NADER DOING WHAT HE DOES BEST
Socking It to the Credit Card Industry

Via the Houston Chronicle:

Robert Manning, author of "Credit Card Nation," who monitors the credit card industry closely, says that the companies market the subprime borrowers because they are more likely to keep high balances on their accounts month after month, often paying only the minimum finance charges. In contrast, wealthier cardholders pay off the balances each month and, as a result, pay the least in interest charges and fees.

In the back rooms of credit card companies, Manning says these more affluent quick-paying cardholders are referred to ironically as "deadbeats."

And

As a result, the banks and credit card companies are demanding that Congress change the bankruptcy laws, remove consumer protections and make certain that they will be able to collect every dime from the people they have pushed into bankruptcy. In effect, consumers would be placed in a virtual debtors prison and left with no chance to resume their lives as productive citizens. The bankruptcy courts would be converted into glorified debt-collection agencies.

Here's some friendly advice: if you have credit cards, cut them up; if you don't have credit cards, don't even think of getting them--they're a total scam. I've seen many people over the years run up massive levels of debt with their plastic. In reality, the credit card scam is simply legal loan sharking, only without the shark skin suits and Vito Corleone accents. Yet another way that corporations are out to ruin your life.

For more Ralph Nader on the credit industry, click here.

Thanks to Fatnoise Farms for the link.

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