We pay our credit card off each month and I pay online so I've never really payed much attention to the statement other then to verify the charges.

I was paying bills this morning and noticed the statement now has a calculation that if you pay the minimum amount it will take you X years to pay it off. I think this is a result of the recently passed credit card regulations.

I also noticed that the 'Amount Enclosed' section where you are to write in the payment amount if you pay by mail now has 9 decimal places.

I wonder how many people have a million + dollar credit card payment?

That's for the cards they issue to Congressmen and gov't workers.

Actually, I'm glad to see this law. It's about time the credit card companies had to take responsibility for making the (less than attentive) credit card users open their eyes. When (hopefully) they get the bill and it shows the $3000 balance if paid at the minimum payment will take 17 years to pay off and cost $$$$$$.

The nation would be in a lot better position if credit was used much more responsibly.

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H Richard
SWCA1967 SWHF244

HRichard I certainly hope it works out that way, but pardon my cynicism. I predict that putting more info on credit card bills will have about the same impact on the slow/no payers as calorie info on food packages or menus had on the obese.
Meantime the new law raised CC company costs and will have a negative impact on credit availability. On the bright side it has opened new Federal Jobs in DC.
You and I may worry about owing people and paying promptly, evidently some folks don’t care at all.

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Ipsis Rebus Dictantitbus

Darn right it does. I got a notice that they were putting a $75.00 annual fee on my MC because I didn't use it enough. I cancelled the card so the new law has had a negative impact on my credit availability.

Hope everyone in Washington is happy with themselves.

Bob

They have been doing it for years. I applied for a Sears Roebuck credit card in 1964. Along with the card, I received a brochure showing the high rate of interest and how much a person pays back with varying balances with minimum payments.

The problem I see with credit cards is people want to buy things with money they do not have. If you feel this is incorrect, look at the thousands of people filing bankruptcy on against credit cards. I have an aunt that is 67 yrs old and owed more than $70,000 in cards. She was forced into bankruptcy (which costs us all).

If you do not have the money to pay for items now, how does one expect to have money to pay for the item later with hihg interest.

We have became a nation of people seeking instant gratification wanting things now instead of waiting til they can afford them. Each purchase on a card will just about double the amount the item cost if they cannot pay the entire balance when the bill comes in. I use debit cards for all my personal purchases and credit cards for my business purchases with the entire balance paid when the bill comes in. The savings on doing so is like me making more money for myself.

You make a good point and I agree. But think about this. Our economy is built around people buying stuff. Ya gotta buy stuff or the people who make the stuff will be out of work.. So you can't afford to buy the stuff. The people who make the stuff let you buy it on low monthly payments. (GMAC comes to mind). GM doesn't care if you pay it back or not-they just want to make the sale. Of course GMAC wants you tp pay it back. But if you don't they just chalk it up as a loss. The government buys stuff and they just borrow money and if no one lends them money the government goes broke and nobody gets paid back, so they have to lend the money in the hopes that they will get back what they lent earlier.....and on and on and on.At some point this house of cards colapses.....like now.
I mean does it make sense that they try to sell cars made by people making $40 an hout to people making $10 an hour???? If people quit buying stuff unles they can afford it and pay cash for it, I would hazard that the economy would colapse in short order. So we haave to buy stuff we can't afford so people who make the stuff can get a paycheck.. Does this make any sense????? Probably not-but think about it.

I have come to the inescapable conclusion that we're all screwed.

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Forum consigliere

Those buying the cars making $10 per hour (does anyone make that little now?) are financing them for six years while those making $40 per hour building them get paid weekly. Yet for the record, the auto industry claims the workers make $78 per hour counting benefits.

If we could level the playing field on manufactured items, we would have more work in this country. We allow cheap cars to be imported without taxes as the profits from the sales go back to the country of origin. Yet our American cars have extremely high dollar export fees attached to the purchase price of the cars in foreign countries. A friend (he designed the convertible top mechanism for the Corvette) went on loan to Toyota in Japan. He was there for a year and tried to buy a Chrysler Sebring there. It was higher there than here but it also carried a $9,200 import tax (payable to Japan). Try that here and see how many foreign cars look better to the buyers.

People here, and I say mostly the younger set, want instant gratification. They do not want to wait to save for the things they want as their parents did. They want more than their parents had, they want to impress more than the parents and they do not care about the financing cost. Just charge it and pay for it when they get paid. By the time they get paid, the money has gone toward other things and the charge payments fall behind or else they borrow more in the way of consolidation loans. They get overloaded again soon after.

A good example of this is a former neighbor. Both he and his wife (early 30s) were employed, he at GM, she at the post office, and earing good pay. Four kids, a $300,000 house loan, two new luxury American autos and a ton of credit card debt. He lost his job and they moved away. Sold the house for just enough to pay it off and was still in debt. Before he left, he told me they were being forced into bankruptcy. Nobody put them in that shape other than their desire to impress their friends and the availablity of borrowed money.

Stop bringing items in for other countries, kick the unions out of this country, get rid of stupid federal laws on manufacturing and we will be competitive in the market place and that will cause more people to be employed in the US.

Think it's bad now, wait until Dur Fuhrer obamma gets his VAT tax .