Americans Falling Behind on Credit Card Payments at Alarming Rate

Americans Falling Behind on Credit Card Payments at Alarming Rate

www.foxnews.com

SAN FRANCISCO — Americans are falling behind on their credit card payments at an alarming rate, sending delinquencies and defaults surging by double-digit percentages in the last year and prompting warnings of worse to come.

The value of credit card accounts at least 30 days late jumped 26 percent to $17.3 billion in October from a year earlier at 17 large credit card trusts examined by the AP. That represented more than 4 percent of the total outstanding principal balances owed to the trusts on credit cards that were issued by banks such as Bank of America and Capital One and for retailers like Home Depot and Wal-Mart.

(visit the link for the full news article)

Well I guess you didn't need an economics degree to know this was going to happen. If people can't pay to keep the roof over their heads, they damn sure aren't going to be paying off unsecured credit card debt.

According to the article, Bank of America and Capital One are going to be hardest hit, each with about $5 Billion in credit card defaults. There's almost a trillion dollars ($920B) out there in total credit card debt, so the implications could be huge when you add that to the mortgage crisis the banks are facing.

How long until the whole system collapses and what happens then?

www.foxnews.com
(visit the link for the full news article)

Credit Card companies are organized loan sharks. If you can't make a payment (or heaven forbid miss a payment due to life happening), they jack the interest rate up. I was paying 9% interest on mine, when my company took a turn for the worse three years ago. I got behind on payments, but was still paying when I could. They jacked up my interest rate to 29%!!! If I'm having trouble making payments at 9%, how will I make them at 29%!??? This past year has been good and I've been able to make regular payments again, but they still wouldn't lower the interest rate. They told me it would be another 6 months before they would consider it. I cancelled the card so I wouldn't be able to charge any more on it and am shopping for a new card that takes transfers.

Hard lesson learned my friends. Do has business as you can with cash!

I believe it. that's why I only carry 2 cards with me. one for 1000 limit and the other for 500..just to check into the hotel casinos. but I don't make crazy purchases.my nephew took his credit up to 70k. he got a car, credit cards and now he's working just to pay them. really, sad.

I've been there, you can't run a business without credit but nothing will kill your business faster than high debt and predatory interest rates.

The two most reasonable credit card companies I've experienced are Chase and Citibank. You might want to try them out if you haven't already.

read this people
fdrs.org...

You have to educate yourself about these issues because they are the crux of all of our problems.

It has been posted before but it is pertinent that we spread the knowledge completely throughout everyone.

I myself used to be in a similar problem, but luckily, I got out of it and will not be going back to credit cards or loans.

If I haven't got it, I can't spend it.

The Uk has been suffering from this credit card problem for quite a while now and more and more people are claiming bankruptcy to get out of it. It's quite a good method if you look into it.

Either that, or if you're able to, walk away from the debts. It's not theft or fraud.
You can actually pay back what you can afford, and they must accept whatever you pay, even if it's 50 cents a week.

There is one other method you can try to clear it all. It's crafty but perfectly legal if contested but not sure if I can post that method here :-)

Go ahead and post it my friend what are you so scared of
THis is ATS remember? The same sight that has people claiming bush sr is a reptilian shapeshifter hahaha...im not saying it cant be true but it might be a stretch.
If the banks use predatory practices to suck us in and charge us interest for use of funds that dont actually exist then im sure you can post whatever it is you want to fight back. AFter all, people are being put in jail and their lives are being destroyed for getting caught up in a system that is inherently unethical and greedy. Give us the info....we all need it.

Originally posted by mistressofspices
Credit Card companies are organized loan sharks. If you can't make a payment (or heaven forbid miss a payment due to life happening), they jack the interest rate up.
...snip...
Hard lesson learned my friends. Do has business as you can with cash!

I really don't get it. Whatever instrument you use, card or cash, do your budget first and stick to it. Using card in itself is not evil at all, especially if you pay off the balance each month (in which case you are effectively having an interest free loan! So don't blame the "evil" credit card company). If you can't pay off what you spent in a month, sticking with cash won't help you either (you won't have enough cash).

I've seen plenty of people at Walmart paying strictly cash for a cart full of trinkets they strictly don't need to survive. Go figure. Just slows down the line, when their reach for that wad of cash or scribble the goddamn check.

You are correct of course.

Here it is..

Make a payment through the post or deliver a sealed envelope with the payment inside. With this payment you write a simple basic letter stating that this is the full and final payment.

If they credit your account with the payment , that's it, all clear, they've accepted your payment as full an final payment. No more debt.

If they take you to court over it, you've got a copy of your letter which includes the payment details and date and account number etc. plus your latest statement showing the payment was accepted..

They've not got a leg to stand on.

