Hey I just want a bailout for my student loans! I mean, c'mon!

The problem is not simply bailing out people from credit cards. The problem is that credit cards take advantage of consumer behavior and prevent them from understanding the extent of their original agreement. Case in point:

1)one credit card of mine has been continuing to assess $20 late fees per month despite the fact that I've already paid the account off in full. I've spent 10 months trying to get this credit card company to correct the problem (and they still haven't).

2)Some credit card companies hide the full extent of the fees they are charging. On my second credit card (Chase), I was distressed to find out last week that they had been charging my account 20% interest for the last two years because of a cash advance I made two years ago. That was part of the credit card agreement, I admit (even though I thought I had paid it off long ago, which would have returned the rate to a normal one). The problem is that the online account management states the balance only without notifying you about the interest rate or the amount of money you are paying in interest. (I no longer receive paper statements). If I had known what interest rate I was really paying, I would have paid it off immediately. It's in the credit card's best interest not to let you know this information.

3)Credit card companies are famous for ignoring disputes and pressuring you to resolve disputes via telephone. That way, customers have no way to have a record of the conversations. And when a customer service rep tells you something, you have no way to verify it has actually occurred. Citibank (the group we bailed out) was a company that misrepresented to me the agreement repeatedly.

4)You may find this amazing, but it is extraordinarily difficult to keep track of legal agreement and the current terms in force for a credit card. Almost every single credit card company I've dealt with has refused to send me the most recent copy of the agreement if I needed it. They change the
terms so frequently that I never know if the copy I have is actually the one in force. As a result, I am frequently in the position of having no idea what the legal agreement actually says.
(This is actually an extremely easy solution. They could put the PDF of the existing contract online, but most credit card companies do not do this).

5)it is practically impossible for an individual to challenge these fees after the credit card has decided to impose them. We need better disclosure laws and more rules about what credit card agreements can do. The problem is that Congress seems unwilling to do these things at the same time it is gushing with generosity towards Citi, etc.

6)most credit cards I've seen have not been forthcoming about the proper way to close an account. They don't list this information on the website, they don't have a button to pay off your balance in full and close the account. Instead, they use ambiguity/obfuscation to prevent you from knowing how to close an account. I speak from experience.

7)Credit card companies put this binding mandatory arbitration clauses that are overwhelmingly in favor of these national banks. (See robert Berner's groundbreaking report about how National Arbitration Forum is coaching credit card companies about how to win at arbitration
http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/08_24/b4088072611398.htm#readerComments

Fortunately, the Comptroller of the Currency is now helping customers to resolving complaints with credit cards. I only recently heard about them.

http://www.helpwithmybank.gov/

You make the problem out to be moral hazard on individuals. I see it differently. As an individual I am expected to pay off my debts. Why do we have a more lax standard when it comes to credit card companies themselves?

Pretty sobering, Robert. I hope folks read your comment. How did you get in touch with the Comptroller of the Currency?

I'm 26 years old. I have 6 credit cards all from different banks. My 1st card (Capital One) I've had since I was 16 years old (mom co-signed, no I'm not just an authorized user). I have never missed a payment with any of my cards, never been charged a late fee, and fully understand the terms of my agreement. i.e. Cash Advance rates are trememdously higher and balances with a lower APR will be paid off first, etc. Why is this so hard for people to understand? I am 100% paper free and get all my statements online. I receive text message, phone calls, or an email when my statements are ready and alerts when a payment has posted or I'm close to a payment date. All my statements are available online and interest rates are clearly posted on all sites (Citi, Capital One, Chase, B of A).

I do everything right. Maybe you should too.

I am curious as to why ceo's of major companies are allowed to sit on each other's board of directors. Or am I misinformed about this? If not, how extensive is it? Egregiously excessive executive compensation has seemed to me to be the clearest indication of how skewed our economic system has become since at least as early as the early nineties.

The problem I see with bailing out people with credit card debt is that it is almost one in the same as bailing out the banks. You are rewarding mistakes and poor decision making. The bail out should reflect progress and positive actions such as advances in infrastructure, technology, or even paying off the nation's student loans.

To follow up on two things from my previous comment:

1)Your web software bleeped out the URL of the Office of the Comptroller site. Google "Help with my bank" (it's at helpwithmybank.gov ) and that will bring you there. They have a complaint form (a PDF), and I've been told that credit card companies are required by law to respond quickly.

2)Wow, I probably sound like a basket case, but I just discovered that Chase had tacked onto my credit card account a "Payment Protector" fee for every month. It's one of those unnecessary optional services that customer service reps try to sell you every time you call them. I certainly never agreed to that. Now here's the rub. This fee has been on my statement for over a year, and I never noticed it! One of the contributing reasons is that I chose to go paperless 2 years ago. The online account management website doesn't actually list your interest rate and finance charges on the website itself; it's on a PDF file (and on the bottom of page 2). I don't inspect my credit card PDF statement every month (especially because I don't charge much on this card). But the key information about interest rates and finance charges was on the bottom of page 2. This is a detail I certainly would have caught in the era of paper statements, but when it's on the clumsy PDF, I totally missed it.

I am reluctant to see conspiracies where there is simply incompetence (on my part as well as the bank's). But I think credit card businesses deserve better oversight with regard to how information is presented. The Chase web interface is lovely and clearly a lot of thought went into it...except it requires several extra steps to find out your interest and finance charges. I think government intervention would help here. It's in the interest of these banks to present information easily and accurately.

With regard to Patrick's comments, credit card companies have definitely made things easier.(And I'm averaging maybe 1 or 2 late payments for about every 500 bills annually I have to pay online). But if your financial situation changes, the deadlines become more critical, and it's a lot easier to slip up.