Shady Credit Card Companies Are Taking Advantage of the Information Age
The amount of information that companies can acquire about you with today’s technology is astonishing. Google probably knows as much about you as your own mother (perhaps more for those with less than tasteful Internet hobbies). Now it seems that certain unscrupulous credit card companies are monitoring your purchases and selectively penalizing you for purchases at certain venues.
Granted, the company in question, Compucredit, is known as a “subprime credit card” vendor who extend credit oportunties to slightly riskier propositions. Many of us have held a credit card such as one from this company during difficult financial periods in our own life. They are the ones who seem to invent a new fee each month, charge you to pay your bill, have astronomical interest rates and seem to know just when to insert a fee onto your bill so that your balance will be pushed over the limit (causing yet another fee).
Nevertheless, it seems as if CompuCredit has brought suspicious behavior at a credit card company to a whole new level. According to Business Week, the company is curtailing credit lines for people who use their Aspire Visa in certain places, especially tire repair shops, bars and massage parlors.
Of course, certain companies make financial decisions regarding your life based on your chosen activities often; you may not receive a (decent) life insurance policy if you choose Aviation as a hobby, for example. The difference here is that CompuCredit didn’t disclose that it uses certain criteria, and instead touts that it offers credit for anyone for any use.
The information age is an amazing place and an incredibly scary place, all at once. It is probably only a matter of time before certain Big Brother tactics are commonplace in our daily life. Scary thought.
