I need to get out more

After exercise class today I decided to go to Tuttle Mall—our conveniently located Macy’s closed this spring.  On my way there I glanced in my side mirror and thought the guy behind me was eating vigorously a candy bar.  But he wasn’t.  He was shaving with an electric shaver.  I’d seen jokes about it but had never seen it. Who doesn’t get up early enough to shave? And what happens to all those little stubbly hairs that drop on your clothes?

Then I missed the street into Tuttle, so I took the next one.  There was a huge apartment complex (not particularly attractive) that wasn’t there the last time I shopped up there.  Something Lofts.  I think that means a gathering place for single adults.  Then the older (maybe 5-6 years old) townhouses can be home when they mature a little.

So I was shopping for a red dress or blouse or sweater.  At our church we wear red for Pentecost, and the only red dress I had was too small and I gave it away about 3 years ago.  So I had a 20% off card, and some money left on a Christmas gift card, and I found just the dress I wanted at 65% off (probably a winter dress, but at 100% polyester it is hard to tell.  Then I got a surprise.  It had a built in girdle!  I tried it on—looked pretty good, but I thought I’d have to call for help to get out of it.

Anyway, with the sale, the discount and the gift card, the $60 dress cost me about $4.50.

For $4, I can be a bit uncomfortable.

Personal information about me they can pass along

After reading that Macy's was legally allowed to charge over 200% on a 30 day charge account, I looked a little closer at the teeny-tiny print on the itsy-bitsy pieces of paper that came with the bill.

First they told me my personal information was protected. That information included
Information I gave them on my application--name, address, phone, dob, ss, dln. Information about my transactions with Macy's their affiliates and nonaffliates--account balances, payment history and account activity Information about me from a consumer reporting agency, such as the credit bureau reports and other information relating to my credit worthiness Information about me from other souces, such as my employer, democraphic firms, and other third parties [isn't that a little vague?]
Then armed with all that which includes just about everything except my blood type and the name of the horse I owned in 7th grade, Macy's tells me that they can share that with all other affiliates about me--and that includes
the family of companies controlled by Citigroup Inc. the family of companies controlled by Macy's, Inc. affiliates in several different businesses, including banking, credit cards, consumer finance, insurance, securities and retail sales of goods and services Macy affiliates dba CitiFinancial, CitiMortgage, Smith Barney, Primerica, Macy's and Bloomingdale's
Nonaffiliated, "non-family" get to have my personal information too
financial services providers--banks, credit card companies, etc. non-financial companies, such as those in direct marketing and selling on consumer products and services and others, like non-profits (ACORN? Why not--they were able to bring down the banks.)

On a second tiny piece of paper there is an Opt Out Form (retain for your records). This replaces the wording on another piece of paper I don't have, or if I do, I don't know where it is. But upon reading it, I see it isn't the opt out form at all; no, no, it tells me the finance charge percentages, about which I just complained in the previous blog are going up to annual 22.9% instead of 21.6%, and if I miss a payment twice in any 6 mo. period it goes up to 24.9%; a $29 fee for returned check, and a late payment fee of $15 for balances under $50, $25 for balance of $50 and over, and so forth, until the late fee for over $1,000 is $35.

And get this. "You authorize us within each account type to apply your payments and credits in a way that is most favorable or convenient for us." Well, no wonder the print is so small and on itsy bitsy slips of paper. Then comes the "opt out option," which if I choose that, my account will be closed!

Usury

(yū'zhə-rē) I seldom use my Macy's credit card--must have pulled it out by mistake when I shopped there on December 19. Today I got a "red star rewards" statement for the period ending December 21. I charged about $60 (2 presents for my husband and 2 for me!) and the minimum payment is due on Jan. 15. So that's 25 days for a 30 day billing account. If I choose to pay less than the full balance, $1 will be added to my revolving account balance, which inexplicably is recorded as $22.41 even though I had zero balance on Dec. 19. It says in upper right corner of page one that the average daily balance is $5.98, the daily periodic rate 0.05918%, which corresponds to an annual percentage rate of 21.60%. On the second page is the note "A finance charge in the amount of $1.00 will be added to your Revolving account balance if you choose to pay less than the full balance by your due date. If that happens, the actual ANNUAL PERCENTAGE RATE charge on that account is 200.64%.

Anyone with better math and English skills want to explain this, without using the words usury, obfuscation, exorbitant or onerous?