Draft Copy Of The Petition To Prime Minister

All, I have prepared a draft copy of the petition - see below.

I would appreciate if people add/delete/modify the copy so we can submit the petition to the PM. I must admit, I am a novice in this area, so any guidance will be highly appreciated.

Here's the copy:

Penalize The Credit Card Companies That Rip-off Customers By Unfair, Unethical and Unjustifiable Practices

The credit card companies are following unfair, unethical and unjustifiable practices due to lack of government regulations and standards. The practices include increasing the interest rates to 35% or above, negative payment hierarchy and others.

When the livelihood is hard during the troublesome days, the irresponsible acts of Credit Card Companies are making people’s lives even harder.

There are few companies in the United Kingdom that follow the mal-practices, once such notorious organization is MBNA Europe.

Many have opened up credit card accounts via A&L, Abbey and other Virgin websites, which are served from MBNA. Customers made avail the Balance Transfers on these cards at 0% introductory rates over the time.

However, the company behind the above cards MBNA had started hiking the interest rates without any business justification. Many customers ‘ rates have been hiked up to 35%.

There is absolutely no justification to these higher interest rates under any circumstances. When we tried contacting the company asking for justification, they wouldn’t reveal.

While the base rate of Bank of England is climbing down, the interest rates on the cards are hiking up exponentially.

To one's shock and horror, the interest rates MBNA charging the honest customers is well above 34%! The company has refused to do reduce the interest rates when customers pleaded their call centers. They have told us that they can do what ever they wish to do as the customer is bound by a variable interest rate contract.

It is true that the on the variable rate contract the company has the authority to increase the rates. But customers expect this to be in a limited bounds – not rocketing to sky.

To site one such case, please see the details of a customer who has three cards from A&L, Abbey and Virgin all served by MBNA. The following tables illustrates the details of the history of interest hikes from these companies in a matter of few months. They have increased, in some cases, three times a year.

Here are the details.

Abbey:
As of today: ---------- 29.9 (Balance Transfer and Purchases) & 34.9 (Cash Advances)
28 July 2008 ---------- 21.9 & 27.9
28 Jan 2008 ---------- 18.9 & 21.9
29 Jan 07 ---------- 9.9 and 9.9

Virgin:
As of today --------- 34.9 & 34.9
27 May 2008 --------- 27.9 & 27.9
26 Sept 2007 --------- 24.9 & 24.9 
29 March 2007 ------- 15.9 and 20.9

A&L:

As of Today ----------- 34.9 & 34.9
29 May 2008 --------- 27.9 &27.9
30 July 2007 --------- 16.9 and 22.9

As one can see there is no pattern while hiking the rates. They have increased according to their wish and we can’t see ANY justification on doing so.

The second part is that no credit card company (with an exception of two companies off about 300 in the market) which allows the customer to pay off the expensive debt. They employ a Negative Payment Hierarchy practice that would not let the customer service his costlier debt. In a way the customers are trapped in the debt noose.

We sincerely appreciate if the government intervenes and brings justice to common public who are already struggling in the current economic situation.