Credit Cards and the Fine Print

Before this hugely horrible financial crisis (do we have a name for it yet?), The Other Half and I used to average five or six "pre-approved" credit card applications in the mail per week. It was an obscene amount of paper and postage, and makes you wonder how it could possibly have been cost effective.

Lately, the flood of these mailers has slowed to a trickle, but we still get a couple a week. Usually, we do what we always do, tear them into bits, and throw them away (or run them through the shredder). But I decided to read some of the materials in one of them, from First Premier Bank.

The offer was for a MasterCard, with a 9.9% APR ("one of the lowest rates available"). They don't promise a credit limit any higher than $250, which doesn't exactly wow me. And some of the fees are quite confusing, or at least sound unreasonable. For instance, if your credit limit is raised, they charge you $25. Paying through the Internet costs $7 per transaction. $11 if you pay through an autodraft service they provide. And a "monthly servicing fee" of $84 billed at $7 per month. What?

To make matters worse, unless I'm reading this thing wrong (see the graphic for confirmation), if you sign up for this whopping $250 card, you will instantly owe $179, and have a credit limit of $71! Again, I could be wrong, but this doesn't sound like a compelling offer to me. Into the shredder with you!

UPDATE: In a stunning coincidence, I just received an email from--you guessed it--First Premiere Bank, offerening me a MasterCard! Sorry, but even if I didn't think there was something fishy about all these fees, I'd never sign up for a credit card from an unsolicited email. Begone with you!

UPDATE THE SECOND: I've never really paid attention before to the innumerable solicitations I get in my email box, or who they're from. But since I wrote this post (not more than 45 minutes ago), I have gotten--counting the one in the first update--nine credit card solicitations, including two more from First Premiere! I guess I see why they're not sending so many by snail mail anymore.