Stupid banks

I just got a letter from Capital One today. I've had one of their credit cards for somewhere between 6-10 years. Always been in good standing, never missed a payment, 95% of the time I pay the balance off at the end of the month. Here's what it said:

"Due to extraordinary changes in the economic enviroment, we're reviewing our existing credit card accounts. Having considered these economic conditions, your account's current Purchase rate, and the lenth of time you're had this rate and account, we will be increasing your Purchase rate. We're also raising your Cash Advance and Default rates."

The account has had a fixed interest rate since I got it of 8.9% (awesome, I know). They're increasing it to.......17.9% VARIABLE!. This is 14.65% above AN HISTORICALLY LOW PRIME RATE! This mneans that when the Prime goes up to a more traditional level, the rate should approach 30%.

So I called them up on the phone and spoke with a very nice woman named Sheena. Here's a rough transcript of the meat of the conversation:

Me: Well, why was my account singled out

Sheena: Well Kwazy, it wasn't just you...it was 26 million cards we've had to slightly increase the purchase rate.

Me: Slightly? It's doubled!

Sheena: You have to understand Capital One wants to stay in business, and due to the harsh economic environment, we unfortunately have to raise our rates. Besides, it appears you pay your balance off every month most of the time anyways. So the interest rate increase won't really affect you.

Me: Yes, most months I do. Every once in a while I carry a balance month to month.

Sheena: Yes, but you usually don't.

Me: Sheena, I'm going to imagine that you usually don't need the spare tire and jack in the trunk of your car. But I bet you wouldn't want to give it up just because Goodyear told you the cost of rubber was increasing and they needed you to buy more tires, and if you didn't like it they could just come and take all the tires off your wheels?

Sheena: No, I wouldn't like that.

Me: Me either. Don't get me wrong, I know you're doing your job and you've been very nice, but I just won't use this card anymore if you increase the rate by that much. I'll just use one of my other cards with better rates.

Sheena: I'm sorry, but I think you'll be seeing all the other companies follow suit with in the next few weeks.

In the end I settled for an increase of ONLY 75% instead of 100% and 10,000 rewards points. Sheena is right, the rate increase really won't affect me that much as I rarely carry a balance. But so many people do, and the rate increase is retroactive to include past purchases if you read the fine writing on the notice.

So, to summarize:

-Your credit card company is likely getting ready to screw you

-They're all going to do it, so you can't play one against the other

-Aren't these banks the butt-munches we're bailing out which CAUSED the "extraordinary change in the economic environment?"

Flipping great.