So I was maxing out someone elses credit cards today...

[TwixVoy]

and all I could do was think to my self "WHY?".

This scene has gotten all too familiar to me.

First they wanted to run the store issued card we enticed them in to for $100. Declined. The couple asked each other "Why did it decline for $100? Didn't we just pay $100? It must not have posted yet". "Ok, split the total on these two other credit cards." They walk off with their electronics purchase.

Why? Can't they see paying $100 on a card only to charge $100 to it a day later maxing it out again is a bad idea?

Yet corporate keeps telling us PUSH THE CREDIT CARDS! PUSH THE CREDIT CARDS! You aren't making your credit card goals! (Yes, our stores actually have yearly credit card goals... Getting 10 people to open a credit card a day is considered good)

More and more I am seeing people split credit card payments for one transaction among two or more cards. Telling us to charge EXACTLY <insert amount here> so they max out the card with out going over the limit.

Sometimes I process payments people make to our store issued card. Many times they bring in their statement for us to take the account number from, and I always look at the minimum payment due and the total balance. I'd say 8 out of 10 times the balance is several thousand dollars, and they are making $100-300 payments.

I can only ask my self - how long can we run this system on borrowed money? When will so many people be in so deep the whole system comes apart? Part of me wonders if we are already at this point - and the "credit crisis" we keep hearing about is really a meltdown and we aren't going to be told until it's blatantly obvious to us all.

[Pale Blue Dot]

1. Watch the movie "In Debt We Trust"

You can get it on Netflix. It's scary stuff - it was made 2 years ago and accurately predicts the situation we're in now with the economy. I highly recommend it.

http://www.indebtwetrust.org/

[JohnyCanuck]

11. Also checkout the video "Money as Debt"

If you have a high speed connection, you can watch it on Google video here: http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-9050474362583451279&q=money+as+debt&ei=Q-iTSOTsMYm-igKx_ZytBQ

And you can also order it from the web site here: www.moneyasdebt.net

Elizabeth Kucinich on "Money As Debt".

Elizabeth J. Kucinich, monetary reform activist partner of
Congressman, and US Presidential aspirant, Dennis Kucinich (D-OH)

"I have worked for a long time looking into monetary reform and after 10 years, finally someone has produced a DVD entitled "Money as Debt". It is a fabulous fun yet powerful introduction to the issue of monetary reform. It's the best over view I have seen so far; the best by far. ESSENTIAL! Everyone should watch it!

The topic of DebtMoney is THE issue of our times. It forms the basis to every nation's areas of core material and spiritual concerns such as economic development, employment and environmental sustainability.

If only government officials, civil society organizations, environmental groups, unions and well meaning international development strategists trying to eradicate poverty really understood this topic... the world would be a much better place.

[angrycarpenter]

2. I am really happy I never had one

Mom always told me to live within my means. I drive a 18 year-old car, I rent, and I owe nothing to anyone. I save my money and pay cash for what I need. So what if I have no credit and could not borrow a red cent if my life depended on it. I am debt free, how many people would love to say that?

[lynettebro440]

3. I hear you

I had to claim bankruptcy 5 years ago from a trusting the wrong people. My credit was spotless to that point. I made a commitment to live with the money that I have. That was tough some years but I have mastered it and live really quite comfortably. I knew as soon as I saw the new laws with credit cards to stay the hell away from them. I also driive an old car and rent, don't have a single loan. Thanks for letting me know I'm not alone.

[Muttocracy]

4. considering how huge the credit lines they offer are, people must be in quite deep

to be rejected. I had trouble making ends and digging out when I was unemployed for a while (still digging out years later thanks to interest and all that) - but I never had anything denied - my credit limit is gigantic.

So they must be in WAY deep, or have such poor credit the companies won't trust them with a bigger limit?

Frightening that you see this so often, even on store cards!

[TwixVoy]

5. It is common to see an initial limit

of a few hundred dollars... (though I have seen over $10,000 on card openings) however, the cards typically auto increase your credit limit from time to time.

I have a store issued card. It started at $300. Within 1 year I was auto increased to a $5000 limit.... and I've never used it for more than buying lunch at work because of the employee discount tied to it.

[carp]

6. Brother works for a collection company. Business is down, Don't get it at all.

He says it must be like gas prices, at a point people get smart and stop using credit cards. their volume is way down and his commissions are way off.

[TwixVoy]

7. "Business is down"

maybe because in order for them to make money they have to actually be able to COLLECT?

You can't get blood from a turnup. The fact his commissions are way down tells me people don't have any money left to send them.

[Skittles]

8. strange but

how do I know at only 6 posts you are an aplogist for repukes?

[bicentennial_baby]

9. I know. right?

You want we should co-kick some ass? :D

[Skittles]

14. I can't take it I tell you bb

THEY TAKE ALL THE FUN OUT OF IT WHEN THEY ARE SO F***ING OBVIOUS :(

[2KS2KHonda]

15. I really have to wonder if attitudes like yours are responsible for defections from the Democratic

party.

I mean, that is really nasty. Why do you do that?

[Skittles]

17. oh please

:nopity:

[alcibiades_mystery]

13. They just had huge stories in the financial press about dramatic fall in credit card usage

You don't have to jump on everybody, you know?

[dysfunctional press]

10. i get at least 3-4 calls/per day from companies who say they can lower my cc interest rate..

as soon as i tell them my combined balances are less than $2000, and it all gets paid off each month anyway, they hang-up...but then someone else calls tomorrow.

[alcibiades_mystery]

12. My credit card limits are ridiculous

$28,000 for one,
$19,000 for another,
$7,000 for a third.

Luckily, I owe these vultures ZERO. Got me in college, as they do so many, and I think I ran it up to something like $8,000 at one point. But I buckled down in my twenties determined to pay the fuckers off, and did. Now I just use them for plane tickets when I go to conferences, and you damn skippy I put in those reimbursement forms right away, and send the payment the second the reimbursement hits my account. Unfortunately, that's usually two months after the purchase, so they get some slight interest from me from time to time, but otherwise, they can eat my balls.

The new thing they're doing is building "Career Centers" on college campuses. That way, they're "giving back" and the legislature allows them to keep soaking college kids in debt, though everybody knows that it is irresponsible lending 60% of the time. Hey, at least you can get a shitty office job to pay 'em back.

--> Used to work in credit card fraud prevention, so I ironically paiod them back with their own money that they paid me.

The industry is a scam: legalized loan sharking. I often secretly sided with the fraudsters, even though I never gave a fraudster an inch. :-)

[JerseygirlCT]

16. It is all bad, very bad.

And sad. But I do think we have to insist that people take the responsibility themselves for this. No matter the external pressure (like the president telling people to go shop in response to terrorism!), people still make their own choices.

I think we need to start really educating kids about finances. And about resisting the lure of credit marketing. This would be a far more useful course in middle and high school than a few of the "health" courses my kid sat through, bored to tears with the same lectures he'd already gotten. Or the home ec stuff where he sewed boxer shorts and made brownies.

It breaks my heart and leaves me fearful to hear of people like those today. At the same time, I want to slap them across the back of their heads, you know?