Let's revolt against our credit cards

It's your own fault for buying that propaganda about how credit is the american way. I have never used credit in my life.

My son got one of these letters that his interest rate was being raised to 19.9%, so he paid the card off and called them to cancel...he ended up getting a 2.9% percentage rate before it was all said and done.

What the banks are doing is not right at all but they can do it. Now for all of you "I didnt take credit nah nah nah" and the "Your a responsible adult pay your bills" let me ask you a question. You have a $200k mortgage and are paying it on time and the bank calls you and says if we dont get the full $200k balance in 60 days you are getting the boot. What do you do then? This just happened to a friend of mine up the road and he doesnt know what to do. He has never been late on his payments. What these banks are doing is not right and I wouldnt pay another dime to another bank. When they gave you the money they took a risk. Now they need to take the loss just like they take the rewards. Period.

If you really want to bone the credit companies, be a "deadbeat" like me. That's what they call us who pay our charges in full each month, deadbeats. This is because it costs them to administer our account, but they make no money off us in interest. In fact, with the right card, you can get money back from them. We put everything on a certain card that gives 3% back for charges. Then pay it off at the end of the month. I'm even going to put what I owe in income tax on the card, just so I can get that 3%!
Don't pay interest, collect it!!

I will keep repeating this until I fall over;

Bush issued a bail out of about $800 billion. Obama did his own bail out for $800 billion.

That's $1.6 trillion. Where did the money go? Straight into the hands of the very same Fortune 500 CEOs that put us in this mess!

And some of those exact same CEOs went to Congress and testified "I don't know were the money went."

Somebody gives them $10 billion and they don't know were it went??? I bet a baseball bat up side his head would help him remember! If not, it would give him his first legitimate reason to forget.

Nobody "forgets" what they did with $10 billion. Nobody. I don't think Ken Lay's accounting (Enron) was THAT bad.

What really happened to all that money??

That's easy.

"You give me the $10 billion and I'll make sure you get re-elected."
"Okay, cool. If we make you testify to Congress , just say you don't remember."
"Check please."

That is what happened. And in addition, the banks raise your rates to what ever they please with little regard to your credit status.

You can't beat a monster when it has that kind of weapon.

People will keep electing the political candidate that is the most good looking or has the nicest sounding name. Our country is lost. It's simply a matter of going through the process of loosing it.

You can stop paying your bills and they will destroy your credit. The inside joke is that it doesn't matter when they are not issuing credit in the first place.

Or you can pay your bills and they get their money twice, once from you and again from your tax dollars.

Either or, we are the suckers.

So, to pay or not to pay. Well, the banks aren't paying their bills so...what ever.

Sure, you can be responsible and pay all your debts. But when you play a game and you lose because your the only one that DIDN'T cheat, well...you become nothing but a dignified loser. Nice.

They are counting on your loyalty. They are counting on your fear of defaulting.

Do what ever YOU think you need to do to get through this. If the CEOs of the credit card companies were not demanding multi billion dollar bail outs, I would feel differently about it.

Some simple math for you; this is in case you really believe the bail outs are going to help YOU.

$1.6 trillion / 300 million Americans = over $5,000 per American.

Everybody knows that money trickles up to the rich, never down. Reagan's trickle down economics? lol, that was Reagan's little in side joke. We got trickled on but it sure wasn't with money.

Knowing that money always trickles up to the rich and STAYS with the rich, if the politicos really wanted to help America, they would give every American $5,000. $5,000 X 300 million people = about $1.6 trillion.

A family of four would get $20,000. THAT is the kind of money that would help Americans. They don't want to help America. This is strictly about DC's power and the CEOs money. The common man is NOT part of the equation.

So were is all that money coming from? Literally, it is not coming from anywhere. The US Mint is simply printing more money. What until they start devaluing the American Dollar. $1.00 is worth allot of money if that is the only dollar in circulation. If there are a trillion $1.00 bills, they are pretty much worthless. Understand? Currency trading 101. A very simplistic explanation of it.

Allow me to drift off topic for just a moment; the banks are only giving credit to those with near perfect credit right now.

Many American farmers don't have perfect credit. No loans to the farmers means no crops will be planted.

AMERICA! You ain't seen nothing yet!!!

I work for a bank. You have no idea what is about to happen.

The farming industry is about to go SPLAT. 24 months tops!

