Warning to America’s Middle Class: WAKE UP Before It’s Too Late, Some Banks Are Trying to Destroy You!

If you’re like most Americans, you think your good reputation as a model citizen and hard worker will help you financially. You think you’ll be treated well by “the system” and your own bank if you plan ahead, pay bills on time and maintain a strong tradition of savings.

Think again! In today’s economic climate, most financial institutions are calling you, me and other banking customers deadbeats behind our backs! Why?:

* Banks make far less money on good citizens and savers like you and me. If you’re paying off your credit cards every month, you’re not a “good” customer.

* The revenue on your account is low compared to the usury APRs earned on other accounts. So you’re disposable.

* Most lenders want customers willing to maintain huge credit card balances and pay 33% interest.

* Credit cards and lines are being closed for countless Americans… even those with a spotless record and credit scores over 800.

Let me tell you about my own recent financial problems. Remember, I’m a Certified Credit Analyst!

I used one of my credit lines (with my 800+ credit score) for a short-term loan with a major bank. I needed to do this to keep the credit line open. I paid off the loan the very same day. Then… I got the bill. For having the money 10 minutes I was charged 181.32% APR! And no -- this wasn’t a transaction with one of those corner “Cash Your Check” outfits. I was a customer with a high profile multi-billion-dollar bank which has already received billions more from our tax dollars.

What could I do about this unfair practice? Nothing! I had to use my bank’s services or my credit line would be closed and I would have risked losing my good credit score. If a financial expert can’t escape this, what hope does the average American have?

Many banks are making less than they did when they were financing sub-prime mortgages and sub-prime credit cards. They’re not yet grasping the fact that such usury profits were never meant to be the norm.

To please stockholders, banks are cutting expenses by penalizing the Middle Class. Why? Because we’re paying our bills in full every month!

Maintaining an account costs your bank a few cents every month. If you don’t use your credit cards every month, the lender’s revenue is lower. To improve the balance sheet and the profit margin, banks feel they must cut us out by closing our cards or forcing us to use a credit line and pay an obscenely high 181% APR.

Yes, we prudent savers who do not abuse or overuse credit are considered “deadbeats.” We have a high credit score but not a high “Revenue Score.” That’s a number indicating (to a bank) how much revenue that can be expected from you. If you have an 800+ score you make less revenue for the bank, unless you charge tens of thousands on your credit card. Did you notice you get fewer credit card applications than your neighbor who’s buried under credit card debt? His “Revenue Score” is higher than yours. He pays a lot of interest. He’s a “better” customer.

With a low Revenue Score (as I have) you’ll likely get a letter from your credit card company saying: “We regret to inform you that we have closed your Credit Card account. Our decision was based on the inactivity of your account.”

That happened to me. I had used the card for seven years and stopped when my credit card account was sold to a huge credit card company. As an informed consumer I wanted their new contract to get as much information as possible to manage my account within the credit card company’s “rules.” I received two cards, but no contract. A few weeks later they closed my account. My credit score fell 48 points overnight to below the 800 mark. That’s disturbing and frightening because that makes me a bigger risk than I was before, although I did nothing wrong!

Being a Certified Credit Analyst, I have many clients with good credit who are fighting to raise their scores by understanding the system better. Essentially I became my own client! I had to write my credit card lenders and inform them I’ll go to every possible forum to keep my card open AND my credit score intact.

The amount of borderline legal and illegal activity happening with banks lately is shocking. People are being put into collection because they are tricked into unwanted charges. This can often happen when banks close and when credit card giants take over an account. It can even happen when you move to another state with your cell phone!

Such “banking mistakes” were once rare. But now we’re sliding rapidly into an unethical and immoral business world which already destroyed the “sub-prime” clientele. Some banks and other lenders are now going after the middle class: They create situations to charge you high late payment fees. They invent all type of scores. Every move in our lives is scored and analyzed to a point where we have lost all our freedom and privacy, and none of us can be a good customer or a winner anymore. In addition to your classic FICO score (that’s a whole story unto itself -- visit www.myfico.com), you also have a “Behavior Score”… “Transaction Score” … “Response Score” … even a “Bankruptcy Score” (you needn’t be in Bankruptcy!).

My advice for average Americans:

1. Use your credit cards every month for at least one transaction.

2. If your inactive credit card account is closed, fight the credit card company. Send them letters! Seek help from a financial professional!

3. Protest when a credit card company lowers your limit. Tell them you’ll charge only under 7% of what their limit is, because you want to have a low “Utilization Rate” to keep your score. That means, if you have a $1,000 credit limit, you can’t use more than $70. They’ll want you to use their card for more than $70, so they may give you a higher limit. It’s a compelling argument!

4. Check your credit every two months. Sign-up for a monitoring system on myfico.com.

5. Pay your bills before the “reporting date” not the “due date.”

6. Read the new “Credit Card Holders Bill of Rights” which passed Congress and which has yet to pass the Senate because of lobbying efforts by the banking giants.

7. Seek decent banks and Credit Unions. Check their track record with the Better Business Bureau and other forums.

I offer this advice because I’m a single mom who doesn’t want my kids to pay in the future!