Consumers Union Attacks Credit Card Industry for the Holidays
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Consumers Union, best known as publisher of Consumer Reports magazine, believes the credit card industry deserves a lump of coal this holiday. To drive this point home, the group has produced a satirical animation “It’s Always Christmas Time (for VISA)”. According to Consumers Union, the animation highlights unexpected credit card fees, rate hikes, and misleading contracts.
Consumers Union is urging Congress to pass reform bills that would do things like ban “universal defaults” (which some credit card issuers use to hike fees for missed payments on unrelated bills), prevent late fees on bills postmarked before the due date, and prohibit over-the-limit fees if the issuer approves the charge. The animation, which includes a song by Texas bluegrass band the Austin Lounge Lizards with lyrics like “With our plastic safety net/we’ve snagged the biggest loan shark yet” can be viewed at http://www.CreditCardReform.org.
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