Being in the credit card business is getting more unattractive by the day. Economists think that the consumer default rate on plastic will move up at the same rate as unemployment. In other word, figures could move over 8%.
Now the federal government is getting ready to issue a bunch of consumer-friendly rules that could cut margins at issuers. According to Reuters, "The Federal Reserve is to vote on credit card reforms that may bring some relief to customers who face a variety of ways for being hit with late fees, universal defaults, shorter payment periods and confusing payment allocations for different balances."
Is that fair to banks and other card issuers? Probably not. A lot of their customers are deadbeats who know the day that they get their cards that they will not pay-off card balances. Some people run up balances on a dozen cards knowing full well that the can't cover those sums with their current incomes. Other grifters pay for their mortgages and food for their children when they lose jobs. Why shouldn't the money go to the companies that gave them their plastic?
Credit card companies are up against a lot of canny and dishonest customers. They should be able to do whatever they want so that they can make a profit.
Douglas A. McIntyre is an editor at 247wallst.com.
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Reader Comments (Page 2 of 2)
12-14-2008 @ 3:05PM
Ben Shearon said...
Credit card companies should be able to do whatever they want in order to make a profit? They face dishonest customers? They chose their customers! They send us hundreds and hundreds of offers.
These guys send out millions of solicitations a week. They beg us to sign up for their cards, they beg us to run up our balances. They hide their confiscatory policies in the small print. They sent my sons multiple offers while they were in college and were not working.
These sharks get no sympathy. They are deceptive in their policies and try to find ways of making the customer slip up so they can charge usurous interest rates.
12-14-2008 @ 3:28PM
GeeGee said...
As Usual, everyone wants to blame someone else for their poor choice of using credit cards in the first place. Learn to live within your means and none of this happens. All of you that wish to blame Bush for the policies of the CC companies, Deregulation on banks and fees was under the idiot Clinton Presidency!
12-14-2008 @ 4:19PM
DH Alexander said...
Wake up people!Credit is EQUAL DEBT !PLUS BORROWERS ARE SLAVE TO LENDERS! You have given up your rights the moment you start to use those credit cards.read the fine prints on those cards it like making a pack with the devil! and the worst of the lot JP Morgan/Chase they will take to court to get there money, former holder of 12 plus credit cards I paid them and get raid of it. Live within your means. DA
12-15-2008 @ 5:46AM
BHarrison said...
Today I was remind as to how so many people are STILL trying to "game the systems". It turns out that my son's sister-in-law, whose husband had lost his job with a national MLB team two years ago, is going through foreclosure on their home with the assistance of an attorney.
Their basic problem was that they had continued to spend at a level of income when he was in professional sports; but their income had been reduced by 50%.
Now, with the advice and assistance of an attorney, they had maxed out the equity loan value of their home, then quit making payments approximately nine months ago; and they have maxed out all of their credit cards . . . . and they have a rather convoluted scheme to file for bankruptcy, yet to have set some omney aside (somehow?) in order to buy a new home afterwards. And in amongst all of this bankrutcy scheme, they are supposed to "buy a new car" to re-establish a "credit record".
These are basically "good family people"; but damn, what has become of all of this? They don't consider this type of scheme as "ripping off their extended family, neighbors, etc.? One of our mjor problems is that too many people have lost their sense of ethics and integrity; they do not see the "crimes" of what they are doing in matters like this.
Now I have become even MORE AGAINST the "bail out" for these types of people. They KNOWINGLY have done what they have done . . . they were running the risks of hoping that their financial situation would improve; but it has merely gotten worse. Yet, they REALLY never adjusted their spending to their reduced level of income. I simply cannot abide this type of irresponsibility, especially by people whom I know somewhat personally. They have FIVE CHILDREN; but I simply cannot have sympathy for these people for what they have done.
They deserve to be required to go on a repayment plan to pay off their indebetedness, to lose their home via reposession; and they need to scale back and to rent a home within their means. It is THEIR TYPE of IRRESPONSIBILITY that has helped to drive our nation into our current economic debacle . . . andthey are STILL TRYING to "GAME" the economic system.
12-15-2008 @ 8:37AM
Pinklady said...
Credit cards are convenient but they are also killers. Sometimes we get into debts because we dont see our cash flow onhand. So be careful on how we spend our credit cards.
www.fabuloustalk.com
12-15-2008 @ 8:13AM
oelvis55 said...
All of you whiners who are complaining about the credit card companies should be ashamed of yourselves. I don't recall anyone forcing you to buy items you can't afford to pay for in cash, to use their service. You agreed to their terms and happily bought VCRs, HDTVs and anything else you felt entitled to because you are an American taxpayer. But when it comes time to pay, you seem surprised and angry over what you are charged. It must be something wrong with our education system that you can be so dumb! Must be George Bush's fault.
12-27-2008 @ 11:20AM
Sunny Bruce said...
Cancel your Chase Credit Card now (like I did). Their deceptive business practices are appalling. Don't fall for their scam.