I, like most Americans, have too much credit debt. My personal

[daninthemoon]

self interest worry about all this is: are the robbing banks going to arbitrarily jack up the interest rates. If they do, I 'll be sunk. Has anyone been hit like this yet?

[bigscott]

1. NPR this morning

mentioned some people are having their credit lines decreased and interest rates increased. And those special intro 0% rates are history

[ixion]

2. not yet, but yeah, you should look for this in the near future, and

try and get your cards paid off if you can.

The upside to this is that the devaluation of the dollar means you'll owe less than you owed before.

For example:

If you owed 10k when the dollar was at 1.07 vs the Euro, you'd now owe the equivalent of roughly 7k, because the dollar value has declined. As the dollar continues to decline, you'll owe less. The downside there is that there will also be rampant inflation, so a dollar won't buy squat.

[daninthemoon]

3. It's almost a joke. If I could pay them off, I would have done so

already. No, if they jack my rates, I'll probably bail myself out with a bankruptcy. Definetely not my desire, but if the extortionists choose to hit me like that, it will be the only way I can hit back. It will probably be the only way to keep the house.

[Virginia Dare]

6. That's why the repubs worked so hard to change the bankruptcy laws..

when they were in power. They'll screw you coming and going.

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

7. Are the balances all on one card or on several cards?

If on several, could you try and pay off one card? I could see that that would help.

One way to raise cash (which we're doing so we can finish fixing our house) is by selling scrap metal. My husband was a mechanic before he became disabled, and we had several pieces of old cars and trucks around that a traveling scrap dealer bought and hauled off. We both made a couple of hundred bucks on the deal. So one way to raise cash is to sell your scrap metal or collect other folk's.

[TwixVoy]

16. Are you a corporate executive at Chase or something?

"try to get your cards paid off". Of course he would pay them off if he could. It's obvious that he can't. The system is designed to get a person to that point, and once they are at that point it is LITERALLY ALMOST IMPOSSIBLE to EVER pay them off. Be lucky you are not one of the millions of americans who has been victimized by this crime against our nation.

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

4. No

but I've distrusted credit cards since they became popular, and only carried a balance once, though it took several years to pay it off. Swore off the magic plastic after that. But the non-profit I work for uses credit cards and I worry about what a raise in rates might do to the bottom line. So far this hasn't happened, but since I keep the books, I'll be the first to know when it does.

[Virginia Dare]

5. Not yet, but this is the next shoe to drop..

they'll jack up interest rates and double your minimum payments. More people will go into bankruptcy, more private debt for the governent to pay off.

[carlyhippy]

8. I wondered about this also

I have a balance on one card that was locked in at 4.99% until it's paid off, I sure hope they don't change the rules on that one, because it's a huge balance, I moved all the other balances to it for the locked in interest rate.

[JHB]

17. I did the same sort of thing...

...so I'm finally making visible headway against the principal.

If it was for "4.99% for the life of the loan" or something like that, they can't arbitrarily change it (though I wouldn't put it past some of them to try, so stay alert and check your statement carefully each month).
Just make sure you pay at least the minumum on time (and preferably earlier, to avoid tricks some banks have played to make payers late), or else they'll jack your interest rate into the stratosphere because **you** broke the lending agreement.

[LWolf]

9. Sort of. Last year.

It wasn't "arbitrary." It's in the fine print. The well pump went. It cost a lot to repair. I sent an interest only payment to Capital One that month. They immediately jacked my 6% interest to 38%.

After a year-long, costly battle, we ended up with stalemate. They can do that, and they've stuck to it. They DID have to pay me for calling and harassing my senior citizen mother during the legal wrangling, who had no connection to the account. If it weren't for that, I'd be sunk.

[Daveparts]

10. The Politically Incorrect Answer

First, if you bankrupt your credit is history for seven years. What is the out look for credit in the next seven years? Experts are already talking about a decade of readjustment. What are the banks doing? What did Washington Mutual, Lehman Brothers and Bear Sterns do. They told their creditors, "too bad, so sad!" Washington Mutual stuck one investor for 1.5 billion dollars. Are they losing sleep over it? Not hardly.

When you took out those credit cards you put up your name as collateral. the only thing they can take from you is your good name. If you bankrupt your credit history is trashed if you tell them to take a hike your credit history is trashed, either way. Either a bankruptcy or a default, name your poison.


In the meantime don't sweat the petty stuff and don't pet the sweaty stuff. Credit cards are way down on the food chain, take care of the house, the kids and the car.
Don't short the kids a warm winter coat trying to feed credit cards their predatory interest rates. Look at it this way, what would the bank do if the situation was reversed?

[daninthemoon]

12. Don't get me wrong. I'm fine at this point, I send more than the minimum

each month, and am not strapped at all. If they go gonzo on the interest though, things may be very different. Mostly, I don't want to be taken further advantage of. My credit rating is pretty good right now, but that is not my worry. I already have a house and decent car, so my credit rating isn't too important in the immediate future. By the way, you can only go bankrupt every 7 years, but it stays on your record for ten.

[radfringe]

11. next presidential debate will be taking questions from audience

and from people submitting questions on-line.

Might I suggest these two questions for McCain:

1. how do your economic policies differ from bush's?

2. Where's the freaking trickle?

[fizzgig]

13. i've been woried about that, too

i'm now with a debt management plan and those rates were negotiated a few years ago, but i'm still kinda worried about that happening to me

[slackmaster]

14. I got tired of the high rates and got my credit card debt down to zero in May

I've been paying off the balance every month since then, and spending less to make sure I can continue to do that.

I recommend it.

[coalition_unwilling]

15. The credit card companies refer to you (and me) as a 'deadbeat' when

you pay off your balance in full each month.

In my opinion, the sole use for a credit card should be for emergencies, like a car break-down or medical co-pay that is unexpected. I do understand, though, that many people do not use their cc's that way. It's really very sad. I wish high-schools taught a mandatory personal finance curriculum to juniors and seniors.

[slackmaster]

18. As a former systems analyst in a retail banking operation I concur

They really do refer to people who pay their balances in full as deadbeats. I've heard it with my own ears.

I wish high-schools taught a mandatory personal finance curriculum to juniors and seniors.

Something like that might have actually prevented the sub-prime mortgage situation from getting as bad as it has.

[coalition_unwilling]

19. Many people simply do not grasp that a $1,000 purchase on a credit card

when only the monthly minimum is paid each month may end up costing much more than $1000.00, thanks to interest and fees.

Just a basic understanding of interest and its effects on consumers purchasing with revolving debt would be useful.

Not sure said curriculum would have prevented much of the sub-prime fiasco. I think what might have prevented it from getting as bad as it has would have been for strict regulation to have prevented Fannie and Freddie from buying any such mortgages. This would have provided a disincentive to banks and lenders to make the predatory sub-prime loans in the first place.

Of course, the downside to that would be that many families that would not otherwise qualify would have been denied mortgages.

[slackmaster]

20. Sometimes renting makes more sense than buying a home

I wasn't able to justify buying until I was almost 37 years old (and married to a woman with a good job).