A group of protestors descended on banks in Washington and across the country on Wednesday to call for a cap on interest rates on credit cards and other consumer loans.  According to The Washington Post, Pauline Charles of Baltimore borrowed $2,000 when she was short on money and by the time she paid it off 18 months later, she had paid $11,000 in interest and fees.  "I went in already with financial problems and it just made my situation worse," she said.  Sen. Bernie Sanders has led efforts to institute a cap on the credit card interest rates.  Sanders introduced legislation to set a 15 percent cap.  Numerous states still have interest rate caps but, because of a Supreme Court ruling 30 years ago, banks headquartered in places states such as Delaware and South Dakota, which have little or no interest rate restrictions, can charge residents in other states outrageous interest rates and fees.  Sanders legislation would force national banks to function under the same interest rate cap as credit unions.

In May, the Congress pass and the president signed into law a credit card consumer rights bill.  Sen. Sanders supported this legislation.  At the time, he said in a Senate floor speech, "It is a good bill. It is an important step forward in protecting consumers, but I am going to be back on this issue of usury. In the United States of America we have got to finally tell banks and credit card companies that it is simply not acceptable to charge people 25 percent, 30 percent or 35 percent interest rates."

You can read The Washington Post article here.

Watch the senator talk about credit card outrages here.

To read some of the thousands of stories of credit card abuses collected by the senator, click here.