Credit where credit is due...

[darlox]

In case you weren't aware, new credit card regulations went into effect in February. As one who doesn't tend to use credit cards as credit, I don't usually spend a whole lot of time digging through my statements for the fine print. Balance due, payment, done

Comments

[bunny42]

I've been using credit cards for... well... a number of years, and I've always wondered how people could get approval for 15-20 different cards. Sure, the companies inundate you with "You are already approved" offers, but the one time I tried to take advantage of that, to transfer an unpaid balance from one card to a new one with a lower interest rate, I was introduced to the fine print: UP TO $5,000, it read. That "up to" part is the killer. I got back an approval offer for $500, which I declined, and ya know what? The wankers sent it to Equifax as a disapproved credit application.

With that in mind, it's a mystery to me how people drowning in credit card debt were able to obtain all of those cards in the first place. Back during the Carter years, I nearly lost my first little house I had ever owned, due to insane inflation and usurious interest rates. I resorted to apples with peanut butter and renting two of my rooms to total strangers, in order to stay afloat. Not that I would ever have done so, myself, but how did those people in the news get all those cards? I mean, three or four Visas, MasterCards, major retail stores, gas cards, Diner's Club, you name it. How's that work, anyway?

As for today, you may say the system works, but I maintain that the credit card companies are sharks, every last one of them, (except, maybe, American Express, whose profit margins are driven by a higher cut from the businesses), and a pox on all of their houses. They created this mess by mindlessly extending credit to hoards of people who could not afford it. How could all of those defaults have looked like a good business proposition? I remain flummoxed.