A view of the Westin hotel at Denver International Airport in 2020. (Courtesy of Denver International Airport)
The Jan. 23 commentary in Colorado Newsline on the new credit card bill under review in Congress got a lot of points right. The bill will in fact hurt communities of color, who are underbanked and should not have to face more hurdles to get loans, credit cards and other needed financial tools.
C. Benzel Jimmerson was correct when he said that this bill will cause banks and credit unions to lose revenue, and the downwind effect of that is the need to raise prices elsewhere. This could mean the loss of credit card rewards, more expensive loans, higher interest rates, and more.
But what the commentary didn’t touch on is that there is a whole other way this will hurt communities of color.
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Of course, people will directly suffer if they lose their credit card rewards programs — people use those for travel, gas, hotels, you name it. But there are entire industries that depend on people being able to afford travel. The Denver International Airport is a nearby example. If people lose the ability to earn miles or hotel points, the number of people who can afford travel will decrease. This means fewer flights and fewer people coming through Denver’s airport.