en-us http://www.keithwatanabe.net/index.php Keith Watanabe's Website http://www.keithwatanabe.net/blogs/2008/5/2/5649fced85fe75b54683a20e6bd19b65.html
One thing that should be enforced is no hidden fees that crop up. A few years ago, when I was paying my Chase credit card off, I encountered a nasty problem. Despite putting in a fair amount of cash every month to pay my debt off, I saw little difference. Then when I checked my balance out I realized that they tacked on a hidden fee for "security purposes." I yelled at their customer support to take away that so-called fraud protection scheme because simply put, the charges made no sense. I mean, I was getting charged about double what I was putting in! Worse yet, they made no mention of tacking these charges in and it just appeared in my billing.

Of course, they'll claim that they probably sent in an "Important Notice." However, these are fraudulent tactics in themselves because these card companies send you tons of useless brochures that intentionally confound you and end up in the trash can. Yet to secretly opt-in customers without real, clear notification is criminal in itself and I'm certain many households paid unnecessary charges like I did because of these tactics.

On a side note, I rarely use my credit cards these days. I mostly just use cash. True, I live in Tokyo and thus don't really need credit cards like in LA. But even when I go home, I use my debit card preferably over my credit cards. I learned the hard way that you really shouldn't use money that you don't have. Doing this helped me scale my cost of living appropriately and now I'm almost debt free. I'm certain the majority of Americans cannot say the same. However, I'm very proud of my achievement and can even say that I have surplus cash in the bank.]]> Fri, 02 May 2008 14:19:03 -0600 http://www.keithwatanabe.net/blogs/2008/5/2/5649fced85fe75b54683a20e6bd19b65.html