I usually mention on Twitter what I get in the mail as a writer: rejection slips that take four long paragraphs or 20 bullet points before mentioning the obvious (“REJECTED!”), the once in a blue moon acceptance letter, or rarely hard cash ($3.02 USD – KA-ching!).  With about 60 short stories and poems floating in the slush piles, I’m always adding to my rejection slip wallpaper collection.  A few weeks ago, I mentioned a credit card notice where fees and interest rates are being raised across the board.  Since the notice wasn’t in super-extra-fine print that credit card companies love to use, the amounts I could be screwed over for was breathtaking.

Last week I was contacted by an editor for Business Week who saw my comment on Twitter.  We traded emails,  I sent a scanned copy of the notification letter, and we talked on the phone.  The article, Dodging Credit Card Reforms, came out this week’s issue (September 21, 2009, p. 26).

C.D. Reimer of San Jose was switched to a variable card last month. At the same time the issuer, Barclaycards, upped his rate to 26.99% from around 16%. Reimer could have canceled the account. But the 40-year-old was laid off from his software support job and depends on plastic. Barclaycards declined to comment.

This isn’t how I expected to break out in the national media.  (The Oprah’s Book Club nomination is still some years away.)  However, I’m planning to cancel that the credit card before the opt-out deadline in late November.  Unless the credit card companies want to take rejection slips as payment, I need my cash more than they do.

Updated 16 September 2009 @ 2:00PM – Cancelled the credit card mentioned above.  One rule in today’s economy: if something cost money and a pain in the butt, it got to go.