The Coming Credit Card Debt Meltdown
The growing level of consumer debt in the U.S. is creating a drag on the economy.
All over the world, people are keeping fingers crossed that the $700 billion financial system bailout works the way it is supposed to and eases the worsening global credit crunch and restores confidence in the markets. But while the government has been focusing its attention on worldwide fallout from the mortgage debacle and the Wall Street greed, another storm is gathering on the horizon.
With all that’s happened since, it’s easy to forget that back in August 2008 the U.S. Treasury Department stepped in to take the reins of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the two government-sponsored home loan banks. With the country facing more than $12 trillion in residential mortgage loans, no one wanted to stand by while Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac goes broke.
But who is watching as the rest of the country goes broke? The U.S. is quickly moving toward the next financial credit crisis—this one involves credit cards, and it could be a problem facing millions of Americans, not just over-reaching homeowners who are facing foreclosure.
Charging the basic necessities
Consumer spending has kept the U.S. economy growing for the last two decades. In addition to shopping for homes they didn’t actually quality for, consumers used their credit cards and revolving credit accounts to rack up more than $2 trillion in household debt. Where they once indulged in high-ticket items like electronics, plasma TVs, autos, and appliances, today they’re forced to scale back and spend more and more on the basic necessities.
When cash-strapped families have a hard time making ends meet because of rising prices, they rely on their only alternative—credit. Consumers are pushing the upper limits on their credit cards in order to pay bills, feed their families, and gas up the car. Some even use their cards to pay their mortgages, and that spells disaster.
The lending industry, now barred from aggressively issuing sub-prime mortgages, has turned its attention to marketing credit cards with high fees, over-blown interest rates, and complex terms hidden in the fine print or written in obscure language. Unwary consumers are setting themselves up for future defaults, and doing it in record numbers.
Dug In Deep
Debt and delinquencies on the rise
Credit card borrowing grew at an annual rate of 4.8 percent in July 2008, up from a growth rate of 3.5 percent in June. But while the volume of credit card purchases continues to rise, on-time monthly payments are falling.
The percentage of people who were delinquent on their credit card payments rose slightly in the second quarter from the same time last year, while average debt per borrower jumped 8.6 percent, according to credit reporting agency TransUnion LLC.
For the quarter ended June 30, 1.04 percent of credit card holders were delinquent at least 90 days on one or more of their cards. That compares with 0.91 percent for the second quarter of 2007, although it did represent a decline from 1.19 percent in the first quarter of 2008.
The decline from the first quarter to the second quarter likely reflected tax refunds and economic stimulus checks. Since delinquency rates tend to be seasonal, they usually go down in the second quarter.
Late fees and sky-high interest rates—some as high as 24 percent or more—keep accumulating and threaten to keep the economy sluggish. Every dollar that goes toward paying fees and interest on credit card balances is a dollar that can’t be spent at the grocers, the hardware store or Starbucks.
How did shopping on credit get so out of control?
Technology has made it impossible to escape the temptation to whip out those credit cards. Television commercials like Visa’s “Life Takes Visa; don’t let cash slow you down,” suggests that cash is out of date. With e-commerce, retailers are now open 24/7. Home shopping networks and catalog 800-numbers let your fingers do the shopping.
Credit card companies market to our most basic instincts and appeal to the herd mentality that suggests, “If everyone else is doing it, it must be OK.” And if mere suggestions offered through television commercials don’t do the trick, there’s always the direct approach—an estimated six billion credit card offers hit the mail annually.
Debt and the job market
Consumers have been on a fast moving shopping spree that’s about to grind to a halt. Wages are not keeping up with inflation and too many jobs are going by the wayside.
Higher prices and rising jobless rates are inextricably linked to loan defaults and credit card delinquencies. The U.S. Labor Department reported that unemployment rose from 5.7 percent in July to 6.1 percent in August—a five-year high. Employers slashed 84,000 jobs in August, the eighth straight month of declines, with a total of 605,000 lost jobs for the year.
It’s a vicious cycle. Employers get worried about the economy and their own profit margins and start cutting the workforce. More people have less disposable income and are unable to pay their bills, which leads to more mortgage defaults, more credit card delinquencies, less consumer confidence, and on and on.
But the worst is yet to come. There is a lag between the time someone loses a job and when mortgage loans default or credit card delinquencies appear, so we might just be seeing the tip of the iceberg. Moody’s predicts household credit conditions will continue to weaken through the remainder of the decade, with another 5 million homeowners at significant risk of default.
