Discover the Evil Plot to Steal Your Money and Smudge Your Credit
I can not wait to see the movie Maxed Out, a documentary about banking and credit card companies’ willfully evil ways, by James D. Scurlock (not to be confused with Morgan Spurlock, the director of “Super Size Me"). It was originally shown at last year’s SXSW but is hitting theaters in major cities this week.
Recently I started to do more online with regard to credit card and bill pay, because getting or finding my mail on a regular basis can be frustrating. I’m a fastidious bill-payer, often teased for paying them right away (if I don’t, I’ll forget) just like I was mocked for not shoplifting in high school.
Since the time of the dinosaurs, I have paid my credit cards in full each month because not doing so gives me stomach trouble and a general feeling of impending death. If it’s a big bill, then I have to suffer for my spending. If I sound like an unreasonable and spoiled princess (I’m more a product of the desperate clawing into middle class, tarred with discipline and feathered with guilt) I would offer that once upon a time, I sold my Swarovksi crystal tiara on Ebay, and had to falsely swear that it had never been worn (mojo is good by change of hands). I wrapped it up nicely for the next bride to be, and gave her my congratulations.
Yard sales are a good cleansing purge.
Debt piles up faster than laundry, and with interest you end up paying more for that thing you don’t even remember buying on sale. Jinxed tiaras aside, it’s better to properly handle your money in the now, and save. It’s part of my philosophy of being good to your future self. Floss, exercise, elope after the starter marriage, don’t be needlessly merciless to others, and save for retirement.
Credit card companies, specifically Discover and Citi Cards from my experience, do not want to make it easy, or possible for you to pay your balance in full by the due date each month automatically, using their menu options. I just got screwed by Discover because I set it up to pay what I thought would be the full balance, on the due date. What it took what my last statement balance, which was several hundred dollars shy of this statement balance, thereby making my account maintain a balance that they can then charge me interest on.
It’s my fault for trusting the system when the second month came around. When you are making a first time payment and setting up your preferences, there isn’t an option to pay the amount of your last statement payment. That’s when the second option in the list is to pay in full. But that option goes away and is not the default, but only after you’re comfortable and trusting that things will happen as you’ve instructed.
Pretty sneaky, sis.
It must feel really good to make a great documentary.
It is hopefully only a matter of time before there’s inquiry and commentary to improve the nuances of online banking and bill pay. It speaks volumes that they are able to structure their payment tools this way, as the vast majority of users clearly just use the first option to pay the minimum, the second to pay the past payment amount, or third to pay a user-defined amount entered in a form field.
Call me bananas, I just expect to be able to pay my bills based on the idea that a credit card is for my convenience, as opposed to a high interest loan. I don’t need the man keeping me down!
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