Banks Clamp Down Harder on Credit Card Borrowers [View All]

[TexasLawyer]

A posting on Naked Capitalism, citing to a Business Week article:

http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2008/03/banks-clamp-down-harder-on-credit-card.html

Banks Clamp Down Harder on Credit Card Borrowers

An article in Business Week, and a related discussion on the blog Credit Slips, highlight a new and nasty trend: banks are refusing to give overstretched borrowers who negotiate repayment plans through credit counselors the interest rate breaks they once did.

In the old days, banks would reduce interest rates on balances due, sometimes to zero, to customers who worked out a repayment plan via not-for-profit credit counselors. But now the creditors have taken a page from Scrooge:

Until recently issuers often agreed to ratchet down interest rates permanently, to as low as 0%, for those working with credit counselors. That has been a critical concession, says the industry, since it makes monthly payments more affordable and helps ensure the principal is getting paid down. But now some credit-card companies are balking. Discover Financial Services, (DFS) counselors contend, won't cut rates below 17.9% for clients, while Capital One Financial (COF) is holding firm at 15.9%. At least 5 of the 13 largest issuers are offering smaller breaks on rates than they did five years ago, according to a study by the Consumer Federation of America....

Some companies are still willing to deal. JPMorgan Chase (JPM) announced a year ago it would cut rates to 0% for consumers who agree to a formal debt-management plan. Bank of America will drop to the low single-digit level or even to 0% in some instances.

Meanwhile, counselors are fretting that they aren't getting paid for their services as they did in the past. The credit counseling agencies historically have collected 15% of the total debt that's paid off. Today banks are forking over less than 8%, notes the National Foundation for Credit Counseling, the umbrella group for 1,500 counselors. That money goes to fund operations, so counselors worry they may have to skimp on services given the cutbacks....

http://www.businessweek.com/print/magazine/content/08_11/b4075038438661.htm#%23

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