It is about personal responsibility. We have no debt outside our house and have a large emergencey fund. If we can do it on a rather small salary why can't 95% of other people?? Yes, I totally understand medical bills - but I think that those are becoming less and less of the cause for credit card bills. I think that people have wants confused with needs.

I definitely don't like the bail out but I don't like the govt coming in and "bailing" anyone out of their bad decisions.

The amount of interest your credit card company charges you is directly related to the credit risk you represent. If you are a bad credit risk, you pay higher interest because it offsets the risk of the principle part of your balance that you don't repay if you default and don't pay your bill. If you are a bad credit risk, have a 20% interest rate and run up a 100 balance then stop paying after a couple of months, at least some of that super high interest reimburses the bank for that $100 balance they are going to have to eat.

People with good credit get lower interest rates. Others with poor credit have higher rates. If I have good credit and don't like my interest rate, I can shop around and find a card with a lower rate and transfer my balance.

Imo, if we mandate that credit card companies have a limit of 10% interest they can charge, the result with be less credit available. Which may be a good thing or not. It will make it harder for someone with no credit but who would be a good credit risk (say a new college graduate with no debt and no credit cards) to obtain a credit card.

Also, I think that if interest were capped at 10%, credit card companies woul simply close all the accounts of customers whose credit worthiness didn't justify a 10% rate. So these customers would be left with no credit cards and just a balance to repay.

I think such a bill would just mess up the market and cause unforseen problems. Messing with the free market always does.

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“The state cannot get a cent for any man without taking it from some other man, and this latter must be a man who has produced and saved it. This latter is the Forgotten Man.”
-- William Graham Sumner

"The amount of interest your credit card company charges you is directly related to the credit risk you represent. If you are a bad credit risk, you pay higher interest because it offsets the risk of the principle part of your balance that you don't repay if you default and don't pay your bill."

That's not true. My husband and I have awesome credit scores but one credit card company suddenly jacked our interest rate to over 19.9%. We were shocked! I called the cc company immediately and they refused to lower it. We re-arranged our situation and cancelled the card, but still!

And yes, medical bills still make up a huge percentage of our cc debt (that and the adoption) and the risk is growing. Okay, so not all the cc charges are directly to medical providers but sometimes we end up using the cc because we had to write checks to medical providers. Yes we have an emergency fund, but it is also a balancing act.

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"I've been rich and I've been poor but independently wealthy is where it is at."

What I'd like to see in terms of an economic plan from the candidates ...

~ Elimination of the current IRS tax structure. Go to the fair tax system. This way we don't have to worry whether or not home mortgages are tax deductible or whether or not they are going to start taxes our employee supplied medical insurance.

~ The fair tax also gets the government out of giving pork barrel tax credits, especially to medical companies which has been driving up the cost of medical care. Lower medical care costs will mean private insurance policies will become more affordable.

~ Instead of a mortgage bail-out or complete mortgage deregulation, make usuary interest rates and predatory policies illegal then prosecute those who write those kinds of mortgages or continue to hold homeowners liable to those kinds of mortgages.

~ Instill the same laws on credit card companies - no usuary level interest rates, no sudden changing of terms, etc. The prosecute, prosecute, prosecute.

~ Eliminate many government programs like the department of education, the transportation department, etc.

~ Social Security and Medicare would be funded by the fair tax so the 17%+ that we pay toward that would be eliminated and there is no debate about SS privatization or not. We also no longer have to worry about whether or not SS is taxable. However, SS will be paid not based on how much you put into the system, but on need. So millionaires with a huge net worth won't be receiving SS checks. If an elderly person has a net worth so large they can afford private insurance, then they won't receive Medicare or maybe they will only get a catastrophic loss policy.

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"I've been rich and I've been poor but independently wealthy is where it is at."

Have you tried looking for another cc with a lower interest rate and transfering the balance? That's what I'd do. We had a credit card up our interest rate once. We shopped around for another card with lower interest and transfered the balance.

__________________
“The state cannot get a cent for any man without taking it from some other man, and this latter must be a man who has produced and saved it. This latter is the Forgotten Man.”
-- William Graham Sumner

I would love a flat tax but don't think it will ever happen because the current tax code is used as much as a means to influence our behavior as taxpayers as it is to levy taxes. Give a person/company a tax break for one thing, they do more of that thing whether it be installing solar panels or manufacturing wooden arrows. Politicians are not going to give up that kind of control easily, if ever.

I agree, usury interest rates should be illegal and prosecuted under consumer protestion laws. This would include pay day loan places, car title loan place, prepayment penalties, etc, etc. But variations in cc rates among different consumers based on their credit worthiness is reasonable up to a point. I really don't know at what point a credit card interest rate would be usury rather than appropriate to the customer's credit risk. Maybe over 20%? I don't know.

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“The state cannot get a cent for any man without taking it from some other man, and this latter must be a man who has produced and saved it. This latter is the Forgotten Man.”
-- William Graham Sumner

Well, I agree. If people are such huge credit risks, then the CC companies just shouldn't lend to them. I don't see a reason for charging someone over 20% - EVER.

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"I've been rich and I've been poor but independently wealthy is where it is at."

Taxes were the original reason we even opened a CC. I think the answer isn't in regulating its in educating. We were bumbed into a higher tax bracket the year before our DD was born. If I had know that we could have opened a IRA if would have lowered our income enough that we wouldn't have had to pay $3000 to the goverment. You live and learn still here is my idea.

Lets have the goverment make personal finance a requirement to graduate High School.

Think about it why do so many people get in trouble with CCs? Many a time its because they are un-educated. You educate people to be able to see many of the scams, about ther credit score, about budgeting, buying a first home and how there taxes work and you would have many more financially stable people today. You educate people and it teaches them caution to not get themselves into a bad situation in the first place.

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Kimberly Proud Mommy to Bethany Rose April 2006