600,000 people are getting laid off per month, every month for three months in a row.

When you don't have money because you don't have a job, credit card payments become a very low priority. Collectors can call, they can write, they can sue and win those law suits. If you don't have money there will not be a pay check to garnish. They won't be able to garnish your bank account because once you go NSF for more then 30 days, that account goes bye bye.

When America loses the ability to swipe their plastic at the grocery store to buy what little food there will be during the coming farming crisis.....

Envision a train racing down the tracks. Woot, woot! For some reason, that speeding trains falls off the track. The train explodes into a massive fireball.

Your a mile away. Life is good. Your living the fancy life. All these people worrying about life are morons; you live life for the moment. KA BOOM! Your chopped meat. The end.

THAT is what's coming.

Maybe layoffs haven't hit your company yet so you think your recession proof. Yeah, you keep thinking that.

One day you will go to work and everything will be great. You'll get called into your boss' office assuming your going to get that "that a boy" because your so awesome.

Pink slip.

6 months later-homeless

The recession has barely begun. Think the market has bottomed out? Think again.

When the farming industry runs out of money, stocks will tumble and crumble.

In 19 months, the DOW lost 50% of it's highest achieved level. It took about a century to reach that point. 50% less in 19 months.

That's a crash folks! And the end is not in sight.

As far as the banks are concerned, the credit card industry is on the verge of crashing and burning. It's about the only way the banks are making money; that and these bogus bail out programs which are not being used for what we were told they would be used to.

"I don't know what happened to that money."

Do you believe that?

Do you?

I don't want to get in trouble for promoting a resistance or anything like that. So if we aren't going to fight back, let's all just bend over in unison and get this over with.

Just my opinion. If anyone needs me for anything, I'll be hiding in the closet, curled up in a fetal position sucking my thumb while I silently cry.

Let me close by saying this; Do something to make the founding fathers proud.

[edit on 3/1/2009 by Genfinity]

The banks all know that much tougher usury laws are coming soon, so they're grabbing
all they can before the laws make these practices illegal.

It also looks like bankruptcy laws will be changed in favor of struggling consumers
trying to hold their head above water.

The only way to effectively put a screeching halt to these unfair bank practices
is to do so legally, but I'd be fine with a mass default protest to get the ball rolling.

I've gone 7 years without using a credit card.

Never again!

Originally posted by tjack
If you really want to bone the credit companies, be a "deadbeat" like me. That's what they call us who pay our charges in full each month, deadbeats. This is because it costs them to administer our account, but they make no money off us in interest. In fact, with the right card, you can get money back from them. We put everything on a certain card that gives 3% back for charges. Then pay it off at the end of the month. I'm even going to put what I owe in income tax on the card, just so I can get that 3%!
Don't pay interest, collect it!!

Not really. You may be a "deadbeat" (as they call you), but they did NOT lose money on you. How, you may ask?

Most people do not know this, but the credit card companies charge anywhere from 2%-4% (forget the exact number) from the VENDOR who accepted your credit card as payment.

That's right. Let's say you charged $1,000 (to make it easy), and payed it off in full. The banks still made between $20 and $40 for that purchase. Not bad, huh? When banks are giving interest rates of 3% per YEAR, you (as a credit card company) get to make 2% per MONTH.

Still think they are "losing money" on you?

reply to post by sir_chancealot

Not sure what your laughy face is all about, but I never claimed they "lose" money on me, I said they don't make any off of me. Or more specifically, I, myself, do not pay any of my own personal money, in the form of interest charges to them. There. Get it yet?

Also, if they're making 2% from the vendor, and re-imbursing me 3%, then heck yeah, they're losing money on me at the rate of 1%.

Simple math, yo.

Originally posted by tjeffersonsghost
What the banks are doing is not right at all but they can do it. Now for all of you "I didnt take credit nah nah nah" and the "Your a responsible adult pay your bills" let me ask you a question. You have a $200k mortgage and are paying it on time and the bank calls you and says if we dont get the full $200k balance in 60 days you are getting the boot. What do you do then? This just happened to a friend of mine up the road and he doesnt know what to do. He has never been late on his payments. What these banks are doing is not right and I wouldnt pay another dime to another bank. When they gave you the money they took a risk. Now they need to take the loss just like they take the rewards. Period.

This is exactly what I was getting at.

