“More games the credit-card companies play”
By Liz Pulliam Weston, MSN Money
May 18, 2004

Interest rates are falling, which means lower credit-card rates, right? Wrong. Lenders are changing due dates, the cut-off times to credit your account and even billing addresses to trick you.

Welcome to the topsy-turvy land of credit cards, where fixed rates change and variable rates don’t.

Logic-defying interest charges are just the latest trend in the credit-card wars, where lenders fight each other savagely for market share and then stick their customers with the bill.

Regarding debt-cancellation and debt-suspension contracts, like credit insurance, these contracts are marketed to people who are worried about paying their bills if they die, become disabled or lose their jobs. But the contracts tend to cover less and cost even more than credit insurance, which was ridiculously overpriced. The death benefits may now cover only accidental death, and the debt suspension is usually available only if the consumer stops using the credit card.

Also, it’s no enough that you get your payment into the credit-card processing center by a certain date. Now it has to be received by a certain time, typically noon or 1 p.m. in the processing center’s time zone. If you payment is in the late afternoon mail, you get slapped with a fee and possibly a higher interest rate. Some companies make things even more difficult by changing their payment addresses occasionally, ensuring that some payments will be late just because they had to be forwarded.

This is only a summarization. You can read the entire article on MSN Money

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