Posted on 12/28/2005 12:43:50 AM PST by SDGOP
An unprecedented spike in filings before reform took effect in fall 2005 is chewing into lenders' bottom lines, and the subsequent lull is showing signs of being short-lived. Bankruptcy attorneys say their caseloads are starting to pick up, and credit counseling agencies -- which provide now-mandatory sessions for consumers who want to file -- say they're seeing significantly more people than they initially predicted.
All this is raising questions about whether lenders will profit as much from the new bill as they hoped.Credit card interest out of control? Find a lower rate.
It wasn't supposed to be this way. The new law contains a “means test” that was supposed to steer higher-income filers toward repayment plans. Lenders expected a rush of consumers trying to beat the bankruptcy deadline, but nothing like the surge that actually occurred. More than 500,000 bankruptcy cases were filed in the two weeks before the law took effect, compared with a normal weekly volume of 30,000 to 35,000. So far this year more than 2 million cases have been filed, 49% more than the same period last year and eclipsing all previous records.
(Excerpt) Read more at moneycentral.msn.com ...
I learned my lessons about credit cards. I do not care how many frequent flier miles are offered. I do not care what kind of discount I will receive. I will never ever again use a credit card. Christmas is over and I owe less than I owed before Christmas, not more. I paid for everything. That required me to make choices. Imagine that!
Credit card companies don't force people to accept cards just like Hostess doesn't force people to stuff their faces with Twinkies. You have to use good judgement and moderation with everything. Shopping is my favorite past time. But my hubby cut me off. We paid off our cards and closed the accounts. So if I don't have the money, I don't get the shoes......... shoes....shooooes..........
I think "high heating costs" can be added to that list. We just had our propane tank filled and it wasn't pretty. December was very cold here in MI (until a couple of days ago) and I don't want to think of what January and February are going to be like.
BTW: I saw the story where California is banning woodburning fireplaces. I don't know all the details, but I hope the Northeast libs don't get any stupid ideas.
I have absolutely no sympathy for the CC companies. They use every dirty trick in the book to get people tied up in debt and paying their usurious rates. Among the things that peeve me:
1) Obscene interest rates as high as 30%.
2) Over limit fees (hey, if there's a limit, why aren't you stopped from going over it?)
3) Cancelling promotional rates if a payment is a day late. Say you've run up 15K in charges or balance transfers at a promotional rate. If you're just one day late, they can impose their published rate that can go as high as 30%! I have no reason to believe that they would not post timely payments as late.
4) Arbitrary rate hikes. If your credit score goes down, they reserve the right to raise your rate! Even if you've paid your payments on time and have made no late payments on any other loans! They can still raise your rate just because you may have run up a high balance on another card. This makes it more difficult for the credit-challenged lender to pay off their balance. It does nothing to protect the CC company, since they've already extended the credit.
5) Fine print that can confuse or trick the less savvy. I.E. offering a 3% promotional rate for six months but charging a 3% transfer fee. This makes the actual rate 9%. Do the math!
Of course, the goal of these companies is to get people of limited means to run up big balances at 15 - 30% that they can't pay (and thus forcing them to borrow some more).
However, if your're smart, you can outfox them for ahwile, using balance transfers and taking advantages of miles and reward points.
People should certainly be responsible with their finances. However, I find it absurd when CC companies cry to the government while hooking high-risk borrowers into charging up big blances at usurious rates. If we're going to tighten the bankruptcy laws, I would urge imposing some reform on this industry. (i.e. a grace period on cancelling promotional rates due to late payments, maxing the APR @ say 20%, prohibiting arbitrary rate hikes due to a change in credit).
Peace!
They do it.
That was and is bankruptcy fraud, which the previous law covered. Thos items would have to be returned or would be considered nondischargable.
David Graham Phillips' "Susan Lenox, Her Rise and Fall" (1908 published 1917) and Theodore Drieser's "Sister Carrie" (1900) are about women of that time that were held in scorn, well that is in the case of Phillips because the main character was a girl born out of wedlock and no one would relalycut her a break because if it, but both books, the authors from time to time sort of retreat into a "Dobie Gillis" outside person style narrative on how the lower classes had to live and get by. "Lenox..." (parts of the book almost had me in tears and would be a good antidote for any "randroids" out there) was a true eye opener for me and although some of the conditions are mitigated in today's world, many of that still exists in one for or another and I fear a lot of these economic policies along with the undoing of many reform the Progressives of 100 years ago,we could return to some sort of a world like that. I think for honorable mention, I would list Jack London, Upton Sinclair and Stephen Crane where some of their works addrss those problems too.
esther waters by george moore was of the same genre.
Much of that literature from the victorian age is a reaction to herbert spencer, then in vogue. Rand basically took a lot of herbert spencer's stuff and re-cycled it.
I have a comparison based on personal experience. When I broke my foot, while living in Communist Poland, I went to the emergency and I waited few minutes to get help. When I broke the same foot (I know, it is lame) in America, having private insurance, I had to wait couple hours.
Another difference was that in Poland the nurse diagnosed the state of bones by touch, in USA they did X-ray. The rest was exactly the same. The main problem in Poland was not long waiting time but the lack of equipment caused by the relative poverty of the country.
My brother in law said much the same thing.
The Big Money players are a lot like cattle. Once they get spooked, it is hard to define what did it to them.
I have also been hearing that the retail sales over Christmas were very bad. Many were hoping for a surge in sales during the next week. Not a good sign.
There's definitely something in the air...
Un-freakin-believable. She musta been totally out of her freakin' mind.
I only got health insurance at the beginning of this month, I couldn't afford it since September, 2000. For many people, the bankruptcy laws ARE their health insurance.
I understand that. I would've had a dental appointment today, except that even at 40% off their regular price (this office has a sliding scale for people with less income, 40% off is as low as they go) we still can't afford for me to go to the dentist unless I'm in pain. Can't afford it even then, but some things you simply have to do.
Good heavens.
I'll wager it eventually got his attention.
Talk about a streak of incredibly bad luck. Neither my girlfriend or her father saw their medical problems coming. He was physically fit one week - then bam! - he's suddenly in the hospital and undergoing surgery. She was dealing with back pain for a few weeks, thought it was a pulled muscle until the pain persisted, only to find out she's riddled with cancer. And both of them drained their resources before all of this helping the brother, his wife, and their young daughter hold onto their house. The brother wasn't a slacker, either. He took a contract half-way across the country, and spent 6 months away from his family, to pay the bills in the hopes of that work leading to more work. Unfortunately, when the contract ended, so did the leads. He's worked several low-pay jobs just to bring in some kind of money while he looks for other work, and his wife started her own landscaping business to put food on the table. As it is, they will probably have to sell their house - they were hoping to hang onto it for their daughter's sake, and renting is just as expensive as their mortgage payment right now.
I pray for them, as they have been great neighbors, wonderful friends, always ready to help someone out in their time of need.
Not all the folks that declare bankruptcy are slackers, or didn't prepare for a rainy day, as some other posters have suggested. These folks got hit by a hurricane, and my girlfriend hasn't seen the half of it yet.
This is the exact type of situation in which bankruptcy is legitimate.
However, it is the exception.
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