The banks are like the Mafia rewriting the rules to turn consumer credit into legalized loan-sharking.

I am advocating all credit card holders collectively tell them to stick it. Then they will collapse and we can start over.

Originally posted by tjack
reply to post by sir_chancealot

 

Not sure what your laughy face is all about, but I never claimed they "lose" money on me, I said they don't make any off of me. Or more specifically, I, myself, do not pay any of my own personal money, in the form of interest charges to them. There. Get it yet?

Also, if they're making 2% from the vendor, and re-imbursing me 3%, then heck yeah, they're losing money on me at the rate of 1%.

Simple math, yo.

Yes the CCC [Credit Card Companies] are making money off you whether you pay off your balance in full or not.

As a previous poster said - the CCC charge the vender anywhere from 2-5%. The CCC takes their cut and you get your cut. The CCC are happy and so are you.

Who's not happy - The consumer -

Why? higher prices, the vendor will ultimately add the cost of credit card transaction to goods.

The ultimate solution would be two prices on every type of goods or services. A credit card price and a cash/debit card price. Maybe a 2-5% discount at the cash register according to what the merchant has to pay for taking plastic.

Then the consumer can decided whether we want to pay higher prices for the priviledge of borrowing the bank's money to pay for a Plasma TV or a Happy Meal

See Ya

reply to post by Aircav


credit.about.com...

m.digg.com...

Again, my point is not to say that the companies don't make a profit from every transaction, it's to say that being a "deadbeat" credit card holder pisses them off, as they don't make money off that consumer. In fact, with rewards and such, they may actually lose some on that consumer. It's the
"revolvers" that keep the system propped up. If we were all "deadbeats" the CCC's would be hog-tied.

Sheesh!

I too await the day of having my ceremony. Until that ray of hope comes shining from the sunshine above and past the rain clouds of doom and gloom, I'm afraid that I too have been suckered into a DEBT SLAVERY by TPTB. Oh but wait! There is hope! It's called bankruptcy. And filing would be my last resort. Mu-ha-ha!

this thread is against this sites rules and should be removed immediatley.
all threads should be treated equally, right. then remove it now.

Originally posted by tjeffersonsghost
You have a $200k mortgage and are paying it on time and the bank calls you and says if we dont get the full $200k balance in 60 days you are getting the boot. What do you do then?

Re finance and possibly get a better deal.
Wow now how simple was that?

Originally posted by CaptainCaveMan

Re finance and possibly get a better deal.
Wow now how simple was that?

He cant because his house value is way higher than the bank appraisal value. No bank will approve him for enough money and he doesnt have $60k to make up the difference.

Wow, this is a very informative thread. I did not know that there were so many well informed members on ATS with such financial acumen. If you guys are so well informed, which you so obviously are, ( not sarcasm ) what is wrong with the PTB in charge both in the US and the UK that they don't also arrive at your conclusions and implement the things that you guys recommend ?

Personal responsibility... pity no one take it any more. It's everyone elses fault.

Don't want to pay your credit card? Why not? Did anyone force you to get it? Nope. Force you to buy things with it? Nope. Did you READ the contract? I'd guess not. The one that clearly states they reserve the right to not only raise the rates if you pay late, but also if the account reaches a prescibed amount of time (usually 12 months to 18 months), OR anytime after that, based on a credit check.

When my wife and I got married a few years back, we picked up a couple cards to help with the wedding and honeymoon. Now, based on a credit check, they raised the rates. To a stupidly high amount. Guess what? IT'S OUR FAULT! Not the banks, not the CCC, it's our fault. We called and negotiated a much lower rate with a closing of the card, and are paying them off. We'll not get another. But as much as we can't stand the CCC for their near-criminal rates (from 8 to 30%), we still realize it was a debt we accrued, and must pay.

Take responsibility for your own debts and pay them off, stop pointing fingers.

[edit on 2-3-2009 by fleabit]

Debt Cards rock, you put the money you want to use,plus bank fee, and it works judt like a credit card, except of course you have to save up the money first....

that's the hard part, scrimping and saving, but you really do appreciate it that much more........

Don't be in such a hurry but get off the debt wagon FAST

I stopped paying my credit cards long ago. Just stopped. Best thing I ever did.
Now my credit is poor, which basically means I can't get another credit card. Second best thing that ever happened.
I now use cash for all of my transactions, and I feel "wealthier" than ever before.