Wednesday, February 04, 2009

Credit Card Delinquencies at Record High

Crazy things going on with peoples' budgets these days. Spending is down (which is hurting the economy). The savings rate is up. Personal income is down. And late payments on credit cards are at an all-time high.

People are finally trying to do the smart thing with their money, but they don't have enough money to do the smart thing with it.

Meanwhile, a Credit Cardholder's Bill of Rights is before Congress. It passed the House in September
and would prohibit actions like:

--Applying unfair interest rate hikes retroactively to balances incurred under the old rate;
--Assessing hidden and unjustified interest charges on balances already paid off;
--Piling on the debt that consumers owe by requiring them to pay off balances with lower
interest rates before those with higher rates;
--Charging late fees even though consumers mail their payments seven days in advance of
the due date; and
--Charging excessive upfront fees to subprime cards targeted at consumers with blemished
credit histories.

2 comments:

Gloria said...

Anya,
Loved Generation Debt. I'm re-reading it again. I am a 41-year-old single, childless woman who changed her career. I am now driving a truck for a local big box retailer, earning far less money than what I thought I would. It's too long to go into here, but I plan to put some of it on Gather.com. When it's up, I'll come back and post the link. It's not just the young that have a tough time of it. I've been chasing that elusive "good job" since I graduated college back in 1992. I feel like I got a good start, but then stalled. After years of feeling like I was going nowhere, that's when I picked trucking. And it backfired big time (racked up even more credit card debt).
Keep up the good work!

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