From:	Andrea Sullivan XXXX
Sent:	February-06-14 6:01 PM
To:	Consumer Code / Code consommateur
Subject:	Credit cards


Hello:

1.	I am very concerned about the exceedingly high interest rates credit cards are still allowed to 
charge, and the lack of sensible limits on the amounts of credit they issue
Statistics tell us that individuals are piling up unprecedented and unmanageable amounts of consumer 
debt. This is only possible because of the lack of restrictions on credit card issuers. For many consumers, 
especially younger ones in an expensive market like Vancouver, their practices are like laying warm 
chocolate chip cookies in front of dieters and then informing them of the calorie , fat and other contents 
as your solution to their weight problems. Why tighten mortgage regulations preventing such young 
people from getting into the housing market, where there is at least some appreciation over the long 
run, but leave them sitting ducks for exploitation by credit card cos.? 
Recently, I received a notice from AMEX that they will now also retroactively charge interest on 
payments from the date their outlay was incurred if the bill is not paid at the due date, instead of 
charging interest from the due date. As if they were not making enough profits now!
Considering the ridiculously high amounts of credit these companies offer, their ongoing usurousness 
must be kept more in check and not just by ‘informing consumers' but by much  stricter limits on how 
large the credit limits should be relative to income (in total not just per company or per card), then on 
when they may start charging interest (i.e make the new XXXX plan illegal) and especially a much lower 
rate they are allowed to charge such as maximum 10%.
2.	The pre-paid cards such as XXXX are such a rip-off I cannot believe this product is allowed to 
exist 
Clearly the ‘fox guarding the henhouse" is the problem here. The fees and rules inside these pre-paid 
cards are outrageous. The credit card companies collect too much now from the merchants an certainly 
do not need to also collect form the consumer in the current fashion as well.
These cards are like a license to steal for their issuers. There should be no fees, and no time limit to use, 
period. They got their cash up front, and will get some more via the merchant. That is more than 
enough. End of story.
3.	Credit card issuers should have strict restrictions on what they can charge merchants.
The credit card companies seem to have no restraint either when it comes to shafting merchants. Like 
drug pushers, they have arranged for the general populace to develop an everyday habit of use, so that 
merchants are forced to participate and then jacked up what the merchant has to pay them. In any 
other business this would be called extortion. Credit card companies should be restricted much more 
severely in this area to the point where they actually hover on the edge of considering leaving the 
business rather than being given the excessive latitude they have today to charge whatever they think 
their captive market can bear, even if they are driving smaller merchants out of business. Their powers 
and profits are currently far too liberal and their 'license to print money' by soaking consumers and 
merchants for their ‘service'  far too assured. We do not need institutions with this level of profit-taking.
4.	Credit card companies should be required to put a certain percentage annually from the 
amount of the profits from the interest they acquire toward a not-for-profit national debt 
counselling service for their consumers.
If the credit card companies are creating the problem, they should have to help pay for a solution. 
Having been exploited, the ‘dieters' who cannot resist the inducement should have some support from 
accredited service organizations to assist with climbing out of the morass into which they have fallen.

Regards,
Andrea Sullivan BA (Economics), CFP
Certified Financial Planner
Member and Director-Association of Professional Economists of BC
Millennium Pacific Consulting Inc./Investia Financial Services Inc.
Ph: XXXX
Fax: XXXX
e-mail: XXXX
 
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