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Entitlement to Credit
Tony Pugh writes for McClatchy on Credit ripoff: How a $100 purchase turns into a $1,000 debt
The story is about subprime credit cards, how much of a rip-off these are and how finally the regulators are going after some bad behavior by the card issuers. That is all reported well as it should be. To spike an otherwise dry story, the author adds some human interest.
A former Navy hospital corpsman with disabilities, [Wendy] Adams received a popular subprime card — the Aspen MasterCard — in June 2006. She was approved for a $350 credit limit, but when the card arrived, Adams said, she’d already been billed for $285 in processing fees, leaving her only about $65 in available credit.
The above is all we learn on how Ms. Adams got the card. She must have in some way signed up for it. The processing fees are outrages, yes, but why then did she get that specific card? Was she scammed or did she not read the conditions and fees attached to it? The reporter does not let us know.
Adams said she promptly called and canceled the card.
That cancellation was never confirmed in writing by either side and the credit card issuer added interest costs, late fees and over-limit fees to the cards balance. A year later Ms. Wright finds that she owes some $1000+ on that card.
Now that is a problem. But still I wonder why she took out the card in the first place and why she did not cancel it in writing. She signed up for a card, the issuing company checked her credit records and sent her a card. That service was provided for a fee. Why did she believe that the cost for the already provided service would go away when she cancels the card? If you buy a car on credit but do not use it don’t you still have to pay for the car?
Ms. Adams now has a credit counselor and some help from the Better Business Bureau. But unless the dispute is solved, her credit rating stays negative. Why is that a problem?
"Because of this, we can’t buy our own house. We can’t take the tax write-off. We have to pay rent. We have nothing to show for it. We can’t buy a car. I can’t get a credit card. Our credit is screwed," Adams said angrily.
There goes my last compassion for Ms. Adams. Entitlement to credit is not a human right. She and her also disabled friend can not pay $1,000 they own the credit card company. But they complain about not being able to buy a house AND a car AND more stuff because of the dispute.
Next to reading contracts Ms. Adams should also learn a bit about tax-write-offs. You only get write-offs on taxes that you owne. How much would that be in her case?
"I’m a disabled veteran. I have no money. I make $1,200 a month in disability. I can’t work. I’m trying to go back to school, so I don’t have $1,100 to fork over to a company that doesn’t follow the rules," she said.
Sorry lady, you are a hopeless case.
I am all for better and stricter regulation of credit card issuers. They practice usury, they are vultures and there should be laws to protect their prey. But the reporting on the case does not show any wrongdoing by the company. Yes, the fees and interests are outrageous, but they are also legal. Nobody held a pistol to Ms. Adams’ head and made her sign the dotted line.
There are people like Ms. Adams who feel entitled to a house and a car and further credit even as they are unlikely to ever be able to pay for it. Those people are in need of some harsh lessons and the credit card companies provide these. That is the only point where they do deliver a real service and deserve their fees.
DoS, are you saying that if your family visits WADC, say, for the summer, and you’re gunned down in a drive-by shooting, then it’s your fault for visiting the murder capitol of the US, and right after handguns were just legalized by SCOTUS?
Because that’s what you’re saying. e.g. “If you don’t like USA, move to Iran!”
You should have known better, buddy! Ergo, all murder is OK, because the victims should have known the perpetrator was getting agitated. All rape is OK because the victim should have observed the perpetrator was getting excited. And all criminal corporate-government extorion and embezzlement and torture, fraud, malfeasance is perfectly legal, because we live in a democracy, and gave our approval by proxy?
My 20-something is kind, honest, hard-working and almost college degreed, a pillar of his peer group. If I didn’t handle his financials and taxes, he would already be homeless (NeoZi.con American debtor internment), or in some IRS Gitmo torture cell.
My grandfather survived world wars on his wits, made a living, house and pension on
a minimum wage, and is still sharp as a tack at 85, but if I didn’t run off those
scumsuckers in his own church who tried to con him into a 2006 refi mortgage loan, he’d be evicted and living at our house now.
The day I fall ill or incompetent, the vultures will swoop in. Ask anyone. By the time they push your wheelchair from the nursing warehouse to the garbage truck, your entire estate will be mis-managed by fee-tapping blood suckers for maximum extraction rate. If EU readers had any idea what it’s like to live in America, they’d carry silver crosses around their necks, and shudder at Oh Say Can You See.
