If we all just stop paying our debt, they can’t do anything.
Common interest rates of 30% plus, predatory offers, hell I get real checks in the mail from local loan companies. All you have to do is sign and deposit and you are to their ridiculous terms. The free market needs reigned in.
They keep the interest rate high to stop people from buying things. But the things we need to buy are food and the demand isn’t going to fall. so people are using credit more than ever and they have no way to pay it back. The stocks have gone up but only because all these companies are in a position to skew us all now.
Consumer spending fuels economic growth…Job and wage growth helped counter the hit to consumers wallets from rising inflation, but a continued slowdown or reversal there could tip the scales…“While these indicators do not necessarily predict a recession, especially with a robust labor market, a weakening in employment conditions could exacerbate household financial instability,” said Gregory Daco, EY chief economist. “The combination of subdued job growth, sluggish income progression, and diminished savings could lead to increased delinquencies and a potential retrenchment in consumer spending.”…retail spending unexpectedly stalled in April in a sign of consumer fatigue and worry. Walmart, the nation’s largest retailer, has said its customers are spending more on necessities and less on discretionary goods like home furnishings and electronics.
Why does no one talk about the cost of housing? Housing is astronomically expensive, and the more people have to spend for housing, the less they will have to spend on everything else.
Bankruptcy for the win
Young people have always sucked at handling credit cards. This isn’t new.
Well, there’s sucking at handling credit cards at 11% interest, and there’s sucking at handling credit cards at 28% interest.
Not that I feel bad about it because I reached adulthood and learned my lesson with the 2007 recession, but young people are experiencing the double whammy of being the ‘number go up’ generation, with their parents and education completely failing to prepare them for number go down.
Now the only numbers that go up are cost of living and interest rates.
I’ve had credit card for 2 decades and don’t think I’ve ever seen less than 20% interest, and I’ve got good credit. Though, I’ve also never really cared since I’ve never paid interest.
I’ve got the good fortune to have an >800 credit score, and even the offers I’ve seen from “status symbol” card issuers have had bonkers-high interest even when the Fed was holding the prime rate close to zero. The lowest I’ve ever seen was still around 15%, and even at that “low” rate you’d have to be truly desperate to carry a balance. Even unsecured personal loans tend to carry interest rates at half of what a credit card offers.
Had a CC with 7.99% flat rate interest back when variable wasn’t the only option. This was 10 years ago. Bank dropped it the first time we had no balance on it and didn’t notice. Bastards.
My rate hovers at low of 790s to high of anywhere in the 800s and I see 15% cards at the low. Just god awful these days.
Sounds like you pick bad banks. Credit unions are generally better
You’d be wrong since my primary institution is a federal credit union and has been my entire adult life.
Maybe try a different one
Why?
I’m 35. We took out a refi and paid off our credit card debts in 2019, and we were doing financially great for probably the first time in our adult lives. In the course of the last year, we’ve nearly maxed out most of our credit cards on living expenses. It’s not only that the cost of living jumped up, but that our wages haven’t gone up with it and our combined student loan load is like $1000/mo. There’s also the creeping understanding that we’re one big unexpected expense from disaster. I was really looking forward to taking the kids on their first real trip or something, but I guess we’re just going to stay here and play Vidya until they’re adults. But hey, glad to hear that the economy’s doing great.
This is new - being alive is seriously difficult to afford right now.
