Community Hearing Focuses on Impact of Runaway Debt, Unscrupulous Practices by Credit...

Community Hearing Focuses on Impact of Runaway Debt, Unscrupulous Practices by
Credit Card Companies and Biggest Banks on Working Families and Consumers

LOS ANGELES, Feb. 20 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- With a growing number of
lawmakers and industry analysts warning runaway credit card debt could be the
"next subprime crisis" with similar catastrophic effect on the nation's
economy, workers and community leaders throughout the Los Angeles area are
hosting a community hearing today to discuss the impact of credit debt and
unfair banking and credit card practices on consumers and working families.

"I was hit with more than a thousand dollars in overdraft and ATM fees in just
one year -- even though I used Bank of America's overdraft protection
program," says Randy Munoz, a Community Services Analyst for Los Angeles
County. "After 20 years as a Bank of America customer, you'd think they
would've treated my family and me more fairly."

The widespread use of policies including universal default and risk-based
re-pricing, among other practices that can leave working people with
unexpected hikes in fees and interest rates have come under increasing fire
recently amid mounting concerns of a looming economic recession. The impact of
credit card debt in particular has been increasingly compared to the subprime
mortgage loan crisis, most recently in BusinessWeek and Fortune ("The Consumer
Crunch," Michael Mandel, BusinessWeek 11/26/2007; "The $915 Billion Bomb in
Consumers' Wallets," Peter Gumbel, Fortune, 11/1/2007).

"Today we're delivering a wake-up call to some of the nation's biggest banks:
working people in this country are angry about being targeted by the big banks
and trapped in debt," says Tyrone Freeman, President of SEIU United Long Term
Care workers West. "Congress has to stop letting the banks decide what kind of
America we live in."

Hosted by SEIU, today's town-hall style hearing in Los Angeles is the first in
a series of community hearings with lawmakers and community advocacy
organizations planned nationwide to discuss banking issues.

For more information, visit www.bigbadbanks.org.

Bank of America Bad for America is a project of the Service Employees
International Union (SEIU), the fastest-growing labor union in North America
with 1.9 million members. We're working to hold big banks accountable to
working families and our communities.

SOURCE Service Employees International Union

Lynda Tran of Service Employees International Union, +1-202-730-7349