I've just listened to a report on credit cards as they pertain to KIDS. Once upon a time, I had a great credit rating and a gold MBNA card with a 32K dollar limit. Now even then, about 1984 it had a 19% interest charge once you reached a certain limit or started having payment problems.
Now for nearly 25 years, I enjoyed the card, but never put more than 1200 bucks on it. These guys at MBNA kept jacking up the limit the less I spent. Trying to lure me to the shopping malls, or in my case, the airport to take flying lessons, was their REAL goal. You'd never know that from the horseshit that comes with the card and with the raises in limits. This doesn't include the purely advertising letters from MBNA.
I was in my thirties then. Now on this NPR report, they were talking with a Bankruptcy Judge who had a plan of going to, get this!, high schools explaining the best ways to manage credit cards, and the results of failing to do so.
The Judge explained to them clearly in a way to protect credit card companies and banks, ignoring the obvious questions such as why in HELL would a kid be offered a credit card before age of majority or at least until they can get a driver's license!
Now I think most know that all crawfished purchases by kid credit cards is written off by the Card Company as bad debt, and the WE pay the tab in the form of tax rules that allow these companies to write off bad debt. Simply put, the Companies NEVER take a fall.
The Kid does, and perhaps their parents do. This brings us to the NEXT poignant question. WHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAT!!!!!!!!!!!!, are these kid's parents doing whilst their kids are out running up credit card debt? When I was a kid, if I came home with some expensive item, not five minutes would pass before I was under a hot light with cigarette burns on my hands explaining where it came from.
The very FIRST time a credit card bill showed up with my name on it would give me pause to realize I was presently enjoying the last moments of my young life.
Why aren't there laws to stop companies and banks that issue kid cards from doing something that is an obvious sham. If one accepts as unequivocal fact that these companies NEVER lose money, then there is only one other place to get it.
That would be YOU AND ME. Good God and Sonny Jesus, it 's time for somebody to take charge of their unplanned children as they are at it trying to make two salaries either because of the cost of living, broken marriages, and the few left who are trying to hold a middle class status despite the clearly overwhelming work by the Republicans to squash them.
People should be able to look around and be able to tell whether or not they can AFFORD a family. Most people would probably discover that the answer to this question is a resounding NO. In the US, having children is an assumed right given them by God, or they never get that far with their BIG heads. By the time it makes a difference, the LITTLE head has long released control.
It is well known that the Government doesn't behave anywhere close to responsibly with the trillions of dollars it shakes us all down for. It is also well known that the companies that issue these cards doesn't give a sh*t whether you pay or not since they will recover their money and more anyway.
The problem is, the "system" CAN AND WILL hurt the little guy, and these kids and their family. The "System" don't give a sh*t about the big guys. It is just one more in an endless litany of ways that the American people have abandoned themselves.
I couldn't be any more clear that unless the PEOPLE take a hand in this and the other messes as well as the Government, it won't get done.