The Looming Catastrophe
Banks and lenders getting squeezed
Banks, already weighed down with defaulted loans, could face even more troubled mortgages on their books, as well as unpaid credit card debt. Credit card companies like Visa and MasterCard bear relatively little risk for defaults and other payment problems. It’s the banks issuing the cards that assume responsibility for the debt.
Failures are expected to reach such a high level that the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC), the Washington-based agency that insures deposits at U.S. banks, may not be able to insure all deposits—even with protection extended from $100,000 to $250,000 per account under the bipartisan rescue plan now in place. They already raised the number of “problem” banks to 117 in June, up from 90 at the end of March. Ten banks closed down in 2008, the fastest pace in bank closures in fourteen years.
Even before the Treasury Department’s takeover of Fannie and Freddie, the two mortgage giants that own or guarantee around $5 trillion, or roughly half of the U.S. home loans, had been on a less than solid financial footing. The more mortgage default rates escalated, the more their capital base eroded.
The government’s $700 billion rescue plan may help curb further deterioration in the markets, or ease the credit crunch affecting banks and major corporations, but not much is being done to ease other credit troubles. The big question: Will growing consumer debt lead to another round of massive losses and write-downs at banks and other financial institutions in the coming months?
Under the radar: Packaged credit card debt
Very little attention has been paid to the fact that, similar to mortgage-backed securities, credit card debt is packaged and sold to investors. The inevitable defaults could lead to big losses, not just for the credit card lenders, but also for pension funds and other institutional investors who are buying the debt.
The securitized debt backed by credit card receivables is a $915 billion industry. Increased defaults could unravel the whole game, just as delinquencies in the housing market brought down the $900 billion in mortgaged-backed securities.
Does this add up to an inevitable recession? You will get as many answers as the number of politicians and economists you ask. (As the joke goes, if you laid all the economists in the world end-to-end…they still could not reach a conclusion.)
Consumer debt going global
While we as nation seem only vaguely aware of this looming credit catastrophe, MasterCard has already set its sights on duplicating its U.S. business model internationally. Poised to take advantage of new and growing access to credit in countries like Brazil, Hungary, Poland, Russia, India and China, the credit card giant is anticipating a projected revenue growth rate of 39 percent.
Easy access to credit may be a compelling, albeit temporary, method to jump-start an emerging economy. It paints a rosy picture and offers promises of better living. But unless the populace of these countries is warned to use credit cards with discretion, shoppers globally will surely be lured into the same mistakes U.S. consumers make — and quickly become saddled with the same kind of debt.
Watch the video related to
credit card debt
Consolidate credit card debt by taking out a personal loan or doing a credit card balance transfer. Consolidate credit card debt with tips from a consumer credit counselor in this free video on personal finance management. Expert: Maria Enomoto Contact: www.gotdebt.org Bio: Maria Enomoto is a credit counselor working for Consumer Credit Counseling Services in San Jose, Calif. Filmmaker: Bing Hu
Help answer the question about credit card debt
How do I go about eliminating my credit card debt?
I am 23 with a nine-month-old son, and I owe (on top of my student loans from college) approximately $30,000 in credit card debt. I am looking to do a debt management/consolidation program, but was wondering if I should just contact those credit card companies that say to call them if I have "financial difficulties" instead? Also, which debt consolidation programs would you refer, if any? Thank you!
About Author
Jose Roncal is co-author of “The Big Gamble: Are You Investing or Speculating” which Donald Trump endorsed as “a great read”. Many of the author’s articles related to finance and the global economic crisis can be found at financialspecuation.com
Comments
fdsa
Very interesting info.
I'm going to check your answers because I need the same help!! GOOD LUCK!
sure dude, here I found tons more. It'll take a month to read it all.
I've found some good information here too…
http://www.safelinked.info/jump.php?link=debt
Hope that helps.
Spiff! Man you are starting to disappoint me something terrible!
The definition of a "written" contact is one where all of the payment issues are completely spelled out. The monthly payments, the timeframe, everything.
An "open" or "revolving" credit line does not fall into this catagory because the terms of the agreement change every month. One month you owe $200, and the next you owe $400…..and each month you have a varying amount of payment. You can pay it off, and then run it right back up again….that's why they call it a 'revolving" line of credit.
This is also clearly spelled out in the US UCC codes, and many states specifically label credit card debts as open accounts.
Georgia is one state that specifically labels credit cards as NOT being a written contract. Please refer to the link below.
Once again….poor answers with no source of information cause a lot of damage here on Yahoo. If they don't provide you with a source for further examination it's best not to believe it.
You have to make the payment agreement with the one that is suing you.
