Maybe you will be smarter in 2010 than you are in 2009. This year,
during the worst financial times of my adult life, I managed to pay
off all your cards (three) and asked for my interest on the oldest
one, the American Airlines Platinum, to be reduced from 29.99%
interest to something reasonable. I never understood why you raised it
in the first place, since I never paid late or defaulted, except that
you were having more trouble that I was and wanted to protect your
bonuses and your "shareholder value."

Oh, and your lobbyists own the Congress, so you thought you would
raise it before the regulations went into effect. In short, your
small print, transparent papered correspondence to me basically said
you raised it BECAUSE YOU COULD.

In a secure email, you said no, that the card was currently in
default. I looked, and sure enough, I had a $.50 balance. I'm not
sure where that even came from, because I paid the entire card off
months ago. You probably charged me a fee for responding to my email.

Do you really want me to send you a check for $.50? I have a $10
credit on one of my other cards, and you could just help me by
transferring $.50 to that account. Also, I try to zero these cards
out every month, I never use them; yet they still come out with fees
that put me in the default status because I think the bills are paid
since I don't use the cards. Then they have these little balances on
them that I never see.

In the spirit of Christmas, how can we fix this? If I close the
accounts, you ding my credit. If I use the cards you ding my credit.
You are the only people charging me 29.9% interest, which is why I
never use your cards. Is that what you want? Does that serve you any
better than it serves me? Use your head. Be a little more tolerant
and you will get more business, not less.

Merry Christmas. Perhaps a moment of contemplation is in order for
you before the new year.