New policies against unfair credit card practices

Credit Card Bills of Rights, Credit Card Accountability, Responsibility and Disclosure (CARD) Act ...

Earlier this week, I was reading an article that there was a rumor how AOL in the past rewarded their employees for "retaining" AOL internet-service customers. It was an excruciating experience to cancel the service. yea, I remembered how I had to repeat saying "no, thank you", "yes, I am sure I want to cancel".

Then, various newspaper telesalespersons called for subscription trials. The salesperson would start speaking as soon as I said "Hello", and ended with "would you like to subscribe?", before I could utter the second word. My response was a solid "No". Then the whole spill from the sales started again with additional promotions thrown in this time, as if he did not hear what I just said. Telling them that I do not read newspaper is not sufficient. That "I read news from internet only" is an effective reply.

Before the recession, there was almost a promotion credit card application letter at least once a week from Discover sent by the same person and scripted with the same message "Please do not discard." Once or twice, it would even look like a tax-return letter. The marketing department probably did not know that their brand image really became worse each time. No wonder Visa and Mastercard fare much better without these offensive marketing techniques.

The new policies against unfair credit card practices are coming. I recently learned about free programs to help borrowers who have high or unmanagable credit card debts. Not everyone likes math and are alertful of their budget planning. These policies are indeed another right step to protect consumers, .. and to control consumer spending also.