The best way to tell the story of abusive credit card practices to the public, to the media, and to our decision makers is through personal stories. Please give us your own personal story about the abusive practices you’ve encountered, and help us make our case! We want to hear about the penalty interest rates, hidden fees, and other unfair practices you have to deal with as an cardholder. Simply fill out the form below.

Here are two recent stories that demonstrate these abuses first hand:

Hidden fees: Crystal D. from Lane Community College in Oregon was angered by the lack of disclosure in marketing: “A man a little older than me was signing people up for Visa low limit credit cards. He said he was paid per person he signed up and that there were no strings attached. All he asked was for my address and signature. A few months passed and I got a call from my father saying I had received my card from Visa. I asked him to open it and it had a $500 sign up fee along with the card. That was not mentioned any where when I signed up.”

Changing payment dates:  Sean D. at the University of Colorado Boulder was trapped by changing due dates and penalty late fees: “I've had my two credit cards for two years now. And these credit cards had always had a consistent payment due date on the 3rd or the 6th of the month respectively. Two months after I closed my accounts, the credit company decided to out of the blue switch the payment dates. I logged online to make both of my payments for what I thought was on time and it turned out I was instead, all of a sudden and completely unexpectedly, late! $90 in late fees! Their customer service reps would hear none of my story, just excusing it vaguely as ‘sometimes the credit card companies change the payment date,’ but for no real reason?"