Are you one of millions of Americans that suffering from overwhelming credit debt? If so, you are probably quite frustrated by the outrageously high interest rates you are paying and the credit card company’s unwillingness to help. And, why should they help? So long as you keep making your minimum payment, the credit card company is making easy money off of you. Ever wondered how the credit industry got so out of control with outrageous interest rates
Of course, this opened the floodgates for the credit card industry. At the same time, personal bankruptcy filings also increased as consumers were unable to keep up with the payments and debt created by these high interest rates. Recently, bankruptcy laws changed in order to try to reduce the number of filings. One of these changes is requiring those interested in filing for bankruptcy to go through credit counseling. Ironically, these credit counseling firms report that 79% of people filing bankruptcy are filing because of a situation that is out of their control, and, for many, these reasons are the rising costs of credit card fees and falling victim to what is considered “predatory lending practices.”
Recently, many politicians and consumer groups have been closely scrutinizing the credit card industry. Credit cards can be a great asset and convenience, but given the recent consumer upheaval over predatory interest rate charges levied by consumer groups, legislative changes directed at banks and credit card issuers at both the state and federal level could be on the way.
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