Why... Banking Industry... Why!!!

I was looking on the MSN home page (www.msn.com) after signing out of Hotmail (www.hotmail.com) when I noticed the headline "Banks Punish Perfect Customers." posted by Kim Peterson a technology/business blog contributor to MSN. If you are like myself you are getting just sick and tired of hearing and reading about Obama giving a gazillion dollars away of tax payers money here for the struggling automakers and another gazillion dollars away of tax payers money there for the failing banking industry because of the infamous Credit Default Swaps that swapped nothing more then "stupidity" between one banker to another! So I figured What Now!!!

After reading the article and having it leave such a sour taste in my mouth (more so then drinking the sour milk 4 days past the sell by date which happened to me today ICK!!) I could not believe what I was reading. Apparently Bank of America and Citigroup (the two most chaotic banks out there) among other banks were testing the idea of attaching an annual fee between 30 to 90 dollars to customers that demonstrate actual responsible banking/credit card pay back responsibility. I am in that responsible category as well never missing a payment for the 10+ years I have owned my Capital One card. How can a bank justify this move? What shady business practices they must have when they are even contemplating GOUGING the responsible card members to try and squeeze out every last dollar they can find when in fact it was not the responsible people's FAULT that Big Bank CEO's bankrupted the country for the last year!!!

I hate to say this because Capital One has been great throughout the years but even within the past year they raised my interest rate 5 points to 17.9% from 12.9% that I was at for the previous 5 years. I have never missed a payment for the life of the card and have been very responsible in never spending more than I could afford to pay back in that month. (Great parenting!!) Is that where I potentially screwed myself!!! Go figure, so then Capital One pigeon holes me into a corner and says if I do not accept the terms and conditions to this interest rate hike they would close my account. Really!! So then My wonderful credit score I have worked so hard to maintain would go lower. What do you do!! So when I called Capital One to verify that this was in fact true, I ended up keeping my account as I have no other credit card and I just said to them raising my rate was ridiculous however its fine because I don't use the rate anyway so whatever!! Now my sarcasm probably just landed myself an annual fee as well. JERKS!!

So America BEWARE!! and step up to the plate with complaints and show the Big Banks we will not be bullied any longer. Maybe it is time Wall Street stop watching Disney Movies for their business practice guidelines of stealing from the rich and giving to the poor and actually formulate a plan that encompasses "Common Sense" somewhere. It just might actually work!!!