Greed and deception, brought to you by MBNA

Amid the flurry of bills and access checks, credit card holders also occasionally receive meatier news from their banks: notices of changes in policy.

Sent under cover similar to the junk mail, the notices typically consist of a nondescript and non-descriptive cover letter along with several pages of "Important Amendments to Your Credit Card Agreement."

One such letter from MBNA America Bank arrived at a Walla Walla cardholder's home this week. Besides run-of-the-mill changes such as fee increases, the document contained three surprises.

Here is Surprise No. 1 with added parentheticals. Emphasis approximates that of the letter from MBNA.

"Default pricing
Summary: We are adding a Default Pricing provision to your account. In the future, if your account is late or your balance exceeds your credit limit, we may increase any of the non-promotional APRs on your account, without further notice, up to the Default Rate. Please see the Agreement section titled Default Pricing for more details." (the rate section is on the next page of the document, and shows a default rate of 24.99%, as compared to the ordinary rate of 10.99%)

"You may reject this change. If you do not, the Default Pricing provision will be added to your account effective the first day following your statement closing date in July 2006." (the letter goes on to give "Rejection Instructions for Default Pricing," which tell the cardholder to write a letter to MBNA with the holder's name and full account number and a statement that rejects the change. The letter also explicitly states that telephone contact is not sufficient to reject the policy change.)

"We added Default Pricing to your account due to a change in our business practices."

It is difficult to guess why the last sentence was added. Which changes did they make that weren't due to changes in their business practices?

Or does "change in our business practices" refer to the company's move to force paying customers to opt out of policies that could be harmful to their personal finances?

Surprise No. 2 is a change in the policy on grace periods. Essentially, any cardholder who carries a balance forfeits a grace period on subsequent purchases. That's not new, but the time frame in which to pay in full is diminished from the last day of the billing cycle to the "payment due" date. For Joe Consumer, this isn't likely to be a big deal, but for MBNA it is likely to be another way to vacuum up some cash. Bully for the brontosaurus, eh?

Surprise No. 3 only affects cardholders who use their cards abroad:

"If you make a Foreign Transaction, we will asess a transaction fee (FINANCE CHARGE) equal to 3% of the U.S. dollar amount of each such Foreign Transaction. This is in addition to any other applicable transaction fees."

Contacted for comment, the cardholder who received the letter said her plan was to ignore the opt-out deadline and simply close the account. She's not the only one.