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Posted on 12/11/2005 8:51:43 PM PST by A. Pole
TACOMA, Wash., Dec. 9 - As one of more than two million Americans who rushed to a courthouse this year to file for bankruptcy before a tough new law took effect, Laura Fogle is glad for her chance at a fresh start. A nurse and single mother of two, she blames her use of credit cards after cancer surgery for falling into deep debt.
Ms. Fogle is broke, and may not seem to be the kind of person to whom banks would want to offer credit cards. But she said she had no sooner filed for bankruptcy, and sworn off plastic, than she was hit with a flurry of solicitations from major banks.
"Every day, I get at least two or three new credit card offers - Citibank, MasterCard, you name it - they want to give me a credit card, at pretty high interest rates," said Ms. Fogle, who is 41 and lives here. "I've got a stack of these things on my table. It's tempting, but I've sworn them off."
If it seems odd to Ms. Fogle that banks would want to lend money to the newly bankrupt, it is no mystery to the financial community, which charges some of the highest interest rates to these newly available customers.
[...]
Bankers defend the practice of soliciting the newly bankrupt, saying it gives them a chance to build a new credit history.
"The people coming out of bankruptcy need an opportunity to get back on their feet," said Laura Fisher, a spokeswoman for the American Bankers Association, the industry's largest trade group.
[...]
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
In a way it makes sense as you can not go bankrupt again for a number of years and the bank can rack up high interest rates.
When I lived in downtown Chicago about 20 years ago, the cigarrette manufacturers would hand out free packs of cigs the day after The Great American Smokeout in November. Keep em hooked on cigs or plastic.
And we all know with absolute certainty that banks always have the very best interests of their customers at heart. They only want to help - themselves to as much of our money as they can get, legally, ethically or otherwise.
Doesn't that just make you sick? My neighbors love to spend, spend, spend. They live like they have millions. They filed Chapter 7 before the deadline. It urks me that their kids still go to private school, she still drives her Navigator and has a housekeeper that still comes every Thursday morning.
It's one thing to make a mistake and try to correct it. It's another to make everyone else pay for your indescretions, not even realize that you made a mistake and rush to make the same mistakes again.
Some people can do that, and still sleep soundly at night, and some people can't. Under the new bankruptcy bill though, you will be haunted by your indescretions for a few years longer.
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I finally had to go bankrupt last year. Went to the courthouse in Feb and it was final in Apr. Got 19 offers from car companies the day after it was final, got 10 more car offers the next day, then the credit card offers came pouring in. It was a week before I was finally notified that it was final. These guys pull the cases settled each day and swamp the newly bankrupt with offers.
I tore them all up and haven't used a credit card or wanted one since my case became final.
"The people coming out of bankruptcy need an opportunity to get back on their feet," said Laura Fisher, a spokeswoman for the American Bankers Association, the industry's largest trade group.
These people are pure scum.
Maybe...but I have less respect for the people who are supposed to be adults and act like kids who rack up their CC bills. They are pathological and need help!
And they were able to persuade Congress to pass a bankruptcy bill that basically makes the government bill collectors for them.
(Denny Crane: "I Don't Want To Socialize With A Pinko Liberal Democrat Commie.Say What You Like About Republicans. We Stick To Our Convictions. Even When We Know We're Dead Wrong.")
(Denny Crane: "I Don't Want To Socialize With A Pinko Liberal Democrat Commie.Say What You Like About Republicans. We Stick To Our Convictions. Even When We Know We're Dead Wrong.")
I agree totally and it boggles my mind that they will extend lines of credit to known pathological spenders. My friend is one of them and he barely makes the monthly minimum. Where does it all end?</p>
Hmmm, you mean like your government? Blackbird.
Please provide a working link for this.
Us, too. Indiscriminate spending in our younger years, medical bills,cut of hubby's work hours, etc. I'm not making excuses for it, though. It seems at the hearing, we were the only ones who were mortified at ourselves. We, too, got (and still get) the credit card and car loan offers. FORGET IT!! Unlike many people, we LEARNED our lesson about living within our means.
Use American Express
Pay it off every month
Of course the bank wants to loan their 4.5% overnight money for 24% to this mother of 2. The stupid part is that if they loaned the money at 10% and earned a Keystone return like any other merchant they would be rolling in cash with less loss, but leave it to the people that keep loaning money to Brazil and Argentina to forget the important rules of lending - "make it possible to make the payments."
But isn't that banks can make loans on having the fraction of money in their reserves? They do not need to make overnight loan from the Fed?
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