Originally Posted By: dougwalkabout

I had a credit card issued from one of the latter. Their game was blatantly obvious: get me in debt up to my eyeballs. Total SOBs. So I dropped the credit line from $15G to 500 bucks, just for laughs. They didn't like that, oh no. Now I use it for Internet purchases only, protecting my interests and theirs from fraud and the Russian mob. Instead of being grumpy and snarly, they should have offered me a corner office with perks. My fiscal conservatism was the right(eous) path. Hope these predatory types get a major spanking; they deserve every whack.


Credit card companies, when they first started out, made the majority of their money on interest. Now they make the majority on penalties and fees.

In common CC parlance those who pay off their CC bill every month are called "deadbeats". The card companies prefer "revolvers", people who roll over their debt each month and just make the minimum payments. Reason being that "deadbeats" can easily walk away. "Revolvers" remain captive and are typically digging themselves in deeper every month.

In many ways the behavior and business model of the CC companies is like a dairy farmer. Milking the captive animals, who will (if everything goes according to plan) never be free, over and over again. Taking a few cents of every transaction; substituting, at a price, for discipline and savings; and making a killing if their captives stumble.