Americans Falling Behind on Credit Card Payments at Alarming Rate

Usury (in the original sense of any interest) was denounced by a number of spiritual leaders and philosophers of ancient times, including Plato, Aristotle, Cato, Cicero, Seneca, Plutarch, Aquinas, Muhammad, Moses, Philo and Gautama Buddha.

en.wikipedia.org...

Damn, whatever happened to accountability?
The credit card company lawyers write the fine print they never expect anyone to read in the first place and if you take the bait by signing on the dotted line then there is no one to blame but yourself.
You can try to get out of your debt by not paying your credit card obligation but this too is also wrong, and two wrongs don't make a right.
I remember the Al Pacino & Keanu Reeves movie where the devil was a lawyer and there is something to be said about this.
Truth is people will always try to live beyond their means and the credit card companies know this which is why they get their media buddies to influence you to buy crap you don't need just to fit in and keep up with the Jones's.

Just say no!

Rather than relying on the victim mentality and playing the blame game, I would suggest y'all read Dave Ramsey's book "The Total Money Makeover" on how to really stick it to the credit card companies using nothing but common sense.

[edit on 24-12-2007 by Alxandro]

reply to post by Alxandro


O my god!! What dont you people get about the fact that this issue has nothing to do with living outside of your means? There is a fine line between what is actually needed and what is not needed.....and im sure you can find 1000 different definitions of each. What is important here once again is the predatory and fraudulent practices used by the federal central banking system and its cohorts to control the countries currency which in turn controls the populace and affects them directly via the income tax. Your first question though makes sense and i pose it to you but with respect to those lawyers who purposefully write the terms and conditions knowingly in microtext so you cant read it....where is the acountability for the central banks and the federal reserve? When a commercial bank deposits your promissory note into their reserves they can now create an additional 10%....doesnt anyone get this? Out of thing air they create money and then print the "legal tender" that we use to exchange for goods a services. These causes inflation which causes so many problems in our society that i dont even know where to begin. So what you say to that regarding accountability?

Getting credit is far far too easy. Just last week my father counted up the credit in his wallet, £15,000 and he doesn't even use credit anymore. It's no wonder people get in too deep.

If you take out credit, you must pay it back its that simple. People think of not paying their debts to these companies as a victumless crime, but its not. The people who end up paying your debt are people who do pay their debt, interest and all.

I don't blame people for being swallowed up by debt due to unforseen job loss or whatever, but people who take out credit to pay credit deserve all they get... Unless they have a PLAN for repayment and STICK to it!

Maybe im not in the best position to be handing out advice on credit. However i think more people could do well to keep clear of credit and learn to live off their salary.

reply to post by GUICE2


Don't do it! Nooooo!

Focus! Debt now, the Fed later. Debt now, the Fed later.

reply to post by manta


Once again...read this site it explains all fdrs.org...

There are no funds to lend...therefore there is no right to charge use of funds if make beleive funds are being used. No ones balances are affected by loan distributions!! Thats why it is so easy to obtain.....read about fractional reserve banking. Man i sound like a broken record.....i agree, you take out a loan (from anyone) and you should pay it back, DUH!
Prepayment is not the issue here people nor is willingness to pay it.
also you cannot dismiss this argument by labeling debtors as claiming to be "victims" when they actually were. YOu can still be held accountable for your actions and also be a victim of manipulation..

reply to post by apc


Ok ok i got you
Thanks for the positive words....WE will get them later then huh?
Doesnt mean we cant discuss it though hahahah

reply to post by GUICE2


If you don't like it don't get ivolved. So you have fallen into the trap of taking too much credit. So what? You took in the credit knowing it would one day need to be repaid.

It seems like you have latched onto the idea that you can avoid paying your debts by claiming because the money doesn't really exist, you dont ahve to pay it back.

When you get shafted learn from it. Maybe their is nothing you can do about it but their probably is so go and do whatever needs to be doen to fix the problem!

reply to post by GUICE2


When a Bill comes up that can make a difference, writing your representatives to tell them to support it is still free and only takes five minutes. Tell others to do the same. When they don't support it, vote against them.

reply to post by manta


No silly....i knew it had to be repaid but as a youngen i obviously did not understand the full ramifications of credit and your credit report. Also i didnt understand the full implications of what would happen if i made a mistake and missed one payment.....
If they stood there and said all these things to you and fully disclosed all the information then i probably wouldnt have signed.

reply to post by GUICE2



Fair enough, im 20 and have 1 credit card for an emergance. It was made clear to me what would happen if i missed a payment. The laws are probably different here in the U.K and i see on all credit advenrt warnings about what happens if you don't keep up.

I say again, it is far too easy to easy to get far too much debt. A credit score is only for your creditors to gague how much money they can make. It should be used more as a tool to tell when someone just has too much debt. Here in the uk their is a man called Martin Lewis, he is like the peoples champion and fights for the consumer, always giving tips on how to get the best deal.

I mention him because not so long ago he was advising people on how to be a credit card 'tart' basically getting free money by keeping the money from your credit card in a high interest savings account then paying it back just before the interest kicked in. Then they all came together and shared their information on who was doing this to stop them. So it is possible when they want to, to share information and use it to find out who is doing what. Therefor its not too much of a jump to use it to stop people getting way too much credit. Is it?

When many people consider getting into debt with credit cards, they usually think of the minimum payment each month. It can take seven years or more to pay off a card that way. Many times the minimum is only equal to the amount of interest for that month, so the principle remains untouched.

We live in a society that depends on us to be consumers. When we perform this function too well it gets us into trouble with debt. I don't use credit at all anymore, and I'm happier for it.

Well if you don't have credit,"the more the better," they don't want to give you any.

what a world, what a world.

