No Extra Credit - actions companies will take to make money, including financial services companies - Column

Progressive, The, May, 1999 by Barbara Ehrenreich

Of course, I tried complaining to Working Assets, too, where I was reassured by "Shirley" that someone very high up, possibly "Martha," would call me right back and straighten everything out. Weeks later, and after a few more phone calls to folks at the Shirley level of the Working Assets hierarchy, I have yet to hear a word from Martha or anyone else there. My advice to anyone contemplating the new credit card that The Nation is currently offering: If you end up calling the 800 number on the back of the card to complain about the service, don't expect Victor Navasky to pick up the phone.

In the end, there is only one rule of capitalism, and it isn't "honor your contracts" or "pay your debts." In fact, it's more like a law of nature than a rule, and it goes like this: Whatever a corporation, and perhaps especially a corporate purveyor of "financial products," can get away with, it will. If a credit card company comes to regret that it charges only 10 percent interest, it can find a way to double that rate overnight. If its CEO needs to renovate his ski lodge in Vail, he can pump up the late fee, and no one will know except for those victims of obsessive-compulsive disorder who take the time to read the fine print on the back of their bills. If it's legal, the corporate guys will do it. And if it's not legal, they'll hire a raft of lawyers to make sure it becomes so in the next session of Congress.

Here's one thing you can do to help: Representative John La Falce (Democrat of New York) has introduced a bill, HR 4410, that would make it a violation of the Truth-in-Lending Act for a credit card issuer to penalize a cardholder solely because he or she maintains a zero balance. Send that man a nice big hug!

Or you can join me in the quest for revenge. Build up a five-figure credit card debt, circumventing your credit limit however you can. Then, when good old Y2K rolls around, just let those bloodsuckers try to collect.

Barbara Ehrenreich, author of "Blood Rites" and "The Snarling Citizen," writes each month for The Progressive.