Tuesday, March 4, 2008

Credit Card ethics

Every once a while we recieve in the mail an application for an credit card. Usually a bank offers a you a great beginning rate at 0 percent APR for 6 months and a continuing rate of 8-12 percent. But hidden through all those offeres are sentences that are 6 inch in font and tells you in very complicated wording that the bank can change your interest rate for any reason provided they give you 2 weeks in advance. In the past month, banks have been hiking up interest rates on credit cards even through the users have always paid their bills on time. The reasoning given by banks is that the user have an outstanding balance somewhere else or their credit balance is too high. Some analysts have predicted the hike is caused by the credit crunch in the subprime loan sector. As an marketer, isn't it our duty to make sure our customers know what exactly they in for. Many people actually don't read or can't understand the wording in the offer letter about how interest rate works. I think banks need to enlarge the terms of agreement and make it easier to understand. Also is it right for banks to increase interest rates out of the blue? I think banks need to have a more defined statement of when and why is an interest rate rise accepted compared to the vague explanations that is given at the moment.