Originally Posted by VirtuMike

Yes holding someone accountable for their actions is one school of thought. However, many things happen. One of the most common causes is pure corporate greed.

A bank borrows money at under 2% interest. They resell you that money at 5% on mortgages, and more for other less secured loans.

One day you're running a balance at 9% interest on your credit cards. That's not bad. Then the bank jacks up the interest rate to 23.99% and there's nothing you can do about it. The bank says you don't have to pay the 24% interest, just pay off the loan by the end of the month. Obviously, Joe Average can't do that. So suddenly he begins his long journey to the bottom of the hole.

Also, crazy medical bills come due (due to the lawyers suing doctors), people have accidents, your car gets wrecked so you can't get to work, the economy forces your company to downsize, the government passes legislation that causes you to lose your job, etc. The tax level in America is unbearable to begin with. Suddenly something unexpected comes up and you have a problem.

As soon as your creditors detect a problem, they jack up your rates intending to throw you into the biggest hole possible. It's not intended to help get you back on track and get them money long term, it's designed to help them claim the biggest writeoff and chargeoff they can and to screw you as much as they can.

And they won, beginning in October.