Elizabeth, great stuff as always as we need to keep talking about credit card related issues.

"merchant discount fee" . . . talk about a misnomer. I give Visa and MasterCard credit (no pun intended) for their marketing of the interchange fee to have any association with the word "discount." For those not familiar, the interchange fee is a percentage of each transaction that Visa and MasterCard banks collect from merchants every time a consumer uses a credit or debit card to pay for a purchase. This fee is the largest credit card fee and costs every American family hundreds of dollars per year.

In fact, I have seen the total coast of interchange fees not at $21 billion but $30.7 billion in 2005 and quickly rising with each passing year. PLsu, this is up from just $16.6 billion in 2001. One would expect that as the volume of plastic purchases increases and more technological advances are employed that the cost of processing transactions would decrease not exponentially increase.

I have been following this issue in my work with www.unfaircreditcardfees.com and certainly look forward to more Congressional hearings from Senators Dodd, Levin and others to address the numerous excessive fees and predatory practices of the credit card companies.

Elizabeth,

Thanks for talking about this.  This was a fantastic interview!  Keep on talking, and tell people the details about this that will make them mad.  They must get mad, or they won't pay attention.  You have a lot of credibility and influence.  You have the power to make a significant impact.  If there is ever anything I can do to help you out, please let me know. 

One note about credit reports and employment.  Employment law requires that anything used to make a hiring decision must be directly related to the job.  If the person applying for a job isn't going to be handling money, or do something on the job that relates to their credit rating, it cannot be used in the hiring decision.  There is a lot more background checking going on these days since 9/11, but employers still cannot make hiring decisions on information that is not related to the job that the candidate is being considered for.  So you don't need a credit rating to get a job, even a good one, and even if you sign a waiver.  If you are turned down for a job based on your credit rating, and it doesn't relate to the job you were being considered for, you could seek damages.  If you use credit cards and work in a financial services position that would require credit checks, only then you are putting your career credibility at risk. It must be job related.

Jim Anderson

The Truth About Credit

Although not positive I believe that the use of the mails for the purpose of harrassing any person -- and corporations are persons -- is a federal crime.

Now, I doubt that you individually are likely to bring the wrath of the DoJ down on your head. On the other hand as the leader of the criminal enterprise you propose, I wouldn't want to hazard a guess as to your future.

In the event I would recommend that you strip all identifying information from the envelope and its enclosures and when sealing it, wear rubber gloves and what with DNA identification getting increasingly more sensitive, a surgical mask.  Whatever you do, do NOT lick the envelope!!!!

I heard Dr. Warren on Fresh Air, and by chance, I am just wrapping up a dispute with a credit card company. I'm highly educated (pursuing the terminal degree in my field), fairly savvy about money, and even I've fallen into traps. Here's what I learned, and a few other additional tips:
1)Don't do an attractive balance transfer strictly over the phone. Paper trail paper trail paper trail. If you do one online, print out all the pages. I had done a few balance transfers in the past over the phone, but this was the first one that was a problem.
2)We can't cancel the card unless we want to lower our credit rating, so we're in a Catch 22. I suppose we can threaten to pay off the balance and become a "deadbeat" - paying off the balance every month.
3)Companies may cut off your online account access if you're a few days late! This was a new one. I was a couple of days overdue with my home equity line, went to pay it online, and the message in red that came up simply stated that they were unable to access my account at this time and to call the phone number. It was Sunday, they're not open Sunday, and so I forgot until Thursday. Fortunately, I didn't receive any draconian penalty, but now we have to watch out for this one.
(By the way - the balance transfer offer was to be zero percent for several months. I got my statement, and it was the 20+ percent rate. One phone call and their "research" didn't resolve it, so I had to get the BBB involved and ask that they review the original phone conversation. The credit card company restored the zero percent and credited the charges, but they said that the original phone representative was in error.)