$795 for Me … And No Soup for You!
American consumers can be excused for feeling like George in this classic Seinfeld clip.
They keep getting squeezed by higher fees that seemingly come out of nowhere — like the $795 annual fee JP Morgan Chase is now charging cardholders.
- And that is just part of a parade of higher annual fees and interest rates from credit card companies.
Of course, that is all on top of the $25 billion in fees (including $6 billion in annual fees) and $105 billion in interest that banks charged consumers on credit cards in 2022 (according to the most recent report).
Well, at least that’s enough for the card industry to barely squeak out $41 billion in rewards — leaving them with more than 200% margins on that trade-off — right?
Umm, no. ☹
The card industry demands it needs every penny of $187 billion in swipe fees from businesses, too (which consumers eventually pay).
That’s right — the credit card giants want it all: more annual fees, more interest, more swipe fees — and the fees keep going up and up. And consumers end up footing the bill. No matter how much they get from one type of fee (or interest), they keep pushing for more of the other fees.
It sounds like Senator Hawley was right. This sure sounds like “classic monopolistic behavior” as he noted during the Senate Judiciary Committee’s hearing last November.
COMPETITION IS BETTER FOR EVERYONE
IT'S TIME TO PASS THE CREDIT CARD COMPETITION ACT