Credit usury is apartheid by proxy. Sooner or later, 3/4’s of US will reside there.
You can accept that or not, but hopefully nobody here will chortle, “I am white.”
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And while we’re on handguns % ), a few years ago I happened to return from a weekend vacation early, and parked around behind the house, down the street. I was sleeping in a dark empty locked house, when something, some chimera, some breath of still air, woke me silently. My mind still half in sleep, and shadow images moving in the darkness, I called out to what I thought was my kid, home from college. The shadow jumped four feet in the air, and bolted for the front door. By the time my mind had cleared and I’d staggered to my feet, the two of them were a block away, still sprinting hard, and irritatingly, laughing boisterously.
Now imagine if that shadow was carrying a 357-magnum they bought legally, and I had surprised them in the dark, a room away from where my AK-47 is racked and loaded. Imagine if they’d fired, and missed, (which most people do with a handgun, try it), then in my rage, I’d grabbed that AK-47, shooting at them down the block, but those richocet’s, at 600 rpm’s, had smoked some slob sleeping soundly in their bedroom.
Should the dead slob have known better for not sleeping behind a concrete shield?
Because that’s what you’re saying, DoS. Caveat emperor. Shoot first, don’t ask.
The typical gun fight lasts 3 seconds. The typical gun death is murder or suicide.
Not that anything we say here has anything to do whatsoever with prevailing society.
Posted by: Aah Dieu | Jun 30 2008 3:17 utc | 26
jcairo #63, yes Katrina was “chose not to” in response, faked/encouraged incompetence. Storm may also have been directed/stimulated and levees Seal blown, so no parallel likely there with SF 1906. Biggest parallel is in both cases death toll likely understated.
But point of SF comparison is that governments work better when privatisers/privateers not put in charge, thieves whose mantra is “Government is incompetent, so put us in charge and we’ll show it’s incompetent.” Situation is somewhat as in Jon Ronson’s Men Who Stare at Goats (to be produced as George Clooney movie), where CIA response is “It didn’t work, so stop asking about it.) Thing is they are competent, but like voting machines that work for the overcharging owners rather than for those who stand in voting lines, they work for Them. (oh, as laughter best medicine, both books funny ha ha as well as funny peculiar) (buy used copies, and can buy direct getting info from Amazon, ABE etc., but both titles are searchable on Amazon, look at index, table of contexts {typo but I’ll leave it}, key words leading to interesting pages … I particularly wonder about the Ruby Ridge woman’s body not corrupting (pp.93-94, as reported by Colonel Bo Gritz) ala Orthodox saints, then Ronson’s segue into Aztec sacrifices. I do wonder what Aztec priests/leaders thought their deal was, as well as Mayans, Sumerians, and the current Pope.)
Have been talking about “Global warming policy is not complicated” for 2 years now, about Gulf Stream shutdown potentialities actually mattering for about 6, and about central air conditioning efficiency regulations being black and white evidence of political battles being all professional wrestling for 7.
I don’t know when Caldera will blow, just think it’s interesting that financiers of HAARP, chemtrails and 7 layers beneath Denver Airport don’t reassure us that they’re working on effective precipitants for volcanic or comet bounced dust, nor tell us such is impossible.
Oh, I’ve also been telling people for about 3 years to buy bulk food etc., because even if I’m completely wrong about standard geology and everything else, food prices would rise because oil would rise even if no weather disasters. No one, brothers, cousins, aunts, uncles, monks, in-laws, journalists, cartoonists, that I know of has been crazy enough to put food aside. And 3 years ago it wouldn’t have been hoarding but rather a stimulus to production. (if you did or do put aside, don’t put public, and e-mail is potentially public: Presidential anti-hoarding directive will probably be enforced pretty nastily, and I suspect has global counterparts. I do wonder what will happen to Utah Mormons.)
I also don’t know when earthquakes under ice will be stronger than those in NW Greenland last summer, as reported by UK Guardian last September, just that rain at North Pole last summer, magma close to ice NE Greenland, magma close to ice West Antarctica, hurricane in South Atlantic 3/27-28/04 (confirmed by NY Times as not reported) would be big news stories if such were wanted, i.e. if we were told we should be interested, lots of jokes about wet Santa and hot foot penguins.)
jcairo #66 – could you repost 2nd link? If anyone agrees with me on anything it’s a rare surprise.
Have Party conventions ever been both inland before?
Posted by: plushtown | Jul 5 2008 13:57 utc | 67
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