Why your Credit Card Bill may come from Sioux Falls, South Dakota

By: Sam Donaldson

Many often wonder why their credit card bill comes to you from the likes of Sioux Falls in South Dakota. This is because the state of South Dakota is the home of many large credit card issuers who naturally take advantage of the state's lack of concern in credit card consumer protection laws. Also this may be due in part to a lack of a state corporate income taxes. Still, the state of South Dakota benefits greatly from the jobs and revenues generated by these businesses. There are many financial service companies located in South Dakota including Great Western Bank, Total Card Inc., BankFirst, Capital Card Services, HSBC, PREMIER Bankcard, and Wells Fargo.

Credit card fees over the years recently have skyrocketed from $2.6 billion in 1980 to over $22.5 billion in 2006. The thing that has a great number of consumers and advocates irked is a common practice named "universal default""universal default". In this sytem when you find yourself late paying the bill, the card company might raise your interest rate to something that is well over 20 percent. There have been many criticisms of this structure including the concept of one lender charging a higher price when their customer defaults with another lender has been compared to having a cartel, or price fixing structure. A major concern to many folks is the possibility that the credit card shown as being in a state of default may not simply be so. It very well could be the result of an error on the part of the credit card issuer. If this is the case, while the customer has full legal rights to have the error corrected on his credit report, any lender who instituted the universal default rate is under no obligation to return to the normal rate. It simply goes without saying that this sort of position leaves many credit card holders in a state not unlike that of anger. Simply put, this is not right.

There have been attempts by members of congress to simply outlaw universal default. One such congressman was Sen. Chris Dodd, D-Conn. Yet, many credit card firms are some of the largest contributors to the various political parties. So seeking changes that will only benefit the rank and file noncontributing citizenry is not something that our congress is most famous for. It can be argued that in Washington money talks, as subtle corruption has been a part of legislative procedure for years. "I've never been able to get a bill passed of any major significance because they're so big and so influential," says Dodd.

The American Bankers Association, a free-trade and professional association that advocates issues deemed important by the banking industry in the United States has systematically been on the front of protecting the practice of universal default via it's Political Action Committees which use lobbyists to work for laws that are advantageous for the banking industry.