Banks are legalized loan sharks. Their biggest dream is to have customers who make the minimum payment on their account FOREVER. They want you to miss payments once in a while. Then they can stick you with high late payment fees and raise your interest rate. They've got it down to a science of how to bleed people for as much money as they can.

They target low income people promising them that they can buy the expensive things they want now and pay for them later. They know that some of those people won't make all of their payments, but the ones who struggle through make them more than enough money to make up for it. If thousands of people are making their payments at 30% interest and paying double or more for the origional amount they borrowed then it isn't too hard to see that the banks are making their money.

Sounds like some of you are feeling sorry for the banks. For them I say get up off the ground and catch up to that turnip truck so you can get back on. Maybe next time you fall off you'll knock some sense in your heads. The banks CAN'T really lose any money on this. They've already made a sinful amount. They've inflated themselves into the trouble they're in now. I feel no more sympathy for them as some of you have said you feel for the poor people who can't make their payments. The Banks KNOW perfectly well what they're doing. This inflationary system had to stop some day, and they rode it for all it was worth.

As for fractional reserve lending, I say REVERSE IT. If money can be created out of nothing then it can return to being nothing. Most of our money is simply an entry in a computer anyway. It has NO REAL VALUE anyway. Money is an instrument of debt. That's what the Federal Reserve has done for us. The Federal Reserve is a PRIVATELY OWNED CORPORATION. Why are they lending currency to the Country?

Check this out...
Money As Debt

Google Video Link

[edit on 24-12-2007 by LazyGuy]

If you think credit card debt is bad, you should find some numbers on business debts.
In just a small graphics shop, we had a single customer owe us $4 Million, and thats one of hundreds of customers.

My mother works for a clothing company, she processes letters of credit all day, everyday for twenty years. These are basically IOU's to China and third world nations for all those trendy ugly clothes.

My wife works in a credit department of another clothing company, they are experiencing credit card fraud at close to $200,000 a day, and then what is not fraud is rich people who don't pay their bills, poor people don't shop at this particular company. She has the info on all the other companies, and its even worse for them in both credit card fraud and unpayed bills. Some of these people have to sell their credit card departments to other companies just to avoid bankruptcy by the silly credit scam.

This nation works on credit, that it is not paying back.
If the government can do it, then let the citizens run up the bill as high as it will go, and guess what...there will still be all that credit to go around because the money is fake.

The people who created the credit problem have dug their own grave, let them wallow in it.

Originally posted by GUICE2
reply to post by Alxandro

 

... There is a fine line between what is actually needed and what is not needed.....and im sure you can find 1000 different definitions of each. ...
.
....where is the acountability for the central banks and the federal reserve? When a commercial bank deposits your promissory note into their reserves they can now create an additional 10%....

doesnt anyone get this? Out of thing air they create money and then print the "legal tender" that we use to exchange for goods a services. These causes inflation which causes so many problems in our society that i dont even know where to begin. So what you say to that regarding accountability?

I agree with you on the debate about what is and isn't needed because one mans luxury is another mans necessity, but if the illegal alien can live on far below the minimum and still manage to send the remainder to folks back home then we can all stand to learn a lesson from them when it comes to budgeting. But there are folks that charge essentials like food and their monthly rent to credit cards, how stupid is that?

Again it falls back on the fine print nobody ever reads, bottom line if you hate the credit card companies that much, why succumb to them in the first place? Unless of course you plan on looking for that magic loophole that will legally, illegally, morally or immorally relieve you of your obligation.
Even for poster has good intent to start his own credit union to help those needing low interest rates or what not, you can bet there will always be some that will try to take advantage of your good intent and screw you over. This is why the credit card folks are always one step ahead.

Which leads me back to my first question about accountability.

To me, the solution is to change society such that money simply doesn't exist. It's artificial, man made, and not really needed. Seems simple to me, but nobody agrees with me.

I remember reading over at www.perfecteconomy.com that our current economic system will eventually bleed itself dry under insoluble debt. I'm not an econ major, so I don't know if it's true or not, but they way things are going, I wouldn't be surprised.

So for now, I just try to use common sense - don't buy anything you can't afford or pay for quickly. The only item that doesn't fit that bill is my house since I don't have a couple hundred K lying around to pay for it

reply to post by mythatsabigprobe


A lot of times, life happens. Trips to the hospital. Car gets broken into. Someone steals from you. It is not always smooth sailing.

I just settled a credit card debt and saved almost 75% of the money i owed simply by asking questions and making it seem like I had no intentions of paying it off.

She said that I had two options, I could get the debt written off and it would affect my credit score. Or we could make a settlement, and the bad debt would be removed. I then began to ask her about our current status of the nations credit crunch, and began to express my concern of the colapse of its credit system. Like i said, she then gave me a figure that was almost 75% less than what i owed. I made the deal to keep them off my back.

I guess my questions is, what if there was a credit revolution where mass people refused to pay their credit. what would the consequences be?

According to the Assosiated Press, accounts more than 90-days delinquent have risen by 50% in the last year. Fifty percent! Half of the people using credit cards can no longer make their payments. It's time to stop arguing about personal responsibility in spending. The bubble is bursting! We are on the verge of an economic collapse that will make the Great Depression look like a hiccup and will almost certainly lead to WWIII.

On the topic of personal responsibility, I would have to agree that there are indeed those who spend irresponsibly. I would not agree however that this has led to massive amounts of debt that we are seeing today. People are turning to their credit cards as a last resort, hoping that things will soon improve, or that they will be able to make some sort of adjustment down the line. They are wrong. Things will never improve. This is a deliberate situation brought on by the privately owned Federal Reserve.

It would be ignorant to suggest that 50% of credit-card holders suddenly decided to start spending irresponsibly in the last year.