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考研英语阅读理解有一部分是截取自报刊文章,因此考生在复习备考的过程中要注意提高报刊文章的阅读能力,把握时事阅读。下面新东方在线小编分享历年真题同源的30篇报刊文章,附有注释和解析,希望考生认真阅读,提高对此类文章的阅读能力和增加相关词汇量。
考研英语阅读真题同源报刊文章30篇(1)
Higher rates! Bigger fees!
In recent weeks, you‘ve heard plenty about the sleazy side of the subprime
mortgage business. Rising numbers of borrowers are losing their homes after
being lured into highcost mortgages they couldn’t afford. But theres another
piece of the painful subprime story that hasn’t hit the headlines yet:
costly-sometimes abusive-subprime credit cards. Theyre bleeding millions of
borrowers who didn’t know what they were getting into.
Subprimes come in two types: Cards that are crazily costly to begin with
and cards that look good but hide big traps. You know about traps if you‘ve paid
some bills late and are now being charged with interest at 30 percent. In
general, heres how the business works:
The bottomfeeding cards-for people with damaged credit-offer you a decent
interest rate on credit lines "up to" $3,000. When the card arrives, however,
your line might be only $250. And then come the fees! "Program" fees. Account
set up fees. Participation fees. Annual fees. Theyre charged to your tiny
credit line, leaving you almost nothing to spend.
Two betterknown card issuers with a big subprime business are Capital One
and HSBCs Orchard Bank. They charge lower upfront fees than other cards do. But
if you fall behind, its tough. Cap Ones penalty rate is currently 28.15
percent. Orchard Bank doesn’t disclose its penalty rate online and wouldn’t tell
me what it is (that didn’t engender confidence!). Cap One has a reputation for
issuing multiple cards to people who bump up against their credit limits. That
gives them two cards, with two low limits, to overspend.
Lenders have figured out many ways of extracting fees. There’s "universal
default", where a late payment on one card can trigger high penalty rates on
every card you own. There’s the "endless late fee", where your payments never
catch up with the new penalties youre charged. There’s "two cycle billing"-too
complicated to explain here, but which amounts to charging interest on balances
that you’ve already paid. And "retroactive price hikes," where banks impose
higher rates on old balances as well as new ones. "What other business can get
away with raising the price of something you already purchased?" says Travis
Plunkett of the Consumer Federation of America.
These practices startle consumers who think such high fees and interest
rates must be against the law. But the Supreme Court effectively deregulated
credit card rates 30 years ago, and 10 years ago it deregulated the size of the
fees a bank could charge. Prior to fee deregulation, late fees hovered between
$13 and $15, says Robert McKinley of CardWeb.com, which tracks the business. Now
they run from $30 to $40. "Its out of control," he says. "Banks know they’ve
pushed this too far."
This year, however, the new Congress started holding hearings. Suddenly
Citi dropped universal default and JPMorgan Chase ended two cycle billing. But
those are just gestures. Without fee caps or usury laws, were in the bankers
hands.
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