Credit card companies making it harder to make minimum payments

08.29.09
By Lewis Green

Many Americans are doing their best to pay down their credit card debt each month by making more than the monthly payment, but it appears that in some cases, the card companies are making it more difficult to make each month's payment.

New Jersey's Asbury Park Press reports that disabled truck driver Robert Maiore was paying down more than $22,000 in credit card debt by paying a little more than the $452 minimum payment each month. But all that changes when his minimum monthly payment was increased to $1,113.

The paper says this is a growing trend as credit card companies try to increase their profits and change terms ahead of legislation which will go into effect in February.

Majore, who tells the paper he is now on the brink of bankruptcy, says he never made a late payment and had good credit scores until his minimum payment increased 146 percent. Although Majore could have paid off his credit card debt in a little less than five years at the rate he was going, it appears that wasn't fast enough.

Stephanie Jacobson, a spokeswoman for JPMorgan Chase, said some consumers have not been paying off their debt at a pace that suits the company, causing their rates and monthly payments to increase.

"Our desire is to have these balances paid back in a reasonable period of time," she told the news provider.

While Majore is struggling to make his payments, it appears that a growing number of Americans are improving their ability to make payments to their credit card debt each month.

A report earlier this month from Moody's found that the percentage of people making late payments or defaulting fell in July. Also this month, TransUnion reported that credit card delinquencies fell 11 percent in the first quarter of 2009.

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Some Americans are being forced to break into their piggy bank to make monthly credit card payments