Thirty Four Percent And a Bagel to Go
Add in 34% APR and we're even.
That's how credit card companies like to handle any delay in payment these days.
I guess even businesses are starting to live beyond their means.
Lean production and business models are becoming extinct in the finance sector (not to mention customer service).
Why pay for a college degree when you can outsource for less? All they need is someone to sit and tell you why you are getting screwed, and that there is nothing you can do about it.
If you get really mad you can talk to an upper level manager who has a totally different sheet of BS to read aloud to you.
I heard somewhere that if I wrote my congress woman and told her about the inadequate, not to mention impartial, penalties that were being dispersed by these companies she could help.
So I wrote her...
four times.
Then I remembered that she always calls my house around election time.
Even if I tried I couldn't miss that phone call.
So I decided to wait it out until then.
I can't blame the credit card companies, even though I call them names all the time.
They are just reacting to modern day business standards (If the public is going to pay it, were gonna charge em).
Think about it.
We can get mad and talk nasty, but they don't care.
Most of them are an ocean away.
If everyone who was on the bottom end of these ridiculous charges said hell no, do you think we would be having these problems right now? The fact is we are so scared of credit reports and future financial statements that we are forgetting to live in the present, or we want something expensive so bad that we will sign anything just to get it.
It has gotten to the point that if we do not agree with a contract we are out of luck.
They are not going to budge on the terms.
Why should they? For every one contract that is turned down ten more are probably accepted.
It is funny to me that all these giant companies are supposed to be in competition with each other but they all carry the same standard contract.
We'll I am lying; the names and arbitration locales are different.
But pushing those aside, they are all basically the same.
What is going to be done about it? Nothing.
They are making a ton of money on the modern day financial trend:Buy now give em everything you got later.
Independence goes a long way.
Until the majority can walk away from these monster companies with a smile and a bright future, the trend is going to continue.
Call me a hippie, but damn the man.
A problem like this should not have to be solved with big legislation and extensive media coverage after the trend has weakened and they have milked us for all that we can give.
So remember, the fines are not the most exasperating factor that emerges from these affairs.
They are just the parameters hiding beyond the shadows of the real quandary, sitting idle as the results of something much more frustrating: the illusion of power these companies so gracefully and willingly dangle in front of our faces.
"Illusion" being the key descriptor here.