Word: cards
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...walk-over, said Senator Nunn, but only because the defenders were few and poorly armed. Coordination among the services was abysmal. Nunn cited the case of one Army officer who, unable to reach the Navy because of incompatible communication systems, had to use his AT&T credit card to phone his office in North Carolina to pass along a request for naval bombardment. In an interview with TIME, Goldwater noted that during the Grenada operation "52 top-secret messages were sent to the operational commander and never got there because one service's radios weren't operative with the other...
...countless consumers have found to their dismay, the towering interest that banks charge for credit-card purchases can defy both gravity and the laws of economics. While the prime rate for corporate customers has plunged from 20 1/ 2% to 9 1/2% since 1981 and the average new mortgage rate has dropped from 17.7% to 11.6% during that time, credit-card interest in most areas has remained at a sky-high level of more than 18% annually. That is a rate once associated with local loan sharks rather than with your friendly neighborhood banker...
Manufacturers Hanover Trust, the fourth largest U.S. bank, last week became the first major lender in four years to lower its credit-card rate. The New York institution trimmed the charge from 19.8% to 17.8% for Visa and MasterCard accounts and other revolving credit lines. "We saw it as a significant marketing opportunity," said Edward Miller, executive vice president for retail banking. The bank hopes to woo customers from its rivals with the lower rate...
...Card rates range widely across the U.S. Consumers in Arkansas are lucky: state law caps credit-card interest at 5% above the Federal Reserve's discount rate, and they currently pay only about 12 3/4%. The rates climb above 20% in California and other states...
Congress has been increasingly concerned about the high cost of plastic credit. Three bills introduced this year would set a ceiling on charges. The measures, which are likely to be taken up in early 1986, would peg card rates to the interest on other kinds of short-term loans. One of the bills, sponsored by Democratic Representative Mario Biaggi of New York, would limit card interest to no more than 5% above the cost of 90-day commercial paper, a type of corporate IOU that now yields about...