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U.S. Sen. Herb Kohl, D-Wis., spoke to a University of Wisconsin crowd Tuesday promoting a bill that seeks to combat predatory credit card practices set to hit the Senate floor in the coming weeks.
“Credit card companies, over the last couple decades, have abused their privileges in our society, and as a result people have been enticed with credit card rates which are beyond their capacity to pay back,” Kohl said.
Last week, the Senate Banking Committee passed the “Card Act” along strict partisan lines.
In the context of a failing economy, rising rates of defaults and bankruptcies are increasingly becoming an issue that demands legislative address, according to state Rep. Gordon Hintz, D-Oshkosh.
Credit card companies aggressively market to college students on campuses with “freebies” and “teasers,” but they often hide abusive terms and conditions that can pile up debt, said Alex Bodaken, a UW freshman and intern with the Wisconsin Public Interest Research Group.
The WISPIRG “truth about credit campaign” has identified five of the most egregious predatory credit card practices, Bodaken explained.
“The worst practice in our opinion, is the fact that the credit card company can change the contract at any time for any reason even if there is no reason, so it’s not really a contract at all,” he said.
According to Bodaken, 80 percent of all college graduates now carry an average credit card debt of $3,000 upon graduation.
Kohl assured those in attendance that officials are doing everything to “try and eliminate some of these worst practices that credit card companies are imposing on people all over our country.”
The bill, of which Kohl is a primary sponsor, seeks to ensure credit card companies have to provide additional information. It restricts their ability to raise interest rates at will, conceal extra charges and penalize people for payments on a credit card that may be as little as one hour late.
In addition, Kohl profiled a plan that would require new credit consumers to take an educational course to learn about proper uses and risks of credit cards.
Simply getting this bill through the initial stages of the Senate Banking Committee was an enormous accomplishment, being the first to pass with opposition from credit card lobbies in 20 years, Bodaken explained.
Kohl also alluded to the difficulties that lie ahead, explaining that it passed on strictly partisan lines is always an indication of serious opposition.
This fact gave UW alum Todd Dennis reason for concern.
“I mean that’s bordering on fascism when you can’t work together to create a bill that everyone likes,” Dennis said.
Dennis was not the only attendee who expressed opposition.
Former UW student Miles Kristan took the event as an opportunity to boldly protest the war in Iraq. Grabbing the microphone from the podium, he sharply ridiculed Kohl, holding him accountable for the deaths that have resulted from the U.S. occupation of Iraq.
UW police escorted Kristan off the premises.
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I’m a photo major at MATC. I have protested in Times Square, I have protested in a speed boat on the Potomac river, Obama, Hil”liar”y, Kumar & McCain I have protested them all !
But no protest was ever as sweet as taking the mic from pro-war Kohl!!! today I took the mic tomorrow “we got to take the power back” ——-peace out
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Don’t even publish the antics of scumbags like Kristan and they’ll stop screaming about unrelated issues.
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Let the kid protest. He came off as an ignoramus anyways. Stealing the microphone and yelling rhetoric won’t exactly raise a lot of support.
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Somebody refresh my memory.
Was Herb Kohl one the senators that the banks and credit card companies bought (bribed?) when the bankruptcy law was revised to screw the average person to benefit the banks and credit card companies?
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Kohl is such a useless Senator. He will spend years doing nothing and then come along with some dumb piece of useless legislation like this. Yes I’ve paid late fees and I’ve paid interest fees, but it was no one’s fault but my own. I never blamed the financial companies. I’m an educated college student, if I’m dumb enough to rack up debt on my credit card I can’t pay off I’m not going to blame the card companies.And credit card companies cannot raise your interest rates without notifying you. Kohl like other in congress will send out all of this misinformation so they can convince people that it’s necessary to give them more control over American businesses.
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It’s true. Kohl let us down. I never thought the Democrats in the Senate would give Bush the power to invade Iraq. I’m glad that Feingold voted against it. If more Democrats had voted with Feingold, we wouldn’t be in this mess, and neither would Iraq. Saddam may have been a brutal dictator, but apparently that’s what it takes to keep the peace in an artificially created country.We shouldn’t forget. The rallying cry used to be “No more Viet Nams.” Then too many people, like Senator Kohl forgot.
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the only scumbag in this story is Herb Kohl lets not forget this was his only appearance in Madison in over 3 years
you need to realize kohl who supported many bush policies is in part to blame for the state of the economy
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These credit card companies are getting ridiculous. American Express is constantly lowering my credit limit, even though I have NEVER been late with any payment in my entire history with them, and I ALWAYS make double or triple my minimum payment. This has brought down my credit score immensely. I work so hard to keep everything current and now they are one of my downfalls of what I have worked for 20 years to build.
I would also like for you to investigate Portfolio Recovery (a horrible nightmare debt collector). I had 2 Providian accounts with high interests, however NEVER had missed a payment. Providian then kept on charging other fees for NO REASON (except to possibly support their CEO’s high bonuses, as we all know). I fought with them on the fees. Next thing I knew, it was turned over to Portfolio Recovery. What crooks. Please investigate this horrible agency. On both credit cards (which by the way my credit limits were $2500.00, well Portfolio more than DOUBLED that amount and wanted to get the entire amount doubled to be paid. I finally agreed to send them $2500.00 on each account. They AGREED to then mark my credit as being paid in full. Well, what liars they are. They should burn in hell. They never did this, but ruined my credit score, and even though I have a letter from them for BOTH accounts stating that it was paid as agreed. (and that was in 2005), they at the end of 2005 sent me a 1096 “Cancellation of debt” which I had to pay taxes on (go figure that… because I can not for the life of me understand that). And just the past two days, Portfolio is now for the 1st time since 2005, seeking the balance of what they had doubled the debt for and were originally seeking. Is this even legal? These creeps make commission on this stuff I am told by people who have worked for these horrible agencies, and out of not being able to LIVE with themselves any longer, admitted to me that this is the case. They NEED to be stopped. I pay all my bills and in a timely manner. HELP!!!!!
Linda
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Credit cards are small beer compared to the siren song of student loans that lead unsophisticated students to borrow more money than the degree they’re getting is worth. This has been the fuel feeding the education machines huge tuition increases. That and the completely bogus idea that everybody should get a college degree.
‘Student Loan Nightmare’: ‘Where Is Our Bailout?’ http://www.reason.com/blog/show/132792.html