Junk Mail

We all get junk mail. It is unfortunate that companies can get a better rate than we do to send us envelopes of crap we don't want. I think the ones that bother me the most are credit cards offers. Well, that and religious organizations who think that I have some interest in sending them money. Never have and never will. What brings on this complaining. It has been on my mind for a while and today I got the piece of junk mail that sent me over the edge.

Big banks, like the idiots at Citibank, send out offers trying to get you to sign up for one of their credit cards. The interesting thing is that for months the Federal Reserve system has been loaning the big banks money at basically zero interest. Citibank is willing to offer me the opportunity to apply to for one of their credit cards and will offer me the fine interest rate of 14.99%. Seems like a really sweet deal for them. Borrow at zero percent and loan to me at 15%.  It is little wonder that they don't seem too concerned about fraud, identity theft and bankruptcy. They just let the other borrowers cover those costs. That isn't the thing that bothers me the most.

My aggravation is with the following line on their letter. "You've been pre-selected to apply." What the fuck does that mean? If I wasn't pre-selected I couldn't apply? I don't think so. It appears to be a very weak attempt to make me feel special. You are such a wonderful person we are going to select you to apply for one of our overpriced products so we can pad our bottom line. Would you please borrow some of our money so we can have the opportunity to ruin your life. Credit cards can be a dangerous thing and encourage you to spend money on things you could live without because it would be nice to have them. Pretty soon that stuff you really could have lived without is causing you to struggle to pay for the things you must have like food and shelter to pay your credit card bill. I have gotten kinder in my old age but it may be time to revisit my past practice. Credit card offers always come with a postage paid return envelope. In the past I would stuff all my other junk mail, coupons, religious literature and newspaper ads in the envelope and send them back. It was my opportunity to get rid of some of my clutter and keep so trash out of the local landfill.

Pre-selected to apply? Dear Citibank, I have pre-determined to decline.