When we wrote earlier about credit card companies’ threats to treat customers even worse in light of Congress passing credit card reform legislation, it ignited a righteous firestorm of consumer rage in the comments. Inside, our favorites.

Many of you either didn’t believe that the companies would go through with it, or predicted only some would:

This is a predictable response. I’ll be curious to see how much of it will actually happen and what is just bluster. If nothing else there are many decent credit cards offered by Credit Unions that likely will still offer no annual fee and grace periods, if not rewards.

Oh, I suspect the free market economy will sort this out. Credit card companies will contract the available credit (there’s too much of it out there anyway, and consumers need to be weened off theier excessive dependence on it). Then any company that offers decent treatment of its better customers will be rewarded, and the the other companies will follow suit.

Others pointed out that this seems like short-sighted thinking:

This is only going to hurt the CC companies on the long run by decreasing usage by responsible users, and increasing the burden on those groups that are already defaulting.

Charging interest immediately on a purchase? Are they trying to lose customers?

Still others said that if there was a decrease in credit, it would probably be a good motivation to stop relying on credit cards so much:

My credit cards make nice emergency stashes and I use them responsibly — but having them isn’t worth supporting companies like these. They can go ahead and “clamp down” on me, and I’ll leave forever, and we’ll both be better off for it.

I love cash back credit cards, but I’m willing to give up those benefits if we can level the playing field for everyone. CC debt is a HUGE problem in America, and any step we can take to make the system more transparent is going to benefit our citizens in the long run.

All in all, it seems like the collective response of our dear readers to their credit card companies is, “Bring it on.” Geez, it’s almost as though you guys don’t like your banks.

(Photo: frankieleon)

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