I am officially back and on the front lines
I have great news: I am back!
As mentioned in my last post about five months ago, I ran
for state representative here in
.
Despite the unfavorable outcome, running for office was a
great experience, especially because I enjoy people. When I decided to run, I
set a goal to knock on doors for 100 days in a row. It was a goal I
accomplished and in so doing met thousands of people. While I didn’t quite make the runoff, I feel
like I gained tremendous support and insight about my community.
By the way, thanks to those of you who are fans of this blog
and made contributions. I really appreciate it. Who knows what the future holds? I may run again next year. If that is the case, I’ll need your help
again. For the official results of the
election, view the Georgia Secretary of State’s web site.
As it relates to the credit card industry, so much has
occurred over the past few months. In many ways, the industry has gotten worse
since the passing of the Credit CARD Act.
I was looking through some of the recent comments posted on this blog
under Post Your Horror Story, and I was amazed at the stories of consumers,
including an incident about a man who was stranded in
Finally, as proven by the constant influx of horrific comments posted since June, the work is not done. So I am eager to get back to normal and provide you with important information on how to avoid being taken advantage of by the industry. And if you are wondering what ever happened to me and my situation, absolutely nothing has changed.
Greetings! I’m Kevin D. Johnson, a business owner who has recently assumed the role of consumer advocate and internet activist. Atlanta, Georgia is my home.
Upon returning from my wonderful honeymoon in Jamaica in October 2008, I received what I thought was an ordinary American Express bill, but to my surprise it was a disappointing letter informing me that my credit line was reduced by about 65% for a highly suspicious and discriminatory reason. Considering my excellent credit score and pristine payment history, it just didn’t make sense. However, what does make sense are the unfair and insidious policies that I have uncovered when asking why. It is time to change them.
I created this web site to document and share my challenging journey to change what is wrong, unfair, and unjust in the credit card industry. The ultimate goal of this web site is to inform consumers of ways to stand up for themselves against treacherous business practices and to educate consumers about how to improve their credit. Finally, I hope to encourage a more open dialogue with credit card companies about their policies–good and bad.
I am proud to say that this blog's unyielding demand for change led to an important 
Welcome back, Kevin. I'm sorry the election didn't go the way you wanted, but they say everything happens for a reason. My Mom used to tell me that it meant that there was something else better for you out there.
I'm sure you and everyone else realizes that since you've been away, things have gone from bad to worse. I've closed all but one of my credit card accounts as they all wanted to jack my rates up to over 25%, and I refused to pay that. So I'm paying them off at the old rate. Of course, my FICO score is probably down low, but I don't care. From now on, I only buy things with cash. If I don't have the cash, I don't buy it. Screw these banks and credit card companies. It would serve them right if we all declared bankruptcy. Something has to be done! I've written to my senators, representatives, etc. but all I get is a response about this "wonderful Credit Card bill" they passed. What a crock! They gave the companies a six month license to do as they damn well pleased, and now we are paying for it. I'm sure if they could jack up my interest rates overnight, they didn't need 6 months to prepare their software to adhere to the new bill. A total and complete crock. I guess they think we are all stupid. But we're not.
Everyone should take their money out of the banks and put it into credit unions NOW.
Posted by: Carole May | December 07, 2009 at 12:34 PM
Kevin, I'm glad to see you back. I'm not sure if anyone has mentioned Chase lately, but I just discovered they reversed my interest back to the low rate I had several months ago. I'm assuming they did that for everyone that was current.
Posted by: Sharon Barlow | November 19, 2009 at 06:56 PM