Credit card debt is a cornerstone to the Ameican economy, like it or not.
Quote from frank grimes:
I have 2 cards and pay off the balance every month. does that amke me un-american? Why pay interest?
Quote from gangof4:
i wonder how reliable these credit card debt stats are. nobody under the age of 60 uses checks any more. as such, there are a lot of people, like you an i, who have much larger credit card balances intra-month than we would have years ago; yet, in reality, we have no credit card debt, as we pay them off monthly. because of billing cycles, my credit report will often show me having thousands of dollars of credit card 'debt', which is an inaccurate snapshot of my exposure.
granted, i tend to think CC delinquencies will become a problem as many have lost access to their home equity atm lotto ticket. i just think that stats showing % of 30 or 60 day late are more useful than a raw #, given the reasoning i laid out above.
Quote from gangof4:
i wonder how reliable these credit card debt stats are. nobody under the age of 60 uses checks any more. as such, there are a lot of people, like you an i, who have much larger credit card balances intra-month than we would have years ago; yet, in reality, we have no credit card debt, as we pay them off monthly. because of billing cycles, my credit report will often show me having thousands of dollars of credit card 'debt', which is an inaccurate snapshot of my exposure.
granted, i tend to think CC delinquencies will become a problem as many have lost access to their home equity atm lotto ticket. i just think that stats showing % of 30 or 60 day late are more useful than a raw #, given the reasoning i laid out above.
Quote from stock_trad3r:
Um actually wages are rising. Credit cards allow consumers to spend more by using credit. It's not that they dont have as much money.
Quote from Enginer:
The scuttlebutt is that many people have run up their CC debt as a last resort to avoid foreclosure.
Obviously the piper must be paid eventually.
Quote from gangof4:
actually, there was a rather large survey done (sorry, no link) which said the opposite.
people were asked if, given a choice between paying their credit cards or mortgage, which would they pay- it was like 3:1 for credit cards!
think about it- if you're under water on your mortgage, house declining in value, and you can't pay the reset from 2.9% to 7 or 8%.... you'll walk away and rent if you must. if you fuck up your credit card relationships, then you're double screwed.
that siad, again, i feel that many people live beyond their means. watching the delinquency rates will be telling. prolly not a massive problem unless we have 6 months + of job losses- we're not at that stage.