The Federal Reserve rolled out new rules to reign in some of the abusive practices credit card companies have been using to scrape every last penny possible out of their customers.
One of the areas the regulations focused on is the late fees and jacking up of the interest rates if customers run late on a payment or two. If you haven’t been nailed at least once by your credit card companies then keep it that way. Only the IRS is worse about ruining your life if you run behind on payments. For more information about the new rules check out this article on Yahoo by Suze Orman: Is Washington Finally Serious about Credit Card Reform?

What really caught my attention in her article was the fact that there is currently over $900 billion dollars worth of credit card debt in the U.S.. This is a staggering amount! Equally as eye-opening is the fact that credit card companies are earning on average over 15% a year on that debt. Now you know why they are able to send out so much direct mail.

Think about how much money that is for a few minutes and then think of how much you’d love to tell them to take a hike. If you won’t do it for yourself then perhaps you can motivate to do it to keep them from making any more off of you.

$900 billion x 15% = $135 billion!