Dear FRONTLINE,

Your excellent television show had disturbed me. I am appalled at the blatant corporate trickery and theft, and appalled at the public’s willingness to continue credit spending.

I see no easy solution.

Fr. Richard Stein
Vancouver, WA

Dear FRONTLINE,

Your enlightening (as always)episode on the credit card motivated me to check my own credit rating. But before doing so, a few questions occurred to me: which among Equifax, Experian and TransUnion is the most reliable and most accurate? Or should one go directly to FairIsaac? Is there any organization that 'rates the raters'? Is there any way to obtain one's credit reports and FICO numbers without paying the $40.00 or so that the CRA's require? Ironically, you have to pay with -- what else? -- your credit card. Many thanks for this and all your other episodes. Frontline is, in my view, the best program on TV.

Continued success.

Ken Duggan
Congers, NY

Dear FRONTLINE,

I was aware of the 'universal default' clauses previously, but after watching your program, I was reminded of of a phone call I received from MBNA a couple of years ago.

I had had a couple of extraordinary expenses that I put on a non-MBNA card, and I let the balance run across a three month period, putting something toward the balance every month. I was within 10 days of retiring the balance. I received a call from a friendly person at MBNA offering me a "very attractive" balance tranfer rate for transferring the balance to MBNA. I mentioned that I was about to pay the balance off, and as told that he (the MBNA rep) "could save me a lot of money in interest charges by tranferring that balance".

After asking a few questions, I was further informed that the standard cash advance/balance transfer fees would apply to the transaction. When I asked how much, I was told the fee would be $50.00, and I said no thanks and hung up.

Incidentally, the amount he quoted for tranfer was the original amount, not what I had paid the balance down to. Since this balance was not with MBNA, I asked how he knew I had a balance, and his response was that MBNA routinely and regularly pulls the credit reports of their customers. I question the legality of this practice, and I haven't used an MBNA credit card since.

Richard Parker
Rockville, Maryland

Dear FRONTLINE,

Even though I to have fallen into the credit trap, I now believe that credit like guns do not get people into trouble! People get them selves into trouble! Also just like cigarettes if ALL credit info regarding rules,fees,etc.were disclosed people would still get as much credit as they could possibley get.I also believe that no matter how much or little info is included with the credit application very few people will or have ever bothered to read it.

Therefore I cannot blame the credit industry even though they are providing the tools for everyones(including their own) economic destruction.

gary brown
deer park, wa

Dear FRONTLINE,

Your story on the credit card companies is yet another example of the increasingly hostile apporoach that powerful corporations take with their customers.

The apparently out-[of-vogue notion that a customer should be valued and treated with respect has also vanished from insurance companies, cable television providers, and cellular telephone firms.

When consumers eventually take action the smug attitude, apparent in many of your interviewees, will also vanish.

Steve Daum
Dayton, Ohio

Dear FRONTLINE,

I think viewers need to be aware of another "trick" some credit card companies use to get you into the situation where you miss the payment due date & incur finance charges.

About 18 months ago I noticed that my American Express statement arrived only a few days before it was due. The next month it happened again. Then the 3rd month. They were consistently send the statements late. Had I been on vacation or not noticed the due date, I would have incurred finance charges. There were no postmarks on the envelope; it was a presorted bulk type mailing.

I made an inquiry to the U. S. Postal Service & after their investigation was convinced that the delay was caused by AMEX. I made a formal complaint to American Express, at the Executive level. I informed AMEX that I intended to complain to the State of KY Attorney General & Federal agencies. I got an apolegtic letter from AMEX. The late mailings never happened again. I also noticed on several web sites concerning credit card practices that other consumers were complaining AMEX & their late mailing practice.

It was obvious to me that AMEX did this on purpose. Their intent was to trick me into incurring finance charge & late fees.

Louisville, Ky

Dear FRONTLINE,

Thank you so much for this insightful story. I am a consumer lawyer and am one of a few who regularly take on this greedy industry.

You should know that Smiley v. Citibank is not the end of the legal war. Smily only stood for the proposition that late charges "are interest" within the meaning of the National Bank Act. The court never considered the constitutionality of the National Bank Act itself.

I am developing several legal challenges along these lines. First, congress has no right to delegate it's power to the Delaware and South Dakota legislatures. Who are your readers to write to, "their" South Dakota legislator? Also, the Fifth and Fourteenth Amendments to the constitution prohibit the federal and state governments from depriving citizens of their property without due process of law.

I think that enforcing unconscionable contract terms are due process violations. And the Fifth and Fourteenth Amendments preempt the Comptroller of the Currency!

Much of their power doesn't come from the law. I teach part time at a community college. I am using the credit card companies' web sites in my class. I love to see the students eyes light up when they see how absurd "we changed the agreement" really is in terms of centuries of contract law; and these are not Harvard students, they are community college students.

The credit bureaus think they don't need the law. If you violate the "cardholder agreement" they just turn you in to their friends at the credit bureaus. If you dispute their report your "trial" consists of the credit bureau's "reinvestigation". Guess what that consistes of?

Some of us are using the Fair Credit Reporting Act and similar state laws to try to get some justice. Sometimes we get discouraged facing the well financed lawyers of this industry who try to tie us in knots. Your turning the light on this darkness will inspire me for a while longer.

Blair Drazic
Creve Coeur (St. Louis), MO

Dear FRONTLINE,

I was glad that Frontline brought this valuable information forward for all to think about our credit . I work for California Consumers Affairs,in their call center.Consumers always call regarding rates of interest and,"why are they doing this to me".

Excellent presentation.continued success.