Yea but you think they will get us in the end? I mean, you would be right though since there was no original debt to pay off and they charged us interest anyway on what they state they have lended when in fact they have just recirculated our money into the fed once again all the while creating 10% more "funds" for themselves to lend out as well.
This is a good idea....im going to try this around the time of my bonus check. This will go all the way to collections though because the idiot opening the letter probably doesnt know anything about the law.

reply to post by Extralien


I like that idea. I would change it a little to give them a taste of their own medicine .

I would write a simple basic letter stating that this is the full and final payment in SMALL TEXT at the bottom of the page.

You're relying on that idiot to get you payment into the account.

If someone with a sharp eye spots the comment about it being a full and final payment then they'll send it back.

Then you have to carry on making your normal payments again. You could try it at a later date as they might watch your post from then on.

Might be worth searching the net for sample letters as I'm sure I'm not the only one who knows about this and there may be much more info on this method on the net.

Good idea...they screw us with hidden print and based on the fact that these funds were non existant in the first place and just a made up entry in an accounting book, i think its a good way to stick it to the man. However i do not think i will try this with my car loan though but i might contest the high interest rate in court based on all of this....they are charging me 17%, and my fico score is 700+!!

Originally posted by buddhasystem
I really don't get it. Whatever instrument you use, card or cash, do your budget first and stick to it.

Well the guy said he was in business for himself. You can't budget some months, because you don't know what's coming in. You still have to pay your bills, employees, taxation, equipment maintenance, lease, etc. and if you're lucky there's enough left to pay yourself. Budgets only work when you have a set income every month.

reply to post by Extralien


Uhhhhh no. You can put whatever you want on the check but unless they agree in writing to YOU that you are settling the account in full, which they will not do until you are several months late, they will cash the check and expect another. When they default the account, send it to collectors, and eventually sue you, you lose.

I've got money in a CapOne money market account. It's FDIC insured but I think I'm going to pull it all out anyway for reduced headaches if they go under.


>

Originally posted by mythatsabigprobe
Budgets only work when you have a set income every month.

Budgets work fine for people with variable incomes. All you have to do is keep enough cash liquid to ride out the low months and rebuild it in the high months.

[edit on 24-12-2007 by apc]

Idealogically speaking this is no way to handle a debt legitimately but it is using their logic against them a little. They hold us responsible for certain terms and conditions that are not fully disclosed right off the bat (especially since they are in MICROPRINT under your signature) therefore i think this action is a direct counterplay to their unethical ways. First off....the credit contract just isnt valid for many many reasons:
1. Terms and conditions must be fully disclosed voluntarily by both parties in order for a contract to be legally binding.
2. The terms of of the contract must be negotiable.
3. Of course there is always the i was not 18 defense for those young college kids which also plays into the first reason and second. THey are not knowledgable enough to understand the system, which may or may not be their fault but they cannot legally sign a contract without any prior knowledge.

Contract details are stated in full in the agreement provided to the borrower. If people would actually read what they agree we wouldn't have 99% of the credit problems in this country that we do today.

There's a really easy way to handle a debt legitimately: pay it. Actually the easiest way is to just not borrow in the first place. When you do and don't intend to pay it back, that's called stealing.

Originally posted by mythatsabigprobe
Well the guy said he was in business for himself. You can't budget some months, because you don't know what's coming in.

This applies to every business that's run in this country! All without falling hoplessly into debt. There are projections, and yes, in cases they are wrong, but when you use a leveraged instrument like high-interest debt, you better undestand the consequence. If you are not capable of working out a strategy to manage risk, you don't go there in the first place.

Budgets only work when you have a set income every month.

That's a bizzare statement, especially in view of your advice to deal with cash.



[edit on 24-12-2007 by buddhasystem]

And what exactly do you think the commercial banks do?
They lend money they do not have and then are allowed to create 10% more to do whatever they want with them and that fraction is set forth by the federal reserve. I would love to pay it back and i already have plus more if you include the interest. The bottom line is if you look into it....they had no funds to lend in the first place and use unethical and fraudulent accounting practices to create money....therefore how can they charge me 18% interest for use of funds if there were no funds to use? WE are all in the wrong but i admit it and know its time to get out of debt but like i stated above, they simply rip us off.
Secondly, not all the terms and coniditions are readily available to read....the dotted line under your name is actually microtext that states some pertinent information. also just becaue the terms and conditions exist doesnt mean that the creditor has accomplished the necessary means of full disclosure. They make it fine print for a reason because they know people will miss the important information and they take advantage of those less knowledgable. THerefore.....if all the terms are not fully known to both parties and if they are not negotiable than the contract is not valid. It has nothing to do with the willingness of the signor to read all the fine print...the point is BOTH parties have to voluntarily DISCLOSE all information pertinent to the credit aggreement and HAVE TO BE ABLE TO NEGOTIATE the agreement as well. We dont just sit there and give them our name and expect them to find out our address and phone number do we? All of our information is served up on a platter for them with no FINE print and yet they still have to play games with us.....its unethical no matter how you look at it.
I want to pay it back as do most of us...those who take out loans and dont pay at all are the people you are speaking to in your last post but not reasonable tax payers.