JPMorgan Raises Monthly Minimum Payments Before Rules Change

[dem mba]

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=abqr_BM.JUwc

JPMorgan Raises Monthly Minimum Payments on Credit Cards to 5%

By Laura Marcinek

June 30 (Bloomberg) -- JPMorgan Chase & Co., the biggest U.S. credit-card issuer, plans to raise the monthly minimum payment on balances to 5 percent less than a month before new federal curbs on rates and marketing practices take effect.

The increase from 2 percent starts in August, Chase said in a notice received by customers in June. Customers who pay less than the minimum may be charged extra fees, the bank’s Web site says. New York-based JPMorgan has about 159 million cards in circulation, a regulatory filing shows.

The increase is at least the second disclosed by JPMorgan, which told consumers this month that balance-transfer fees will rise to 5 percent. Card companies have said a law signed May 22 by President Barack Obama to restrict interest-rate increases and penalties will push up fees, curtail credit and restrict rewards. The law was aimed at practices that advocates and a MasterCard Inc. executive called “unfair” and “deceptive.”

The new minimum affects “select accounts that have carried balances,” according to JPMorgan spokeswoman Stephanie Jacobson. “The way customers use and maintain an account helps us determine what changes to make in order to protect our customers and our company,” Jacobson said in an e-mailed statement.

....

[villager]

1. perhaps customers should start "protecting themselves" with a credit card strike?

...and withhold payments until these parasites rejoin the reality-based economic communities?

[Newsjock]

2. Time for the president to freeze all credit card terms and conditions

http://www.econreview.com/events/wageprice1971b.htm

August 15, 1971. In a move widely applauded by the public and a fair number of (but by no means all) economists, President Nixon imposed wage and price controls. The 90 day freeze was unprecedented in peacetime, but such drastic measures were thought necessary.

If a Republican president could take drastic economic action, so can a Democrat.

[DJ13]

3. I predict mass delinquincies in their future

Of course, that may be what they want since they have US backed insurance on the underlying bonds written on their CC accounts that has been paying 100% on bonds worth only 30%.

In default they will probably make more money (at taxpayers expense).

[Blackhatjack]

4. The Govt Needs To Raise The TARP Funds Interest Rate on Chase to 30% APR....

... and send them a letter saying it is nothing personal, just adjusting for those who carry a balance with the US Taxpayers.