Deaaamn! Credit Card Companies Can Charge 40%?

Credit cards are the most powerful thing which gets people into debt easly.

You think 40% interest is bad? One of the major pawn broker franchises in Australia charges 95% interest on one of their loans.

$500 loan
1 year term: $292 interest
5 year term: $1897 interest (holy fuck! on a $500 loan)

28.8 % is the legal limit in canada if I'm not mistaken.

40%..maybe in the States.you would think they would at least make it somewhat attractive for people to use them..that would repel them away.I only have one for emergencies and it's 28%

In Australia the card companies are fighting with each other to release low rate cards. Some are down below 9% now, with lucrative transfer offers (eg 0% interest on balance for 6 months). The reserve bank cash lending rate is something like 6%.

actually, City Financial charges 29.9% here as well as a few other places.

Kinda the same here Greg, tho do use em for odd stuff but that is autopaid direct by banks. You sure the term is "credit cards" and not "loan shark cards"?

About 14 months ago the CEO or whoever at Visa was being interviewed. He was very open about Visa's plans and even admitted they want as many cards out there as possible because there will come the time when there will be failure to pay... and can remember his words clearly - "That's when we've got them"

He also admitted the market for personal cards is exhausted and they are addressing "company cards" and other satellite projects to persuade more people to be cardholders.

On such project was enticing retired people in Moscow to get 10% reduction on script costs and sign up for a nice plastic card.

Dunno if they thought of robbing the blind yet - but that will come soon enough

welcome to 1999, australia

Y'know, there used to be Usury Laws on the books but I believe Nixon's people got rid of them. It prevented oppressive interest rates. Now we have a $2.2 Trillion Dollar debt with Americans. Mathematically you can never pay that off. China and other foreign powers buy that debt up thinking they'll collect. There's no way in hell you can collect on money that large. The interest rates put it out of range given a lifespan of 70 years.

Now the new bankruptcy laws don't protect you either? Yer fucked!

18 and 19 percentile here.

Sucks ass on amounts over a few k

That is one nasty bit of shit Greg. Fine.. there are folks who will abuse it - but the majority prob need some kind of protection from creditors.

There's a level ya don't kick people when they are down.

illness or disaster is just an excuse, the problem is people charge up more than they can afford... as long as you don't charge up more than you have in your bank account, you will never have any problems no matter what the interest rate is, or no matter what life throws at you...

really, thats crazy...my mastercard is 8% and to have that rate costs my $15/year

True woj - it's too easy for some folks to have a mentality of getting $10K or whatever "credit" on a card and adopting a "I got some money now" attitude

Also know of one particular person in the US who was ill and used .. not sure.. one of two cards to pay for healthcare (done the insurance stuff already). So.. basically unable to work and *very* concerned about paying debts - to the point of complete stress and nearing breakdown. Ain't a comfortable position.

Some folks can handle that - others can't. A friend who turns out could and did handle it (tho still think he's totally nuts!) - managed to lose.. around $11 million US on a prime property deal. Had to even pay a plumber to sort the toilets in his home which was worth well over a $1mill at that time (Prob $3mill now). He stayed cool and went thru bankruptcy and disappeared on holiday for a month and came back and recovered all he had lost - and more.

Everybody is different when the pressure sets in

also if you use your card and pay it off every month you dont pay any intrest and with mine you get 1% cash back

Of course it depends how rich you are to begin with.

The rich always have acess to the best rates (check the difference in rates between standard, gold and platinum cards at your bank - and don't forget to ask about the little free extras you get with the gold and platinum cards), while those who can least afford to pay high interest rates are the ones that pay higher interest on everything from car loans to credit cards.

Also for guys who travel a lot and use the card abroad.... Check what commission they charge for foreign currency conversions. My previous card charged 2.75% which I thought was the norm, but I found a card that only charged 1.5%.

For someone who travels a bit and pays the majority of his bills in foreign currency (which I do) using a card, it can save you 100's of euro a year.

Of course most people don't even realise that the cards charge a currency commission

When you go bust (bankrupt), the "rich" goes out the window - so do all your finance contacts and bank facilities. Trying to be rich again after a bankruptcy is damned hard - ya need to play games to still earn.

True what you say tho - the "penalty" is loaded on those who are not "rich".

All credit card companies are scum

Exactly xclusive!

I like the subtlety - call em for what they are

i don't believe in credit , i only spend what i have in cash , if i can't afford to pay for the item in cash then i don't need it , to make internet transactions i got a debit card that is hooked to the visa network ,can only spend the cash that is in my debit card account ,

Completely agree with comment.

I can see that. Responsibility is the key. Yet that's if the world were perfect and all things went right and nothing ever went wrong.

Some people shouldn't have credit cards. They just are unable to be responsible yet they'll get solicited anyway. Some people don't use them but when their own government or insurance company doesn't respond when disaster strikes, guess what? Them credit cards come in handy.

In a perfect world you're dead on balls accurate, but this is far, far from a perfect world.

Bottom line is when one person in the chain of events gets stupid, lazy, or irresponsible it falls along the lines.

Having said that, let's also look at that no matter what problems a person has, no company should be allowed to charge these huge interest rates. The Mafia doesn't charge rates this high. When the usury laws were in place we NEVER had these problems of massive debt. That was the lynch-pin right there. When credit cards were first issued by American Express way back in the day, they were only supposed to go to teachers to help them build a life to help expand education. Just like the bullshit state lotteries where they were only allowed to exist IF the winnings went to education, what happened soon as they passed legislation and people got hooked on that extra capital? They started fucking it up and using the money for other shit. That's what happened with credit cards in this country. They were issued to help and avoid people from having to borrow from organized crime yet soon as they passed legislation what happened? It's been a slow snowball rolling downhill that is now bigger than the hill.

It was the wrong thing to do and we need to go back and establish that the displacement of the usury laws was wrong.

You don't think they know that?

They are in a situation that if they cut off the loans, the US citizens will stop buying their goods and they will be have millions of unemployed people on their hands.

Where and when it stops is anyones guess.