>Wow. this should all be discussed in a book--ever thought about it, Doug?
>Providian, issuer of credit cards to the highest risks, is being sued in
>CT, I believe, for selling people credit insurance they did not need under
>false pretexts, as well (I believe) not informing people of interest rate
>changes on outstanding debt. As for late payments, it seems to me that many
>may not know that by paying up every two months, they are only covering the
>late payments. It's a horrendous situation. One would imagine that the
>lobbying fees of credit card companies are far from marginal.
As part of the battle over reforming (i.e., tightening drastically) U.S. bankruptcy laws, a couple of Congresspersons proposed adding a simple disclosure line to credit card bills that would read something like: "If you make the minimum payment it will take you ____ months to pay off the balance." Industry lobbyists went nuts, and the proposal was scrapped. Even fairly liberal Democrats were afraid to appear like crazies and alienate the finance industry.
If you charge a few thousand dollars and make only the minimum payment, it'd take about 34 years to pay off the debt.
Doug