Posted on 10/11/2008 9:48:19 AM PDT by roughman
I think this would be a great and popular proposal. Most credit card companies get away with loan sharking customers, which is prosecuted if organized crime does it. Credit card hell affects many people. Credit card companies can, almost arbitrarily, raise rates for just about any reason, even if you pay on time. This affects almost every family budget. I think McCain could make great points by proposing a mandated cap on credit card rates. What do you think?? Top rate of 10% ?
I think your plan sucks. It is socialist.
Troll? See my bio, I have gone to the wall for my country, including 3 tours in O.E.F. I don’t need some intolerant jerk like you calling me a liberal troll.
Credit card companies ARE predators. What if utility companies
were not regulated and allowed to arbitrarily raise your rates in the middle of winter, would you be so cavalier and say just freeze, its a free market?
We can differ and discuss w/o insults and accusations.
-—to paraphrase somebody—life isn’t fair and if you are stupid, it’s even worse-—and as far as I am concerned , not knowing when the credit card bill is due is stupidity-—
Can you confer upon the stupid here , how you distinguish interest from rent paid for the use of money ?
If you don’t like the credit card rates, don’t get or use a credit card.
McCain should announce the immediate suspension under his watch of the Community Reinvestment Act.
No mortgages to those who can’t pay. No more no-down payment nonsense. Steep penalties to cheating appraisers.
Good idea on O’Reilly- McCain should announce he will appoint a SPECIAL PROSECUTER to investigate Freddie Mac/Fannie Mae- that means Raines, Frank, Dodd, the banks who sold them all the crap -UNDER OATH! If was good enough for Enron when they cooked the books, how bout these guys?
I know this won’t be the popular libertarian answer, but IMHO credit card companies are predatory lenders.
The agreement is designed to make it impossible to pay off the balance.
The have written exceptions for themselves into the law (by paying off politicians) that allow them to mail bills on a date that does not leave enough turn around time for cardholders to pay the bill on time (which allows them to not only charge a fine, but increase rates.)
They target people that are young and often uneducated about credit.
The credit card industry does need tighter regulation.
I think you’ll also find that credit card companies are the silent partner in the current credit crisis. I’ll wager a significant number of people who current can’t play their mortgages can’t do so because they have racked up significant credit card charges (which, because they have missed a payment here or there, now carries a 25-30% interest rate.)
Credit card loan terms make ARMs look good.
As long as ice cream can be free, charge whatever you want for the rest.
FWIW, I think a better idea would be to bring back the credit card interest deduction that used to be allowed in the tax code.
You can’t out Democrat a Democrat.
Really? We just heard that the tax payers should pick up the tab on banks that improvidently lent money to bad risk borrowors (Paulson/Bush/Pelosi/et al.), and that the government should buy and reissue at better terms mortgages taken out by deadbeats and extreme optimists whose optimism proved ill-founded (McCain), and a revival of post-Henry-VII-style anti-usury laws is the dumbest idea you’ve ever heard?
Throughout most of the history of our country each of the several states imposed maximum interest rates on loans (including credit cards once these were issued starting in the late 1950’s), and it was only in 1978 that a court decision made those laws inapplicable to nationally chartered banks. In 1980 Congress extended that exemption to certain other lenders by statute.
Somewhat amusingly, charging interest double or more the maximum rate specified in the local state’s anti-usury statute and attempting to collect the debt is a Federal felony under RICO. (Hmm. . .maybe we should all be checking our local usury laws and the rates on our loans. . .)
Believe me, returning to the status quo ante 1978 in the regulation of credit card interest is *not* the dumbest idea you or I have heard lately.
Price controls? How Nixonian of you.
A cap on their rates will cause the credit card companies to be more selective in who they extend credit to, which of course would be racist. It’s a dilemna indeed.
CAPS...What part of them do you like?
“CAPS...What part of them do you like?”
So lets just eliminate all law, after all its nothing more than a cap.
Okay, I love ice cream! :)
How in the world did you get that from what I wrote?
You are a great American!
exactly !!! these folks signed a contract, right? I’ve been guilty myself of not reading the fine print.
we can’t abolish contract law.. oopss, what the heck am I saying, it looks like we are doing that very thing.
The Rich banks, the rich credit card companies, the rich mortgage bankers -— off with their heads! Re-write the contract to a lower, more “fair” rate.
Viva le France!!
“How in the world did you get that from what I wrote?”
You don’t like caps. You think its ok for banks to do anything they want and charge any amount of interest the deem appropriate.
You do this under a guise that its a free market. Its not a free market, its a highly regulated market and weighs heavily in the interest of the banks.
Since you think laws protecting individuals are inappropriate then I’m guessing you also think laws protecting banks are inappropriate. Hence my comment of “lets just eliminate all laws”. NO?
He should propose that everyone cut their cards up. Problem solved.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.