Enrage or Motivated
So. I paid off the balance on 2 cars, all my credit cards and all those of my wife’s. Yippee. And recently we were pre approved for two new motor vehicles with interest rates of 3.25%. Wow!! Woe is me, the high interest we were paying for years because of our average credit rating. But that’s not the nature of my story.
After paying off all those credit cards, our credit rating shot straight to top score. We have been flooded with credit card applications. I open about 1 in 5 of those mailers, only to become enraged at the terms of every single mailer. It only confirms my resolve that banks are extremely greedy, self serving institutions, with a mentality of take and raping all they can.
Anyway, one of those mailers was an “Invitation.” The envelope was a flat back color. The return address read only the words, “BLACK CARDTM”. So yes, I opened it and scanned it for the interest rates and other terms. The paper inside was in large print, on heavy expensive paper. There was a large off white return envelope and half fold large credit card with the application printed in even larger print inside. Kind of looked like a wedding invitation. The front off white card said in the first line, “By invitation, you have been pre-qualified to receive the exclusive Visa Black Card. Limited to only 1% of US residents.” Now, everyone knows that the 1% they imply, are the 1% richest people in the country. Trust me when I say, that is not me.
I continued to analyze the, “InvitationTM”. It lists other terms & features. The interest rate was only a common, 14.99%, half as much as Discover card’s 29.99%. But hay, Discover card give you cash back. The Black Cards annual fee was $495, plus $195 for each authorized user. Ouch!
You might think that I would be more enraged by the annual fee, which, by its high number, is membership excluding. But I wasn’t. I’m use to excluding memberships like those of many golf courses. It was the implication, that unless my wealth fell into that of the richest Americans, “the 1%”, I would be excluded from membership to the card.
I was enraged enough to write this article. Maybe I should feel motivated?
11-3-11
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