Recently I’ve been getting offers for a credit card that I don’t want or need. The more I ignore the offers, the hotter their pursuit and soon the offers were arriving every week!
In a moment of weakness, I considered the offer. I did something a little unusual – I read the fine print. It was very interesting, particularly this little bit: no annual fee for the first year. It had a footnote that I thought might explain the annual fee in subsequent years. I had to turn the paper over to the back and the footnote in teeny tiny print says, “For details, please read the “Pricing Information” section and the Terms and Conditions included with this offer”. Well guess what? The offer was a single sheet of paper and nowhere is there a section titled “Pricing Information” or “Terms and Conditions”. I guess they expected me to lose interest before I got that far.
This is the moment I decided that I don’t want a credit card from a company that goes to such lengths to hide basic account information from a potential customer. I picked up the phone, told them that I am not interested in their credit card offer and to stop sending it to me.
New rules were put in place a few months ago to help protect consumers from deceptive credit card practices, but most of the new credit card rules apply to existing accounts.
If you’re smart, like the average GovGab reader, you’ll be sure to read credit card offers carefully before you get yourself into an account that doesn’t suit your needs. You can find help understanding the terms and fees of your credit card offer and show those credit card companies that you’re too clever to fall into their financial trap.