The banking windmills

Bank of America sent me a wonderful offer the other day. I am sure you've gotten one too.

A low rate loan (9.99%) to CleanSweep® my debt. No collateral. No application fee. No annual fee. Up to $50 grand.

Oh, there's some fine print, of course. The rate is actually between 9.99% and 22.99%. I may be prohibited from using the loan to pay down debt if their company is profiting from my overdue balances. And that low, low rate that they say is "not a variable rate tied to an index..." is actually a rate they can vary "at our discretion."

Makes me want to just bend over and say "please."

The Oregon legislature regulated "payday" loan companies last session. And there are many noises coming from Congress and politicos that something has to be done to "fix" the mortgage crisis. But folks, if they really wanted to address the credit mess, they would start right there, with that little piece of plastic in your wallet.

Default rates of 27.99% used to be the province of crime lord vigorish. "Important account information enclosed" is printed on envelopes when what they are trying to do is help you dig yourself deeper into debt, get a little behind, so they can milk you like a cash cow. They flood your mailbox with these, so when the bill does actually does arrive, it gets tossed with the other junk it so looks like.

Now that the banks issuing these cards have had their puppets in Congress make bankruptcy so difficult, we need a crusader from the left, or the right, it does not matter since this is a bipartisan issue with plenty of moral authority from anyone's ideology, to get these blood suckers off our back. At least get their teeth out of our neck.

Give people a reasonable interest rate. Regulate bank card communications, how they represent their products. Allow people a chance to address their debt without incurring more debt at a higher rate.

We have laws that govern our banks, and we are going to have a few more that govern our mortgages. Misleading representations are prohibited in other banking.

It is time that we regulate in some way what has become the fuzzy concept of our money.