Why is Discover Card changing payment due date? - Page 2

 

Exactly, and it's incredibly frustrating to continuously hear the
mis-statement of the nature of the credit card debt by people who
should know better. Still the CC companies are not without fault in
that frequently they foster the idea that they're selling, as you put
it, an "open-ended installment loan".


I think you're exaggerating the potential un-profitability. There's
still going to be money to be made, but perhaps they will re-instate
annual fees and reduce or eliminate bonuses. After all, at present the
guy who carries a balance is really subsidizing the people who pay
each month within the grace period and who collect those bonuses. I
doubt the merchants' fees cover the cost.

Since it seems impossible to wean people from their idea of the credit
card being installment debt a better reform would have been to require
the CC company to actually create a fixed term debt out of each
month's unpaid balance. This would fix the interest and repayment term
and amount at that point in time and satisfy the common complaint
about the CC company raising rates unilaterally. Of course the CC
company would be free to up the interest rate for any new
purchases/advances and to reduce the credit line as they saw fit.

However there are some charges that seem egregious. The practice of
charging a fee for allowing the card holder to buy something which
causes him to exceed his credit line seems particularly unfair since
the CC company does not charge any fee if you apply for a credit line
increase whether they grant it or not. Other than the "we've got him
by the short and curly's" factor what's the difference?

There are similar unreasonable items where (for ex.) the holder is a
couple of days late on repayment of the total balance and instead of
just charging interest on the days since the end of the grace period
it's charged on the total time with sometimes an extra penalty fee on
top. I doubt that the CC company pays the merchant until the end of
the grace period so the amount the CC company has to finance is just
the late time and the cost is certainly not in excess of the normal
interest rate so why the "naughty boy" penalty?

 
While I see that I can change my payment due date, I see they have a
large block of days mapped out that it can't be changed to, including
the 2nd which is the date it used to be due, and the dates seem to be
mapped out in a certain pattern.

Any idea why?