is because I want wo find out how many people who have same experience as me in Dell. ANd I want Dell to improve their customer service, not just lower their products' price to attract customers. POst your experience in dell, it doesn't matter if it is good or bad, you do this for all of dell customers

[Jazzy]

While I wished the Sanders Amendment would have passed, which would have capped usurious interest rates, this is an excellent first step for a strong foundation. Future deliberations and bills will come forth to augment this legislation.

[sandy23]

I know there was some attempt by Dodd and Bernie Sanders to put a cap on interest rates but the cap was not included in the bill. I don't think the President "sold out" I think they knew what they could get and went for a 1st step. Some times we want everything to change immediately but the the rule in most government action is "incrementalism", one step at a time.

I can't figure out if the law prohibits retroactive increases in interest on past purchases, can anyone enlighten me?

[Sharon Barlow]

Obama sold out? I don't think so. The current legislation is a good first step. The second will be for consumers to change the credit culture ourselves. With higher fees and fewer perks, hopefully we'll use those pesky cards less. And if we aren't using the cards as much, the CC companies will have to change the way they do business to entice us back into the fold.