Credit card bill plan is too weak

Consumers generally ignore the interest rates on their credit cards and treat interest payments as a service charge for using credit cards. Thus, the use of interest rate adjustments by the Federal Reserve Board cannot control this inflationary factor (“Credit Card Debt Has Its Price,” Consumer Confidential, Jan. 30).

An excessive amount of banking capital is committed to financing credit card debt. That capital is not available to businesses for expansion.

Sen. [Dianne] Feinstein’s bill does not go far enough. What is needed is legislation that would mandate a minimum monthly payment of 10% of the balance carried forward plus a down payment of 20% of all new charges on unsecured, revolving consumer financing.

David E. Ross

Oak Park

While it’s wonderful that Sen. Dianne Feinstein wants to do something to help consumers burdened with excessive credit card debt, it’s too bad she’s going after a symptom rather than the disease.

The latter is, of course, the banks’ ability to charge totally outrageous interest rates on credit card debt -- coupled with their ability to change the interest and pay-back rules at will, affecting, retroactively, debt already accumulated.

Doug Harris

Masonville, N.Y.