Small Plastic Chains

By Brian Webber

Just after the election in 2004, I saw a special on PBS’s program Frontline called Secret History of the Credit Card. Thinking about it today reminds me how at least three times a week I get another damned piece of mail about credit cards. I see commercials about credit cards on TV, and hear them on the radio. Even my favorite magazine, The Nation, has ads for its own credit card in the pages. I do not have a credit card, but millions of Americans do, many of whom got their despite knowing the inherit drawbacks, the predatory nature of the credit card companies and their corruption.

I’ve heard many horror stories about these small plastic things that cause so much misery. Some are funny. One guy called in to a radio show I listen to and talked about how his credit card company dropped him because they weren’t making any money off him. He paid all his bills on time, and even when the company kept changing the due dates for the bills, often without informing him, he and wife still kept up, never missing a single payment, never having a late fee. In fact, he and his wife ended up making a game of it. Eventually the credit card company (he didn’t say which one) just gave up.

Other stories are not so humorous. A 41 year old man in Florida with a perfect credit record was denied a credit card because his report was mixed with his father’s and his brother’s. Here's how his credit report looked: 1) That he was married – he wasn’t. They listed his brother's wife as his. 2) They listed him as having four Social Security numbers: two of them belonged to his father and brother, respectively, and a third one to somebody he didn’t know. 3) They listed him as having more than one mortgage: his brother's mortgage was listed as his, and his own wasn't even listed! 4) His date of birth was wrong (it was his brother's). 5) They listed credit cards and bank accounts that he never had. 6) They listed financed loans at stores that he never had. 7) They listed him as living (and having rented) at places he’d never even seen. 8) They list him as employed in a hospital, which he is not, and never was.

There is no limit on the amount a credit card company can charge a cardholder for being even an hour late with a payment.Even if you make your credit card payments on time, the credit card bank can raise your interest rate automatically if you're late on payments elsewhere, or simply because the bank feels you have taken on too much debt. They should not be allowed to do this, especially not to those people who make their payments on time. It’s ridiculous!

People have lost much because they think that small rectangular piece of plastic is the answer for everything. Not enough in the bank account for the new TV? Credit card. Prescription costs went up? Credit card. Want to donate to charity but living on a fixed income? You get the idea.

The most shocking thing of all of this is not the lengths the credit card companies go to screw over their own customers (sadly a growth industry in 21st century America). It’s almost common knowledge at this point. The truly surprising aspect of the credit card culture is that people know the risks, yet still get a credit card, or two, then gleefully tell anyone unfortunate enough to be in earshot, myself for instance, about how high their limit is. It’s a struggle not to shout at them, call them stupid. They know what they’re getting into. It’s the financial equivalent of sky diving or swimming with the sharks.

Credit is no longer viewed as an earned privilege, where you had to have a job and demonstrate that you were worthy of a loan. As a result, credit cards have become a kind of 'yuppie food stamps.'

The worst credit mistake a person can make is getting a credit card.

What exactly has happened to us as a culture that we feel the need, even those of us with a livable wage and comfortable savings feel the need to possess a piece of plastic no larger than the pictures of our children or pets we keep in our wallets? What is it that compels allegedly fully grown adult humans to make themselves dependent upon Visa or MasterCard? That is for the historians to decide of course. In a new course available on DVD or VHS for 3 payments of $29.99, Credit Cards accepted, no CODs! I say it’s because Human beings are selfish by nature. If we weren’t, Communism would work.

I’d tell you to simply cut them up, to break your small plastic chains, but credit card companies will raise your rate if you cancel a card, so it is best to keep the accounts open until you pay them off. But once they’re paid…

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