Credit Card Reform? Read the Fine Print.

Casey McKinney

23.10.09

I just wrote (and then accidentally didn’t save…what a metaphor) a whole longish piece about credit and how a couple of my credit cards have jumped or will jump from around 12 to nearly 30% APR in the next month as Congress pats itself on the back today for passing a reform law yesterday, while in the meantime for the next 15 months––the real time it will take before that law is implemented according to a New York Times editorial and made more clear by Harry Moroz at The Huffington Post today––the credit card companies will gouge away at you harder than Frank Black can belt out a song.  So be careful, read the fine print in your next statements.  Then get out the scissors, cut extraneous cards up (which could be all of them, but keep the thumb, um…ha), and join a credit union to pay them off if you have to. Better yet, if you don’t have a card don’t get one until….well never, or at least wait untll the reforms are implemented and then just use one forever for gas or subway cards.

But what do I know. I’ve heard if you close down the wrong card your credit score can worsen because of it.

One I will keep even, as it rises, for emergencies, as we don’t have healthcare still and have a baby on the way.
So that’s the brief version.  Read the Moroz piece, listen to the Pixies (both in links above) and have a nice day.


-Casey McKinney

 

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