Coming SoonThe Card GameOn air and online November 24, 2009 at 9:00pm (check local listings)
Some top authorities on the consumer lending industry accepted FRONTLINE's invitation to weigh in with commentary on the industry, its range of products and the debate about a new regulatory framework. (read more »
 "The Card Game" Prologue |  Excerpt 1: Credit Card Disclosure |  Excerpt 2: A New Gov't Agency? |
As credit card companies face rising public anger, new regulation from Washington and a potential perfect storm of economic bad news, FRONTLINE correspondent Lowell Bergman examines the future of the massive consumer loan industry and its impact on a fragile national economy. In a joint project with The New York Times, Bergman and the Times talk to industry insiders, lobbyists, politicians and consumer advocates as they square off over new regulation and the possible creation of a consumer finance protection agency. How are the credit, debit and pre-paid card industries repositioning themselves to maintain high profits under the new rules? The stakes couldn't be higher as many fear the consumer loan industry could be at the center of the next crisis.
#creditcards
The New York Times Reports
Here's a series of articles and video reports being published in the coming weeks leading up to the November 24th PBS broadcast of the FRONTLINE documentary The Card Game.
 The Deal With Overdraft |  The Hidden Price of Prepaid Debt |  Costly Free Credit Reports |
Overspending on Debit Cards Is a Boon for Banks (The New York Times)September 8, 2009
Prepaid, but Not Prepared for Debit Card Fees (The New York Times)October 5, 2009
A Free Credit Score Followed by a Monthly Bill (The New York Times)November 3, 2009
A Squeeze on Customers Ahead of New Rules (The New York Times)November 9, 2009
PRESS RELEASE
FRONTLINE CORRESPONDENT LOWELL BERGMAN INVESTIGATES THE MASSIVE CONSUMER LOAN INDUSTRY
FRONTLINE Presents
THE CARD GAME
Tuesday, November 24, 2009, at 9 P.M. ET on PBS
www.pbs.org/frontline/creditcards
As credit card companies face rising public anger, new regulation from Washington and staggering new rates of default and bankruptcy, FRONTLINE correspondent Lowell Bergman investigates the future of the massive consumer loan industry and its impact on a fragile national economy.
In The Card Game, a follow-up to the Secret History of the Credit Card and a joint project with The New York Times airing Tuesday, Nov. 24, 2009, at 9 P.M. ET on PBS (check local listings), Bergman and the Times talk to industry insiders, lobbyists, politicians and consumer advocates as they square off over attempts to reform the way the industry has done business for decades.
"The card issuers could do anything they want," Robert McKinley, CEO of CardWeb.com, tells FRONTLINE of the industry's unchecked power over consumers. "They could change your interest rate. They could impose an annual fee. They could close your account." High interest rates along with more and more penalty fees drove up profits for the industry, Bergman finds, as the banks followed the lead of an aggressive upstart: Providian Bank. In an exclusive interview with FRONTLINE, former Providian CEO Shailesh Mehta tells Bergman how his company successfully targeted vulnerable low-income customers whom Providian called "the unbanked."
"They're lower-income people-bad credits, bankrupts, young credits, no credits," Mehta says. Providian also innovated by offering "free" credit cards that carried heavy hidden fees. "I used to use the word 'penalty pricing' or 'stealth pricing,'" Mehta tells FRONTLINE. "When people make the buying decision, they don't look at the penalty fees because they never believe they'll be late. They never believe they'll be over limit, right? ... Our business took off. ... We were making a billion dollars a year."
It took the economic collapse in the fall of 2008 to set the stage for potentially historic change in the consumer credit business. President Obama and his team pushed through a credit card reform bill in May, and they're now looking to establish a new Consumer Finance Protection Agency. But the banking and financial services industries contribute huge amounts of money to Congress -- and the jury is still out on whether the new regulations can pass. "It's a step in the right direction, but it's a modest step," says Harvard law professor Elizabeth Warren. "It's a set of very discrete new laws. And the credit industry instantly set to work on how they could run around them. By itself, that set of rules won't change the game."
"It's hard for them to get a bill through the U.S. Senate when the industry is pouring money into Washington," says Martin Eakes of the Center for Responsible Lending of the banks' political clout. "As Sen. [Dick] Durbin from Chicago recently said, 'The banks, even as unpopular as they are right now in this crisis, still own this place.'"
The Card Game is a FRONTLINE co-production with Cam Bay Productions and The New York Times. The film is written and produced by Lowell Bergman and Oriana Zill de Granados. The correspondent is Lowell Bergman. FRONTLINE is produced by WGBH Boston and is broadcast nationwide on PBS. Funding for FRONTLINE is provided through the support of PBS viewers. Major funding for FRONTLINE is provided by The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation. Additional funding is provided by the Park Foundation. FRONTLINE is closed-captioned for deaf and hard-of-hearing viewers and described for people who are blind or visually impaired by the Media Access Group at WGBH. FRONTLINE is a registered trademark of the WGBH Educational Foundation. The executive producer of FRONTLINE is David Fanning.
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Promotional photography can be downloaded from the PBS pressroom.
Press contact
Diane Buxton (617) 300-5375 diane_buxton@wgbh.org