Interesting article about the credit card regulation on LAtimes.com today.
Among other things, the regulation asks for:
- Bills to be mailed out 21-days prior to due date
- An end to the practice of applying payments only to balances with the lowest interest rates (leaving the higher rate debt in full)
But what I found to be one of the best excerpts from the story was:
Just ask Victoria Ramirez. The San Jose elementary school teacher once had as much as $45,000 in debt on six different cards.
Now she and her husband have whittled that down to a balance of about $10,000 on a single card.
Ramirez, 37, said card issuers make it all too easy to get into trouble.
"They loan you a big amount of money that you can't take care of," she said.
This isn't so different from what's happening in the housing market. One reason so many people are in danger of losing their homes right now is because banks handed out high-risk loans to folks who had no business getting deep into debt.
To be sure, many such loan recipients deserve a share of the blame for being so reckless with their personal finances. But they wouldn't have gotten into trouble without the willing complicity of lenders, which encouraged virtually all home buyers to take the plunge, regardless of their ability to repay loans.
While I agree with that - I'm most impressed by her debt reduction. They don't say how she did it or what the time frame was, but debt reduction is debt reduction and I can't wait to join the club.
Also, I just want to call out that I don't think that the debt crisis is the credit companies fault. And I don't think that they are to blame for my situation either. I think we should all be responsible. But drug dealers that don't do drugs still go to jail, know what I mean? Sure people have to be responsible for their actions, but they should not be enabled to ruin their lives.
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