Credit Card Industry and Dean Heller Treating Consumers with Contempt

Posted by Myrna the Minx on March 17, 2008 | Comments (0) | Trackbacks (0)

Republicans won’t raise your taxes but they will aid and abet companies in search of new revenue streams–charging consumers fees for everything under the sun (some Democrats will to). Fees equal taxes except local and state governments are cut out of the process. Your very own Dean Heller is in on the game, and as Desert Beacon documented today, helped gagged consumers from testifying about being victimized by bizarre fee structures:

The Republicans on the House Financial Services Committee, and this would include newly minted member Rep. Dean Heller (R-NV2), found a particularly egregious way to prevent individuals who felt that they have been abused by the credit card industry from testifying – “At the last minute, the GOP insisted that these victims of arbitrary fee hikes (who’d flown into DC from around the country to tell their stories) had to sign a vaguely worded waiver permitting the credit card companies to discuss their credit histories publicly anywhere, any time.” (emphasis added) [Smintheus, Dkos] [MJ]

Interesting (?) that the Republicans haven’t required members of the military to release their entire service records for public perusal, nor required representatives of pharmaceutical corporations to open up their personnel files. The Republicans have also not required such ‘open-ness’ of defense contractors, telecom industry executives, nor of representatives of chemical or agri-business corporations. This is an outrageous breach of faith with American citizens who sought to provide the Congress with their observations, experience, and opinions.

Combine this “customer abuse” with the lack of transparency and often downright capriciousness of the credit card industry in regard to the retailers who agree to accept credit card payments and we have a situation in which the credit card corporations are treating both the retail customer and the retailers with perfect contempt.

Yes, contempt.