Comments on: Credit Card Execs On The Hot Seat

On Capitol Hill, Industry Leaders Defend Hiking Rates When Credit Scores Fall

[l8c6]

Like the mafia hitman remarks, "It''''s just business..."

Posted by alphaa10


One thing that struck me about you comments. That''s global corporate "americas" attitude is, we''re putting the screws to ya but it''s just business. This message of socio-economic dysfunction has been conveyed through the private "american" global corporation via their funding and subsequent control over business colleges around the country and the world.

Organized crime no longer belongs to the mafia.

Laws are not morals or ethics, they are rules of conduct established by democracies or dictators and they can be tailored to favor a majority or in the case of the United States, a global elite class of separate citizens.

[straightmate]

Typically I oppose capital punishment

[straightmate]

Typically I oppose capital punishment

[alphaa10-2009]

mbburch said, "No one is forcing you to buy... Make responsible decisions with your money and stop blaming others for your own mistakes."
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The whining is yours, my friend. You cannot conceive of consumer debt, and therefore refuse to believe it can be utterly required for survival. Marie Antoinette shared your line of thought about the grubby, bothersome poor.

But now you are shouting, "THIS IS AMERICA. YOU HAVE A CHOICE." Choice? Grinding poverty is not a choice, Bubba.

Now, a loaded question for you-- if the officer in charge of your firing squad offers a blindfold, does that choice make you personally responsible for what happens after you put it on? Some events are simply out of your control, and pious GOP / Bushonomic ideas of "personal responsibility" are ludicrous. Logically equivalent to "Let them eat cake!"

You obviously have no problem with predatory ethics of credit card lenders, because-- as you say-- it''s all legal. Like the mafia hitman remarks, "It''s just business..."

[alphaa10-2009]

"speakinup" and "rohink" congratulate themselves on their own prudence and foresight, but they should realize they are anomalies in the general consumer debt situuation.

For example, the spike in personal bankruptcies in 2005 was triggered, financial experts suggest, by chronic medical and other burdens of families which have no means but the credit card to hold at bay.

In low-income households, making ends meet each month often finds only a credit card available to make up the difference. Many families are only a job layoff from loss of their credit accounts and having their debt payable immediately.

Doubtless, some consumers do have bad spending habits, but the vast majority are responsible wage earners. Surprisingly, even they are a target for credit lenders. Encouraging consumer debt in middle-class consumers through easily obtained ("subprime risk"?) credit cards is one of the newer growth areas for lenders, they admit.

Plastic money is the lingua franca of modern commerce. Merchants online prefer credit cards over checks or cash, and for the traveler, a plastic card is unavoidable for carrying purchasing power securely. In a paperless society with no real boundaries of time or geography, the plastic form of money has become an irreplaceable substitute for local paper currency.

While Speakinup and rohink imagine frugality helps them avoid credit card debt, they are probably in for a number of surprises in coming years.

[mbburch]

To all the whiners out there who took out ARMs and now can''t make the monthly payments:

If you don''t like the terms of a "predatory" credit card or loan, don''t enter into the agreement. It''s that simple. THIS IS AMERICA. YOU HAVE A CHOICE.

No one is forcing you to buy a house you can''t afford, or to rack up credit card bills you can''t pay back. Make responsible decisions with your money and stop blaming others for your own mistakes.

[gce651]

Banks and the whole credit reporting industry are burning so many people that I predict many are going to simply lose interest in "maintaining your good credit and reputation" and go on big spending sprees and then tell banks to take a hike. COME ON, LET''S ALL DO IT TOGETHER BEFORE ALL THE MONEY''S GONE INTO SOME CEO''S YEARLY BONUS!!! :)

[gce651]

These bank guys are just SCUMBAGS in expensive suits!!! Nothing will be done about banks ripping off consumers, that''s where America has lost its soul. Our bought-off govt only intervenes when banks and hedge funds look like they''re going to lose money from bad investments, like risky junk bonds or the sub-prime mortgage market.
Nobody forced banks to raise mortgage rates on sub-prime borrowers, they just thought they could get away with it and all did it at the same time, thus BONING each other, forcing millions into default or bankruptcy, and glutting the market with foreclosed real estate. Now they''ll probably do the same thing with credit cards. I hope they do it and sink the whole financial system! GREED, GREED, GREED.

[jetranger7]

I''m just waitin for one of em to show up at my door, I''m gonna let em in too, serve them coffe and donuts, and then show them something down in the Basement, too badd they won''t be coming back up !! I just bought me a new chain-- for my -- CHAINSAW too !!!!!!

[alphaa10-2009]

sonart37 said, "Anyone ever hear of personal responsibility?"
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Have you? If so, you already understand credit card companies richly deserve the scrutiny they get from Americans and their congress. Each credit card company has ignored its basic responsibility to customers-- to charge a fair rate as well as a competitive rate, not simply the maximum the law allows.

Fair rates are most likely to come from true rate competition between lenders, not marketing slogans about free enterprise, America, free coffee mugs and bland assurances. Instead of competing with each other, however, credit card lobbies go after congress to change consumer lending law, tilting the playing field in their favor.

In 2005, a GOP-led congress changed lending law to benefit the credit card lenders, using suggestions from the card issuers, themselves. Immediately after, card companies were inflamed with greed, forgot all about market decorum, and attached every device possible to charge consumers more money. There wasn''t a hint of real rate competition left in the land. (see Credit Card Plunder of Consumers --2)