Ryan Schneider, president of Capital One Financial, stated in a letter to Rep. Betsy Markey, he will not raise rates as she requested after she had drafted a letter signed by 17 members of Congress. They continue to raise rates in New York, but slyly, through the practice of imposing annual fees that were waived in prior years for their customers in good standing. When annual fees are challenged, they point to the economy and their credit card losses. How ironic and arrogant.

How do I know this? I personally called Capital One on October 27^th and had a major discussion with an account manager about raising interest rates and annual fees. He diplomatically explained to me the business of business: profit; and how their profits had been grossly and negatively affected by current consumer default and late payments (America will see the truth of that at the end of the quarter).

I’m no Ann Minch aka Rockerchic4God, but the silent retort in my head was “Capital One, are you stupid?” My argument was simply that if Capital One or any other bank continually raises interest rates and tacks on or reinstates annual fees, you will continually have credit card default and late payments. I further explained that it makes sense to do for their customers what the Administration did for them. Of course they are not in the business of making sense, so no resolve.

On the evening of October 28^th when I contemplated contacting Suze Orman (since she had Ann Minch on her show), guess who calls me for a chat? Capital One! I was elated! I thought, hey they considered our conversation and they’ll drop the annual fee and return my interest rate to 6.17%. Nope. That makes too much sense. It was a survey. A survey? Yep. A survey to zero in on the issue and the customer service rendered. They asked questions to which I was to answer; but they already knew the answers. I was to rate the answers. Just taking up my time. More arrogance! Let us think credit unions and community banks…

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Many of us have credit cards. Credit cards issued by American banks, or so it seems. Has your rate gone up since the Recession? Why? In a time of national crisis shouldn’t they go down or at least stay where they were?

I had the opportunity two weeks ago to speak to a Chase manager over the telephone. After typically being informed by a recording that the conversation would be monitored or recorded, I brought up the issue of them receiving “bail-out” funds and maybe it would be good business to help bail-out American consumers and business people by not raising rates and not cutting credit limits which would heighten the debt-ratio and thereby lower scores for many.

Her response was that the funds were returned. “Okay, but what about banks like Capital One? They have pretty much kept their credit card rates low across the board while pushing low-rate car loans, yes?” I asked. She agreed hesitantly, but immediately thereafter countered with a mindless statement “They’re a failing bank. Chase is a healthy bank, that’s why we were able to return the funds.” I wondered about Bank of America.

Whether Capital One is a failing bank or not, is that a relevant remark? I didn’t ask her, but I’m asking you, “If all the banks that returned the funds are healthy banks, (actually they returned the funds to escape further Recession-fighting government regulations) why are they raising rates, decreasing credit limits AND not making any loans to consumers and business people?”

I didn’t ask her this question because I could see the conversation becoming a verbal scrimmage, going on forever without any satisfaction for me other than knowing some American banks are in business to make profits, period. They’re willing to war with the Obama Administration and America because Profits-Only is the country where their allegiance lies.

What do you think?

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As part of the Recovery Act, the ARC program was created as a no-interest, deferred payment loan to help small businesses that have a history of good performance, but as a result of the tough economy, are struggling to make debt payments. ARC loans will be disbursed within a period of up to six months and will provide funds to be used for payments of principal and interest for existing, qualifying small business debt including mortgages, term and revolving lines of credit, capital leases, credit card obligations and notes payable to vendors, suppliers and utilities. Repayment will not begin until 12 months after the final disbursement. Borrowers don’t have to pay interest on ARC loans. After the 12-moth deferral period, borrowers will pay back the loan principal over a period of five years. ARC loans will be made by commercial lenders, not SBA directly. For more information on ARC loans, visit www.koHResources.com.

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It’s an advance against credit card sales. You can be funded in as little as 10 days after the required paperwork is processed. The secret is to show that your business accepts credit card payments and that you have at least $2,500. to $3,500. per month in sales with the last 4-6 consecutive months of Visa/MC statements. In most cases the application consists of a single page.

Fico Scores/Reports. If your credit score is not what you had hoped, we recommend reading Rich Dad’s Advisors®, both available at Amazon.com.

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