Determining if the state you reside in is in a full blown recession depends on two things: what your state government facts and figures are, and what the subordinate mass media spews out on the local evening news. We guess for most middle and lower income families you would state “yes there is a recession, and yes this one hurts.” Oh but wait, look what you received in the mail today, a credit card offer from First Premier Bank with a fixed 9.9% interest rate.

This offer looks legit, but read the terms and conditions insert that comes with it.

the fees are astounding. We calculate an upfront fee of $179.00, this is a prime example of predatory lending. Those fees don’t stop there, every month you will be charged $7.00 monthly fee. The Monthly fee is part of your balance so you actually pay interest on this fee. If you are in dire need of this card right away you will also be charged an expedition fee $25.00. We will analyze these fees and more in a bit. We will also discuss “H.R. 1461: Credit Card Accountability Responsibility and Disclosure Act of 2007.”

We got our grubby little hands on one of these offers, and decided that we didn’t quite understand what the terms were. We called up First Premier Bank and spoke with Jessica (would not give last name) a customer Service representative. Our first question to Jessica was “what is an account set up fee?” She was polite enough to reply with “Oh that is just a program fee under the card account type.” This is a program fee of $48.00, well isn’t the second fee on their “Terms and fees” page a “Program” fee also? When we asked that, Jessica got somewhat tongue tied. Jessica, is it really that expensive to maintain one customers account that you would charge them a $7.00 monthly fee? A quick retort of “I just sign up customers, I don’t decide fees.” So, now the customer has decided “I really need some money.” The fees don’t stop there; you will be encouraged to use online bill pay, as it is “guaranteed.” What are the fees for this; well let’s just see what you get dinged for: $3.95 internet access fee, an $11.00 autodraft fee, and a $7.00 autodraft transaction fee. Now it is time to add up your first month’s debt on this card, we came up with $232.95. Wow, add your interest and you could reach $250.00. Here is the kicker, we did some research and found that most cards issued by First Premier only have a $250.00 credit limit. But wait, there’s more your interest has already been compounded and now you find that you are over the limit, so first Premier charges you a $29.00 over the limit fee.

Luckily the American people have members of congress on our side. The U.S. Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs drafted H.R. 1461. Essentially this bill would help people who are experiencing Interest rate hikes, but what we would like to see, is members of the Senate add clauses, and stipulations that would prohibit any kind of extraneous fees being charged to credit card holders. Financial institutions such as First Premier, will most likely try to admonish that fees are necessary in order to survive in the business world. We cry B.S. to that one. Here is a great article written by John Ulzheimer. This editorial will give you a concise look into how credit card companies survive. What we encourage the consumer to do is, download our letter and mail it in, in support of this bill to your state Senator, and your House of Representative. The ground work has already been laid; we have a pdf file here that is testimony to U.S. House Committee on Financial Services Subcommittee on Financial Institutions and Consumer Credit by Kathleen E. Keest from the Center for Responsible Lending. Read the proposal for amendments, and the facts of predatory lending. You might find it interesting that Kathleen uses First Premier as an example.

We encourage Dana Dykehouse to respond, and defend these fees and actions. According to their website they tout a 0.00625% complaint ratio. We disagree, Dana have you “googled” “First Premier credit card complaints?” Furthermore Dana, did you not learn your lesson from being hit with fines from New York’s Attorney General. We applaud Andrew Cuomo, and would hope that other states follow suit. But, we ask you to take a proactive stance, fill out the form and send it in. If you don’t know who your House of Representative is you can find it here.

Here is a generic letter to your House of Representative, it is a pdf file

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