You should offer a percentage of the debt. You should stipulate in the agreement – if they agree to take a percentage, after payment, they will agree that the debt is paid and no longer collectable.
Be sure to have the agreement in writing!!!
Be sure that when you come to an agreement and when you pay that both the agreement and the payment is filed in the case file !!!
Unfortunately the ones who advertise on television are usually in it just for the money. Beware of any organization that requires an up-front fee.
If you belong to a credit union or there's one that serves your office, they will be able to put you in touch with a reliable organization.
Here's a booklet that will help you:
http://www.consumerlaw.org/initiatives/credit_counseling/content/Cconsumerfactscreditcounselin.pdf
The collecting SOL on a credit card is not a myth.
Generally you would go by the state where you have set up residence – employment, utility bills, pay taxes, etc.
Though the creditor/collection agency can actually chose which state they want to file a suit in, if they chose to file.
Since you are out of the collecting SOL in both states, send a SOL letter that includes the fact you are out of the collecting SOL for "both" states.
You might go to the following link and read the SOL letter that is listed.
http://whychat.5u.com/nottoca.html
You can also scroll down to the bottom of that page and click on the home page.
Once on the home page, scroll down to near the bottom where the states are listed.
Click on both states. The statutes you would need for the SOL letter will be listed.
edit+++++
Anonymous -
As for that link you posted, I think Studly gave an excellent example by listing the FCRA statutes of the reporting SOL.
I really don't understand why you posted that link to begin with when the facts of the reporting SOL were posted in there.
As for the "proof" of collecting SOL for you (and for the OP)
If you would take the time to read the state statutes for both Texas and Missouri, you would see for yourself that there is indeed a collecting SOL, as there is in "every" state.
Texas statutes for the collecting SOL and the statutes to prohibit the re-aging of the collecting SOL
§ 16.004. Four-Year Limitations Period
(a) A person must bring suit on the following actions not later than four years after the day the cause of action accrues:
§ 16.065. Acknowledgment of Claim An acknowledgment of the justness of a claim that appears to be barred by limitations is not admissible in evidence to defeat the law of limitations if made after the time that the claim is due unless the acknowledgment is in writing and is signed by the party to be charged.
Missouri
§516.120. Within five years
And the statute that places credit cards in a 4 or 5 year SOL (the 4 year SOL would be the UCC. If the card is a store card claiming the UCC statutes is possible)
432.045: 2,3.
Anonymous, I don't want to get into a gripe match with you on this and I was not the one who gave you the negative vote. If I had, I wouldn't have seen your edit.
Have you lived in it for at least 2 of the last 5 years? If so, there's no capital gains tax from the IRS, and the money is yours to spend as you wish.
Glenn is correct – This all depends upon what you'll do with these newly cleaned up credit cards….. It's a falacy that people can get out of debt by placing all their credit card debt onto their house. They usually run up their cards again in a few years and are then worse off than before.
Put the money to the house. Start paying EXTRA to your credit cards. Start cutting up your credit cards. Then start sending extra to your house.
FREEDOM!!!!!!
They better transfer the house before the death of this individual because you are right they will come after the estate of the deceased.
If the child purchases the house from them the seller needs to keep the money out of the banking system otherwise that money would now be the asset. But I'm sure you already know that.
Once the person is deceased the only thing the child needs to do is open the letters send a copy of the death cert. (it doesn't have to be certified unless they contact them and ask for one) and also include a note that says Deceased has no estate.
I've never after 2 1/2 yrs had any of my father in laws creditors write me again.
The person's estate has to stand good for what he owes.
If the estate doesn't have enough, then the entire inheritance is sold, given to the credit card companies, and then the rest of the debts are cancelled (the credit card company has no choice but to write it off.)
Which is why, even if the person has a perfect FICO score, that the banks are taking some risk when loaning money.
I understand why everyone is buying into this. Many of us are being extorted and we want someone to tell us its ok not to pay the extortionists. And we know that it’s ok. We know that extortionists don’t obey the laws and agreeing to pay is cowardice . Then later comes we decide not to be cowards. The extortionist can and does commit crimes. This results in everything from letters, liens, harassment and should be no surprise because WE were cowards. Best way to stop an extortionist, SUE THEM!
I understand why everyone is buying into this. Many of us are in debt and we want someone to tell us its ok not to pay our bills. But we know that its not ok. We know that we sign contracts agreeing to pay later for goods and services recieved. Then later comes and we can’t adhere to the agreement. The creditor, however, can and does. This results in everything from letters to liens and should come as no surprise because WE signed for it. Best way to stop a debt collector, PAY YOUR BILL!
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