Credit Card Companies

I hate credit card companies.  I hate the ones that are constantly trying to get me to apply for a new card by sending me junk mail.  I hate my current credit card companies because they keep calling me to offer me all sorts of scams promotions.  I think credit card companies serve an important (and often abused) purpose in the world's economy, but I also think most are run by unethical turds.  I know that unethical turds aren't quite the same as idiots, but I don't have a blog about unethical turds, so here we are.

Right now I especially hate Bank of America because they recently bought my mortgage and since then, they have been calling me about all sorts of (money-wasting) opportunities.  Yes, I am on the national do-not-call list. Yes, I have asked them to stop calling when they've called (and not just hung up on me).  Yes, I have reported them to the FTC.  And yes, I continue to get calls from them.  (I also hate Bank of America because of an incident a few years ago involving a debt collector and mistaken identity, but that's a story for another time... probably my next post.  Stay tuned.)

So I was particularly annoyed the other day when I looked through my stack of mail and saw a credit card offer from Bank of America.  Imagine the contempt I felt at seeing two things I hate (credit card offers and Bank of America) combined into one piece of junk mail.

Usually when I get credit card offers, I tear them up and use the postage-paid "Business Reply Envelope" to mail them back a bunch of junk mail.  I've shredded their applications before and sent the shreds.  I've mailed them offers from the phone company.  I've mailed them stacks of scrap paper in an effort to make the envelope heavier.  Recently, however, I heard about this Web site: http://officeofstrategicinfluence.com/bulkmailer/ and I have decided to give it a try.

Last spring, I had some concrete work done at my house.  The contractor left behind a big pile of concrete chunks.  So from that pile, I chose three pieces that fit nicely into this box:

With a little bit of tape and the business reply envelope, I have this as my final product:

I figure I'm just doing my part to help.  The US Postal Service is talking about raising rates again, or laying off workers, or cutting service to 5 days a week, or doing all of the above.  If Bank of America and other shisters credit card companies can be forced in this way to pay the post office extra money, then maybe the economy can rebound faster.  I think we all agree that banks have helped to cause this recession... maybe they can start to fix it.