Bait and Switch

From Yahoo!: A Credit Card You Want to Toss.

Credit-card issuers have drawn fire for jacking up interest rates on cardholders who aren't behind on payments, but whose credit score has fallen for another reason. Now, some consumers complain, Bank of America is hiking rates based on no apparent deterioration in their credit scores at all.

The major credit-card lender in mid-January sent letters notifying some responsible cardholders that it would more than double their rates to as high as 28%, without giving an explanation for the increase, according to copies of five letters obtained by BusinessWeek. Fine print at the end of the letter -- headed "Important Amendment to Your Credit Card Agreement" -- advised calling an 800-number for the reason, but consumers who called say they were unable to get a clear answer. "No one could give me an explanation," says Eric Fresch, a Huron (Ohio) engineer who is on time with his Bank of America card payments and knows of no decline in the status of his overall credit.

Analysts also say they are surprised by the magnitude of the rate raises Bank of America is imposing on affected cardholders. Michael Jordan, 25, a software developer who lives in Higganum, Conn., says he received a letter from Bank of America in late January advising him that his card rate would rise from 9.99% to 24.99%. The software developer, who earns $80,000 per year, says he was "shocked" because his payments had been on time and his credit score hadn't changed in the last year. In fact, Jordan says, he has only $4,500 in overall outstanding credit-card debt on two cards and that, on the Bank of America card in question, he had paid down his balance to $3,000 from $3,700 last August.

Firstly, the rates are going up because that's what happens in a "credit crunch". However, individuals do not care about the "larger macroeconomic picture". They care about what happens to them.

From the "micro" perspective, they are morons.

Why would you be at the mercy of an industry where in sharp contrast with all the principles of contract law, all rules can be changed retroactively and unilaterally?

However, that's what credit cards do, and legally!

However, people take on debt voluntarily, and the credit cards change the rules on them once they are in no position to negotiate. What's not to understand?

For this, one must call the sheeple for what they are -- imbecilic retarded morons.