Credit Card companies preying on the poor
July 31, 2008 | regulation | Comments (0)Advocacy group Demos released a statement yesterday endorsing the freshly introduced “Credit Card Holders Bill of Rights.” As support for this US House bill Demos cited some interesting statistics about who credit card companies are “targeting” and how much they’re charging these customers in “penalty fees”:
Demos research shows that low-income families and households of color, primarily African Americans and Latinos, bear the brunt of the cost of credit card deregulation through excessive fees and high interest rates.
…Among cardholders who carry balances, those with household incomes below $25,000 are five times more likely than households earning over $100,000 to pay penalty interest rates higher than 20 percent.
…[O]nly seven percent of white cardholders are charges interest rates over 20 percent, but 15 percent of African-American cardholders and 13 percent of Latino cardholders pay such rates.
The Payday Pundit is glad to see Congress taking action against some real predatory lenders.
Comments»
No comments yet.