Opinion: American Express Gives Credit Consumers the Middle Finger

After making headlines for massively slashing consumer credit limits, the American Express is at their anti-consumer ways once again by raising rates on everyone, not just the high risk category cardholders. The sappy excuse for the flat 3% increase certainly did not evoke any compassion from me, and I couldn't help wondering how consumers could be so outraged about a $2/mo increase in the Sirius Sat Radio subscription, and rollover for a 3% increase on an average 8.3k in household credit debt. Let's see, that's $24 compared to $1,500 per year! As for American Express falling on hard times, suck it, so has everyone else. It's bad enough to have the credit industry self-regulating through FICO scores, but then throwing the scores out the window entirely to compensate for laughable lending practices is downright underhanded and inexcusable. Just like the occasional forest fire keeps the rest of the forest healthy, so to will this financial meltdown weed out the rest of the Madoffs out there, and promote better spending responsibility in the wake of credit issuers behaving like big tobacco-- as though their products and practices do not literally decimate people's lives, and permanently silence their hopes and aspirations for the future. Perhaps everyone should switch to models like Virgin Money, and change the game on credit issuers forever.