responsibility

MScoleman at aol.com MScoleman at aol.com
Fri Jun 12 07:12:35 PDT 1998


In a message dated 98-06-11 20:34:23 EDT Maggie <<

> **now people who declare bankruptcy usually get new cards within

> 60 days, not the ten years of past decades. Jordan:

Why is that bad?

Basically, if someone has gotten themself to the point where they declare bankruptcy, then they probably have a problem handling credit. Providing instant credit for someone who has already declared bankruptcy is like giving a cleaned up heroin addict a $10 bag, or handing a bottle to an alcoholic. The fact is, by the time someone has declared bankruptcy the credit industry has made thousands and thousands of dollars. The industry wants those people who run up bills and make interest payments forever.

Maggie:

> **how about stopping credit companies from stopping the cards of

> consumers who pay every month and avoid interest rates -- they

> are considered 'bad' consumers.

Jordan:

Help me out here: you want a free credit line? Transaction clearing,

multi-week float, card services like price protection, insurance

bundles, all for free? Paying within the grace period still entails

costs on their end, clearly not taken up by the transaction cost.

Maggie: When you charge anything, the credit company gets a percentage of the cost of the charge from the merchant. So this is not free credit. There are also yearly fees. Also, many, many cards make interest from the first day, there is no grace period. The credit companies want to make super profits and charge very, very high interest rates. It becomes a question of how much profit, not of making a profit, and demanding that consumers carry balances requires an interest payment. Personally, I never carry balances, so I guess, in your estimation I'm getting a free ride. In my estimation, you would make a good spokesperson for the credit industry.

maggie coleman mscoleman at aol.com



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