Your tax dollars at work....

BofA to Boost Rates on Cards With Balances

Bank of America Corp. is raising interest rates on as many as four million U.S. credit-card customers who carry a balance, becoming the latest bank to crack down on people who don't pay off their bill every month.

Starting with June account statements, any credit-card customer who carries a balance and has an interest rate below 10% will see his or her rate jump into double-digit territory. A company spokeswoman declined to provide an exact number, saying the changes would affect less than 10% of the bank's card customers in the U.S. The bank has 70 million card customers world-wide, but doesn't break out the number of customers who are in the U.S. "It impacts a small portion of our cardholders," said Betty Reiss, the spokeswoman.

The bank's move follows similar rate increases that other banks, including Citigroup Inc., J.P. Morgan Chase & Co., and American Express Co. have implemented in recent months. The banks, facing rising delinquencies, blame the economic turmoil. Many have been tightening the screws on people with less-than-perfect credit, but now they're pinching a broader range of customers who have good credit records, but carry a balance.

Besides being beyond unconscionable, this is yet another of the myriad reasons why a 'consumer led' 'recovery' is not around the corner, wishful thinking aside.