Sunday, October 12, 2008
Pay your Credit Card Debt!
Well, it looks like they have done it; dropped the Dow Jones average by 2400 points in a few weeks, even after the bailout package was submitted. But on 2008 October 10, some signs of a recovery or of a "bottom" emerged. Stocks soared 800 points, then they soared 800 points, although they still finished down 125 points. Financial stocks were up, indicating that maybe these institutions may be getting over the credit freeze.
But a new crisis looms. This is personal credit card debt. It seems that Americans have not learned what credit cards are for. They are for giving you enough time to pay for things you need and can afford, and as a convenience in shopping so you don't have to carry wads of bills and piles of coins. They are not for delaying payment over and over and over again so that you can live off the hog for huge periods of time. It seems many Americans have done this. The average American (including children) has accumulated $9600 of credit card debt. The debt for families is probably about $25,000. The total is nearly a trillion dollars: $950,000,000,000. Many Americans simply pay the minimum amount and let it accumulate interest; some don't even do that and accumulate penalties as well. So far the banks have handled it OK.
But sooner or later things will give out, and a new crisis similar to the mortgage crisis will break out, with a new round of credit freezes and stock market droppings. This will hurt people's retirement savings all over the place. These people are being punished for the inability of others to pay their credit card debt.
And also for the banks' actions on credit cards. It seems they have allowed people to charge all over the place so they can get the high interest rates. No matter that some can't pay. I feel the banks have been irresponsible in the way they get people to sign up. They send credit card applications willy-nilly all over the place regardless of the recipient's ability to pay. They have sent scores of applications to my mother, who is in assisted living, for instance. The worst offender seems to be HSBC, which for a while kept sending and sending and sending despite my pleas for them to stop. It makes me want to see HSBC go bankrupt. However, they are one of the largest banks in the world, so if they go bankrupt, it will really cause a calamity on the markets. Perhaps they could be bailed out if they get into trouble, but trouble or not, their CEO and other leading officials deserve to get long prison terms for what they did.
As far as you, the individual is concerned, the best thing you can do to prevent this new crisis from occurring is to pay your credit card debt. You agreed to pay the money back when you charged the items, so you need to do it, and now is the time to do it. It will help your finances, and it will help the bank who issued you the credit card. It is the patriotic thing to do, more than waving the flag or going out on a shopping spree, as President Bush in 2001 would have had you do.
So pay up and help your country and your economy.
But a new crisis looms. This is personal credit card debt. It seems that Americans have not learned what credit cards are for. They are for giving you enough time to pay for things you need and can afford, and as a convenience in shopping so you don't have to carry wads of bills and piles of coins. They are not for delaying payment over and over and over again so that you can live off the hog for huge periods of time. It seems many Americans have done this. The average American (including children) has accumulated $9600 of credit card debt. The debt for families is probably about $25,000. The total is nearly a trillion dollars: $950,000,000,000. Many Americans simply pay the minimum amount and let it accumulate interest; some don't even do that and accumulate penalties as well. So far the banks have handled it OK.
But sooner or later things will give out, and a new crisis similar to the mortgage crisis will break out, with a new round of credit freezes and stock market droppings. This will hurt people's retirement savings all over the place. These people are being punished for the inability of others to pay their credit card debt.
And also for the banks' actions on credit cards. It seems they have allowed people to charge all over the place so they can get the high interest rates. No matter that some can't pay. I feel the banks have been irresponsible in the way they get people to sign up. They send credit card applications willy-nilly all over the place regardless of the recipient's ability to pay. They have sent scores of applications to my mother, who is in assisted living, for instance. The worst offender seems to be HSBC, which for a while kept sending and sending and sending despite my pleas for them to stop. It makes me want to see HSBC go bankrupt. However, they are one of the largest banks in the world, so if they go bankrupt, it will really cause a calamity on the markets. Perhaps they could be bailed out if they get into trouble, but trouble or not, their CEO and other leading officials deserve to get long prison terms for what they did.
As far as you, the individual is concerned, the best thing you can do to prevent this new crisis from occurring is to pay your credit card debt. You agreed to pay the money back when you charged the items, so you need to do it, and now is the time to do it. It will help your finances, and it will help the bank who issued you the credit card. It is the patriotic thing to do, more than waving the flag or going out on a shopping spree, as President Bush in 2001 would have had you do.
So pay up and help your country and your economy.
