Sounding Off:

I don’t know who is more forgetful — a chief executive running around Wall Street or a top executive manager making decisions at a major investing company. They forgot that their greed for easy cash has gotten the country upside down, on the verge of an economic depression. Millions of workers lost their jobs because of their poor decisions.

Not surprisingly, their behavior has not changed a bit.

They continue to throw stones at American taxpayers. This time credit cards users are their new victims.

Well-documented sources show that some credit-card companies have altered interest rates arbitrarily without previously notifying cardholders — in writing or verbally — the status of their new interest rates. In some cases, APRs went up more than 100%, making it too difficult for some people to come up with the minimum payment.

A few weeks ago, President Barack Obama gathered with chief executives of the credit-card industry to iron out some issues raised by the public.

At the meeting, the executives were all ears. They listened attentively, shared ideas with the president, and even showed some commitment to solve the problems.

However, when they went back to their headquarters, they tucked Obama’s recommendations into a plastic bag and tossed it into a trash bin. What they heard in the White House went in one ear and right out the other. This only tells us how credit card companies are willing to bend the rules as long us they increase an inch of their profit margin.

With the smallest mistake, an interest rate can suffer a major increase.

Whether a person has an excellent or poor credit standing doesn’t matter to them. Mistakes are mistakes, they say.

Someone could have diligently sent his/her monthly payment, but when this person makes a payment a few days late for some odd or personal situation — the bill didn’t get home or the bill got mixed with junk mail and got dumped in the trash — the APR will skyrocket in the next bill.

I know someone in Costa Mesa who has seen his APR go from 13% to 30%. His card company, Washington Mutual (now Chase), didn’t want to hear any explanations. Their ears were shut. This person agreed to pay the $39 penalty fee, but also requested to have his previous interest rate be reinstated the following month. The company said no.

If convincing a card company is a big challenge, speaking with someone in the customer service department is a nightmarish experience. Most of them live on the other side of the Atlantic, in India or in the Philippines. They rarely have the professional skills to handle hard-pressed issues, and don’t have the power to adjust interest rates. So, why call? Why get irritated?

Since the government has neither the desire nor the energy to fix the problem, we can do something about it: Pay off the debt, cut the plastic into a hundred pieces and toss it in the trash bin. That’s what I just did.

HUMBERTO CASPA lives in Costa Mesa.