DANIEL GOMEZ
Sacramento, California

Dear FRONTLINE,

Mr. Yingling, of the ABA, in response to a question that inquired what logic the banks used in changing the deal - i.e. - why they change (increase) the interest rates on past purchases - stated that those previous interest rates were applied according to the consumer's then current credit score (FICO score).

That answer implies a direct relationship between rates charged and FICO scores. If that, in deed, is the case it should be a simple exercise to publish a chart and educate the consumer what rate would be charged at a particular FICO score.

To carry his reply to a logical next step would result in a consumer's interest rate being LOWERED as their FICO scores IMPROVED. Somehow I doubt that is the case.

Joe Kearney
Mountain Top, PA

Dear FRONTLINE,

I am one of the consumer advocates interviewed for your companion pieces to the credit card report on your website, but I speak here only for myself.

The core issues here are not self control, nor whether credit cards are a useful convenience. The REAL core issues include:

1 - Credit that is priced far, far higher than the lenders' risk alone would dictate.

2 - Grossly unfair credit terms, including interest, that are buried in a million trap-door clauses in credit card agreements which are themselves designed to exploit human behavioral tendency to not read such documents.

3 - An evolution of the law in the past 20-30 years that is a truly radical departure not only from decades of American legal practice, but centuries of common social practice and religious ethics regarding debt and lending across many different societies, cultures and religions.

4 - Finally, an exploitation of something Americans are loathe to admit, and are told it is somehow condescending to admit, but which in fact is factually true: Most Americans' levels of economic literacy are in no way capable of coping with these kinds of complex laws, trap-door contract provisions and multi-layered credit calculations. Don't believe me, believe the government's own NALS suvey of adult economic literacy.

In those contexts we can see that the radical new wave of eroded consumer protections in the law are unfair, and that we need a return to the traditional protections which were there for very good reasons in the first place. Corporate money and its political influence has destroyed those protections, and that is the plain truth about why they no longer exist.

Steve Tripoli
Boston, MA

Dear FRONTLINE,

After watching 15 minutes of last night's show on PBS, I sat at my desk and started reading through my contracts and scrutinized each bill and they interest I was being charged.

I have relized that I was being charged 29% on one card and 9% on another. Then and there I wrote two checks and have paid both companies in full.

Both of my credit cards are now in my desk drawer rather than in my wallet. Thank you for your program and for opening my eyes to

how much money I was wasting!

Eric McCarthy
New York, New York

Dear FRONTLINE,

One of the issues that was not brought up in the program, and that is not taken into account by some of the anti card gurus is that for the average person (and that is what we are talking about) you can almost not travel without a credit card just try to rent a car or stay at a major hotel chain with 9,000.00 dollars cash and no credit card.

Also the ABA gentleman made the point that he is issuing credit to a credit score that changes and at face value I really don't have a problem with that yet virtually none of the general public has any idea what that score is or even less how it is figured.

Thomas Hill
Stanford, Ky

Dear FRONTLINE,

Although I enjoyed the program on credit cards, I don't think you placed enough emphasis on personal responsibility.

I compare credit cards to medicine: used appropriately and only when necessary they can be beneficial; however, imprudent usage may have a serious negative impact on one's financial health. (I make VISA card purchases which are paid for automatically from my checking account.) Yet, no one forces the consumer to begin taking the "medicine" and anyone who becomes addicted has only him/herself to blame.

Perhaps this unwillingness to resist temptation is at the heart of many of our problems (e.g obesity, faithfulness to one's spouse, etc.) I believe it's inherently unfair to blame companies or society for individual weaknesses.

Dan Morra
Middletown, PA

Dear FRONTLINE,

I am not a lover of big business nor an apologist for them. But I did find this episode (as I find most episodes) slanted against the providers of credit.

Perhaps if people better understood that credit cards are typically unsecured credit, which puts the lender well back in the list of people who can get compensated from a bankrupt. Mortgages are secured, car loans are secured, credit card debt isn't, generally.

Effectively the lender is investing in the ability of the borrower to pay back from future cash flows exclusively. That's the riskiest position to be in for any borrower. For all intents and purposes borrowers are extended the benefit of the doubt initially (perhaps because credit card companies are desparate for business and market share) but any sign that the borrower is tainted and they move automatically to another category of risk. Whose fault is that the borrower doesn't know this?

What I find most troubling is that the conclusion drawn seems to be more government regulation, Federal or regional to combat this 'scourge'. What we actually need is personal responsibility with free markets. Putting this in the hands of government, which typically are worse off than most businesses big or small, is not a solution.

Credit card companies exist because people demand them. It is up to the individual to decide what it is they need and want, and how to trade for it. People are not entitled to credit, and if they use it, they need to be responsible for their actions.

It is too bad that the producers and broadcasters of Frontline tend to be slanted in their views. I like the tone of the production in this flashy, vacuous world we live in where 'news' or even network 'news journals' are commercial. I like the style, I just wish the content was less skewed.

Brad Dexter
Elkhorn, Wisconsin

Dear FRONTLINE,

The Frontline program on the credit card industry was very well done. I have used credit cards in the past, but no longer do. I read several letters from other viewers - yes, we are responsible for the debts we incur. But these gigantic companies' marketing encourages consumers to get in over our heads with credit we cannot afford. The credit card industry is not in this business for their health or our convenience, but for profit - they are making money off us, and the late fees and over limit fees we pay are indeed a "profit stream."

It is particularly galling to learn how they raise interest rates well over usury rates the minute a customer is late with his/her payment, and to listen to the smooth doubletalk from the American Bankers' Association and the Acting Comptroller of the Currency. The ABA is such a powerful lobby that I despair of any real changes being made in consumer protection laws. The consumer panel did not seem very well-informed about their credit card accounts - maybe being on the panel will encourage them to learn more about their credit card situations.

Susanne Allen
Washington, DC