After reading the enlightening post, "Breaking Up With Bank Of America" by Lisa Kern--which I highly recommend--and the numerous comments detailing additional unfair practices of the banking industry, I discovered that many people have had their credit severely damaged or destroyed by innocent mistakes, minor oversights or temporary financial problems.

Missing a single payment date by a few days--or a few hours--should not result in expensive and long-lasting consequences.  No one should have to fear financial ruin due to such a simple mistake or oversight.

I decided to compose a sample letter for those who wish to contact their elected officials in an effort to inform them of this situation, encourage the proposal of  legislation designed to regulate and limit the banking industry with regard to implementing and reporting drastic changes harmful to consumers, and to--above all--protect the consumer from predatory and unfair practices. 

Please consider the letter below as a template for your own letter to elected officials.  You can use the letter in its entirety, make any changes you feel appropriate, or write something altogether different.  Adding your personal experiences--or the experiences of others you know or have heard about--will help your representatives understand the devastating impact-- both financial and emotional--these practices can have on their constituents and the public in general.

 If you would like me to make changes to the letter, or have an experience or idea you would like to share, please comment below.  In addition, ratings are greatly appreciated so that as many people as possible are made aware of the dangers of these practices, and are encouraged to write to their own representatives.  If the squeaky wheel is the one that gets the grease, we need to make a lot of noise.

 Contact information for your representatives can be found here:

www.usa.gov/Contact/Elected.shtml

Dear _______________,

I am writing to ensure that you are aware of certain predatory practices increasingly being utilized by the banking industry and credit card companies in particular.

I would like to make you aware of the following practices:

**Credit card payment due dates specify a time--listed in fine print on the original application--by which the payment must be received; in many cases, the time is listed as 12:01AM, effectively making the payment due the day prior to the listed due date;

**"Late" payments include those that may not have been "processed" until a few hours after the time specified in fine print;

**Companies charge substantial fees for these "late" payments;

**Companies exorbitantly increase interest rates--often tripling the previous interest rate--due to "late" payments' 

**Other companies raise interest rates for a consumer based on the fact that another company has increased their rate for that consumer;

**The decision to offer or deny credit is largely based on the credit score, which is not available to consumers free of charge;

**The highest interest rates are charged for those who can least afford to pay;

**No reasonable cap on interest rates charged by credit card companies exists, resulting in interest rates of 30% or higher;

**Current bankruptcy law regarding credit cards makes it extremely difficult for those consumers who have been severely injured financially due to these practices to make a fresh start;

**Consumers are not adequately informed that payments made by phone or online may not be processed and/or applied to the account that day, resulting in "late" payments;

**Consumers are often charged a fee for making a payment by phone or online, which is often done to attempt to avoid a "late" payment;

**Consumers are often charged a "no activity" fee for maintaining but not using an account;

Consumers are already feeling the pinch of these difficult economic times, and can ill afford for credit card bills to triple, credit scores to plummet, and available credit to disappear.  I ask for your assistance to ensure that these practices are thoroughly investigated, and that legislation be enacted to protect consumers and impose strict penalties upon violators.

I suggest that legislation be enacted to do the following:

**Limit the specific time by which a payment must be received to avoid being "late" to 11:59PM on the due date specified;

**Limit and require that a company specify the amount of time it takes for a company to "process" payments;

**Specify the amount of time a payment must be late before being charged a fee;

**Limit to a reasonable number the amount of money a company can charge per late fee;

**Require companies to apply payments made by phone and payments made online to the appropriate account that day;

**Require companies to apply payments received by mail retroactively, based on the day the payment was received or postmarked;

**Require companies to wait until a payment is at least 30 days late before raising the interest rate;

**Restrict companies from raising their interest rates for a consumer based on another company's increased interest rate for that consumer;

**Limit the amount that a company can increase the interest rate for a consumer after a single late payment;

**Cap the interest rate that a company can charge a consumer;

**Allow consumers to pay a lower or no interest rate when they close an account with a balance remaining;

**Amend current bankruptcy law to allow consumers a sustainable financial position after bankruptcy;

**Eliminate "no activity" fees;

**Require credit bureaus to provide consumers with a free credit report and credit score quarterly;

**Restrict the initial interest rate a consumer can be charged;

**Eliminate "processing fees", "annual fees" and other fees that unfairly target the poorest consumers;

**Limit the type of accounts that can be reported to the credit bureau;

**Limit access to consumer credit reports by prospective employers, prospective landlords and companies offering unsolicited credit;

**Limit the amount of credit that can be offered and the interest rate that can be charged to a student;

As your constituent, I  encourage you to develop, sponsor, promote and work to enact legislation that protects America's consumers from the predatory and unscrupulous practices of the credit card industry.

Thank you for your service and for your anticipated time and effort spent on this matter.

Sincerely,

A. Consumer

 ****Please note that this letter is a work in progress.  I welcome any and all ideas, comments, suggestions and experiences, and will do my best to update and make changes in a timely manner.

Thank you for reading!