From Noah.org

American Express sucks

I used my AmEx Blue card to pay for a large vet bill. The introductory interest rate was under 5%, which I considered fair and small enough that I was comfortable carrying a balance. I setup an automatic payment from my bank to pay $100 a week. That worked fine for over a year, but then there was a little mixup and the automatic payments stopped. I only became aware of this when I opened by AmEx statement to see that payment was past due. OK, this was my responsibility -- my fault. I fixed the automatic payments so that they started up again.

Next month I notice that my interest rate was raised. This is a common scam in the credit industry -- if you fall behind in a payment they punish you by raising the interest rate. OK, the credit industry is run by dicks. This is not an industry that makes money by being friendly to consumers. But that isn't what pissed me off.

What really pissed me off was the new interest rate. It was a number that I didn't even realized was legal. In fact, this was the highest interest rate I have ever heard of in my entire life. They raised my rate to 30.2%. I haven't even heard of a rate this high quoted in the news programs that cover the slimeball tactics of the credit industry.

30.2 %

I called up AmEx and paid the remainder of my bill and canceled the card. They offered to reduce the interest rate down to 18.5%. I was too offended by a 30% interest rate to give them my business even back at 5%. I would never take out an 18% loan anyway. Even that is way too high.

American Express puts on airs of being exclusive and different. It's all marketing. They're all the same. So how do you choose a credit card? I start by throwing out the companies that would even consider a 30% interest rate.

There used to be a time when we had usury laws to protect against loan sharks, but these times are no more. Generally, I believe that fewer laws are a good thing, but it's behavior like this that makes me doubt that any industry can regulate itself. A lot of consumers don't have the option to simply pay off their bill if a credit card company annoys them.