     Christine Baker (Admin) | Wednesday, August 23, 2000 - 02:05 pm 
From http://www.bankrate.com/brm/news/cc/20000823.asp
"Bank card issuers made $5.5 billion in penalty fees in 1999, up from $4.8 billion in 1998, according to Credit Card Management Magazine. Ninety percent of those penalty fees were from late payments."
and
"Will consumer discontent toward card issuers bring a flurry of class-action lawsuits?
"I suspect the answer will be yes. We will see more. I certainly don't see the banks backing off from their aggressive practices," says Robert Green, a San Francisco attorney."
and
""Right now the credit card industry is trying to insulate itself from any legal accountability for any action they may take by pushing for mandatory arbitration," says Paul Bland, staff attorney with Trial Lawyers for Public Justice, a national nonprofit advocacy organization that litigates public interest cases.
"Almost all the big ones do it."
American Express, Discover, Bank One, MBNA America, Bank of America and Wells Fargo all have mandatory arbitration clauses. Citibank and Capital One do not."
At http://www.cardweb.com/cardtrak/news/2000/august/18a.html (thanks Shylock) you can see that the marketshare of the top ten credit card issuers went from 49% in 1990 to 78% in 2000.
The total credit card DEBT went from 151 billion 10 years ago to 490 billion!
Top Ten Bank Credit Card Issuers as of June 30, 2000
(ranked by $billions in credit card loans)
1. Citibank $79.1
2. Bank One/First USA $66.3
3. MBNA $61.1
4. Discover $44.2
5. Chase Manhattan $31.9
6. American Express $25.9
7. Providian $21.5
8. Bank of America $20.0
9. Capital One $16.4
10. Fleet $14.0
Total Top 10: $380.4 billion
Total Market: $490.0 billion
Market Share: 78%
Source: CardWeb.com's CardData
Top Ten Bank Credit Card Issuers as of June 30, 1990
(ranked by $billions in credit card loans)
1. Citibank $25.3
2. Discover $9.3
3. Chase Manhattan $7.5
4. First Chicago $6.3
5. MBNA $5.7
6. American Express $5.7
7. Bank of America $5.2
8. Bank of New York $3.6
9. Manufacturers Hanover $3.3
10. Wells Fargo $2.7
Total Top 10: $74.6
Total Market: $151.2
Marketshare: 49%
Source: CardWeb.com's CardData
It doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out what's going on here.
The corporate (government supported) goals are to
1) Get ALL consumers into the most debt possible
2) take away the right to sue
3) remove any CHOICES by industry consolidation
4) change the bankruptcy laws
Sometimes I wonder why I even maintain this site. After all, I'm trying to help people get better credit and understand credit scoring, so they can get lower rates and bigger credit lines.
It's like helping you dig your own grave. |
