Discussing the Credit Card Debt Crisis

In Arianna Huffington’s “The Credit Card Debt Crisis: the Next Economic Domino” she elaborates us on the steady rise of credit card holders and the very apparent rise of credit card debit in the U.S. She also talks about the number of credit card defaults and how they were on a rise in 2009 peeking off at 10% the highest for that year.

Huffington directs most of her attention towards JPMorgan Chase, the nation's top credit card lender who in 2009 began putting a $10 charge on card holders who have a large balance on top of the interest they already pay. Most credit card companies have already raised interest rates on the majority of its card holders by 3 percent even the ones with good Credit standings. Huffington also stated that “For years, credit card companies have been fattening their bottom lines with an ever-widening array of fees, Late fees, cash-advance fees, over-the-limit fees, In 2007, lenders collected over $18 billion in penalties and fees” (7).

She adds that “Discount rates for banks are at an all-time low, yet few have passed these rates on to the consumer” (14) in this blast to the banks she also brings in the mortgage crisis and its parallel similarities to the credit card debt crisis. She accuses the banks of "gouging," saying, "the list of questionable actions credit card companies are engaged in is lengthy and disturbing"(16).

Huffington’s article argues that the credit card companies and banks are legally robbing people of more money then what they borrowed or owed. The irony of the credit card crisis is that the financial industry laid the foundation for much of the trouble we are seeing with its full-throated and deep-pocketed support of the cynically named Bankruptcy Abuse Prevention and Consume...

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...A greater percentage of students that have used this type of financial program have been successful rather than those, which don’t account for the money that they spend (ASEC, 2005). Having a long-range financial goal can help you all throughout life. That is the importance of establishing a good long-term financial plan.

Works Cited

Arianna Huffington “The Credit Card Debt Crisis: the Next Economic Domino” The Huffington Post Business Feb 24, 2009 May 14, 2010

Jill M. Norvilitis, Phillip Santa Maria “Credit Card Debt on College Campuses” College Student Journal NI Sept, 2002 10+. Print May 14, 2010

Robert D. Manning “Credit Card Nation: The Consequences of America's Addiction to Credit”

New York, NY: Basic Books, 2003, Print.

Loree, Monty “Credit Card Debt, Bankruptcy, & Personal Finance for Doomers” United Debt Experts YouTube 1 yr ago. Webcast