Complaint Review: Citibank & Visa/MasterCard American Express etc. - Long Island City, New York

Deception is a tool used in almost all Scams, and legitimate small businesses or even large corporations are not immune from using it to mislead, misinform or misdirect your attention in order to gain, what to many, are illicit profits. Of course, the illusion of "something for nothing" is the most common form of deception, and in this, the major charge card and credit card companies in America excel at, their most popular form of it is called "air miles."

As the saying goes, "There are no free lunches." Someone pays for every seeming advantage, every gift, every free mile. If Visa, MasterCard, American Express, and a host of others, were paying for it, YOU would not get this gift, because THEY ain't that dumb! They figured a way to increase their business, through increased use of credit cards, by the illusion of a freebie, because they knew that the costs would come out of the merchant's pocket (first), AND then through additional interest gained as credit balances rose and late payments swelled their coffers by millions, and then billions of dollars.

They were right. Since the introduction of Citibank's "Price Guarantee Plan" in the winter of 1990, our Nation's credit card debt has swelled from around $200 billion to almost $800 billion today, or fourfold in a little over ten years.

The merchants, and that means everyone from Mom & Pop stores, to Wal-Mart and K-Mart have been victimized to the tune of billions of dollars, but so has the general public at the same time. These million-dollar-a-year executives often have Mafia-type minds, for what is the difference between a "protection racket" and its effect upon small business and the depredations of the Credit Card Cartel (as I shall refer to them from now on)?

"It may be illegal to pray in public, but it is not illegal to prey upon the public, or business." That's their motto today, the Credit Card Cartel has it firmly etched on plaques in their corporate boardrooms.

The RICH love air miles! They have the money to pay off their balances each and every month. But a ten thousand dollar diamond neclace from a Beverly Hills or Park Avenue jeweler, put it on American Express, and get 10,000 air miles. Two weeks later they send American Express a check for $10,000. Then, they fly to Paris at the jewelers expense.

But, it cost the merchant 4%, or $400 for them to pull that stunt. If the cost was $5,000 to the Park Avenue jeweler, it took 8% of his profit. What about Mrs. Jones, a single mother, who is raising two children? When she uses here credit card for all her purchases, say 500 twenty dollar purchases over the year, she can also gain 10,000 miles, but then, she never has the time or the money to use them. She gets the "SHAFT." Why, because the same "free" offer too often gets her attention, but she makes the mistake of believing the "illusion." She pays interest if she runs up a balance, late charges if she misses a due date, and over-the-limit fees if she fails to notice how high her balance is going.

Should this type of "bribery" have a place in American business? Should American businesses be forced to accept this betrayal of their trust when the banks offered them contracts by American Express, Visa, and MasterCard (the leading members of the Credit Card Cartel)?

Did it increase their business, as was touted by the CCC? No, what it did was to cheat them out of part of their profits and put their clients deep in debt. When the consumers are into overwhelming debt, the money they would like to spend on their family, for consumer goods, goes as interest payments to the traitorous CCC.

And, if business owners and consumers will look at these offers, then substituted the word 'BRIBE'in place of air miles, awards, free trips, etc., they will begin to understand what is going on. The BENEFITS do not go to you, friend, as all such shenannigans have only one thought in mind...profit for the company pulling off the scam. The CCC has done a great job doing it. [A bribe does not have to be money; it is anything which influences to do other than you might usually do, to change your mind or way of doing things. It does not have to be cash or a trip to Paris in exchange for your Vote. Check your dictionary.]

Howard

Solvang, California

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