My apologies. This is a grassroots effort and I didn't have the funds for a fancy program that interfaces with our congressional leaders. But all good things require some effort. Please join me in writing to our leaders by following the instructions below. We've tried to make it as easy as possible and hope you will not be put-off by our unsophisticated "copy and paste" process. It works!!!!
Instructions for sending this letter to your representatives and regulators
- Using the template provided by clicking button above, fill in "YOUR STORY" about your experiences with banks and credit card companies
- Go to the bottom of the letter and fill in your information: name, address, email address
- Hit the HIGHLIGHT TEXT box
- Hit "Control Key + Letter C key" at the same time. Mac Users Hit Apple C. This will copy the entire text of your letter.
- Come back to this page and use the following links to the webmail pages of your Representatives, Regulators, and our leader, President Barack Obama. You can "paste your letter" to the comment section on their site by hitting "Control and the letter V key" and for Mac Users
- Please send to as many of these people as possible. And feel free to email me a copy too!
- Congressmen in the House of Representatives
- Your Senators
- The Federal Reserve Board:
- To our leader, President Barack Obama
- To the Senate Banking Committee
- House Committee on Financial Services
What should I write?
Your Story: Think about these different things that you might have experienced with your lender and share it in your own words.
- Did your lender ever ask for proof of income? For Mortgage, credit card, auto loan?
- Did your lender ask you how much of a credit card line you wanted?
- Did your lender ever increase your credit line without asking you?
- How much in credit card lines do your college age students have as compared to their income?
- What is the interest rate on your credit card and what is the rate you are earning on your savings or money market account?
- What was your interest rate when you accepted the card and what is it now?
- Have your credit card companies reduced the amounts of your lines of credit even though you didn’t owe them anything, pay late or go over you credit limit?
- How many credit lines do you have and what are the total lines available to you? Compare this to your annual income.
- Late payment horror stories. What was the minimum payment due and what was the late fee?
- When your credit card issuer decreases your credit line, it might effect how much you have outstanding in relation to the overall amount of the line. For example: If your credit line is $10,000 and you owe $5000, then you owe 50% and still have 50% of your line still available. But if the bank reduces your credit line to $6000, then you owe 84% of your line and only have 16% available. All the credit rating agencies lower your credit rating when the amount you owe, as a percentage of your line, increases.
- How much has your retirement plan decreased? What does this mean to your retirement plans?
- If you are recently unemployed, do you risk losing your home?
- When you applied for your mortgage, what kind of things did the banker tell you to encourage you to buy the home with little or no down-payment? Did they verify your income? How much financing were you given in relation to the purchase price?
- Have the banks reduced your credit limits to your business? How is this affecting your company’s ability to manage through this crisis? Were the bankers willing to meet with you to discuss your financing needs?
- If you are unable to meet your mortgage payments, what actions have the banks taken to modify the loan so that you can continue to live in the house and make loan payments?
- Have you tried to have your mortgage modified and if so, what were the results?