Advanta Corp. announced it is freezing almost a million accounts as a consequence of an unprecedented 20.15 percent default rate in April. The Philadelphia Enquirer has the story in “Advanta moves up card-freeze date“. This article begs the question, what does a credit card company do when the default rate climbs so high that being …
Category Archives: Credit Card Industry
Are Banks Helping Cardholders?
I watched NBC’s Nightly News tonight and wasn’t surprised to see the segment about the gentleman whose Bank of America credit card account’s interest rate was nearly doubled without cause. The man reportedly hasn’t made a late payment in more than a decade and wasn’t over his limit. Bank of America and other banks have …
Homeland Security vs. Credit Card Companies
The United States House of Representative’s Committee on Homeland Security is looking at something other than terrorists. This past week they put their sights on credit card companies like MasterCard and Visa.
Get Paid to Close a Credit Card Account
Yahoo Finance has the news, “AmEx paying card holders to close their accounts“. What an odd thing. Certainly, a sign of our times. American Express Co is apparently offering a limited number of card holders $300 if they will pay off their balances and then close their American Express accounts. So, if you’ve got an …
FRB’s Bank Card and Mortgage Delinquencies Map
This is a cool tool! The Federal Reserve Bank of New York offers dynamic maps of bank card and mortgage delinquencies in the United States. It’s one of the coolest tools I’ve seen in a while. The Credit Condition Map is actually fun to play with. The irony is that while you play with it, …
House of Cards
Don’t miss “House of Cards: Why Analysts Fear $1 Trillion Credit Card Market Could Be Next Crash” by Martha C. White in the 1/21/09 issue of The Washington Independent.
Credit Card Industry Not Looking Good in 2009
You’ve seen the Capital One commercials in which dumb thugs dressed in chain mail and carrying broad axes do random damage. The question asked is, “What’s in your wallet?”. Before the current economic crisis, those commercials were (at best) cute. But even in good days, the commercials seemed to hint at a mixed message. Now, …
