According to this article several of the largest credit card issuers are getting ready to raise their minimum payments from 2% of the balance to 4% of the balance (not including interest).

The article says that the government has been pushing the credit card companies to raise their minimums to help people get out of debt.  Huh?  What about tightening up credit issuing standards in the first place?  Even better, how about reducing the interest rates so that they don’t qualify as usury any more?

In somewhat related news (article here) some of the same banks’ stocks were hammered by investors yesterday because of disappointing earnings.  These horrible numbers?  Let’s see:

• Citigroup – Quarterly net income of $5.07 billion
• Bank of America – Quarterly net income of $4.3 billion, up "only" 12%

Apparently the companies disappointed their investors because they didn’t manage their bond investments well.  On the bright side, here’s what they did well:

"Bank of America
signed up more debit- and credit-card customers and squeezed costs out
of FleetBoston Financial Corp. by combining the banks’ online accounts,
cutting marketing expenses and jobs.

Kenneth Lewis, the
chief executive, is trying to to parlay momentum in credit cards to
increase earnings. Bank of America announced plans last month to buy
MBNA Corp. for $35 billion."

I guess the expected cash flow from those doubled minimums should help quite nicely.