U.S. consumers missing more debt payments

[Joanne98]

Source: Reuters


NEW YORK (Reuters) - U.S. consumers are falling further behind on their debt payments even as both borrowers and lenders struggle to keep the debt burden from getting even heavier in the face of a worsening recession and employment picture, a credit bureau executive told Reuters.

Dann Adams, president of U.S. Information Systems for Equifax Inc (EFX.N), said consumers are missing payments on mortgages, credit cards and auto loans, prompting lenders to further scrutinize borrowers' profiles for signs they should clamp down on credit.

"Lines of credit are being very closely monitored," said Adams, whose clients include banks struggling to prevent more bad debt from piling onto their balance sheets.

Banks are, for example, warily watching their credit card portfolios in anticipation that consumers whose home values are plunging will turn to credit cards as their home equity lines of credit are cut or canceled.



Read more: http://www.reuters.com/article/ousiv/idUSTRE5155C220090206

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Jubilee would fix them!

[closeupready]

1. leading to a huge jump in interest rates, higher minimum payments

and eternal indebtedness.

[Stephanie]

4. No kidding

The minute you have a little trouble paying, they do everything in their power to make sure it's impossible for you to pay or ever catch up. What is the point of that?

[KansDem]

2. Don't know about the rest of you, but I'm waiting for my bailout!

Yep, just as soon as I get my bailout from Congress, I'll be paying off my debt. Yep...just as soon as I get my bailout...
:silly:

[Donnachaidh]

3. So the banks get a big bailout from the government, and also get

to slap the shackles of servitude on countless Americans thrown out of work.

Yup -- welcome to the 3rd World America! Look what Chimpie and his minions left in YOUR punchbowl -- a double blow to the gut.


Still happy about voting them into office TWICE? :sarcasm:

[tom_paine]

5. Well, to be frank I don't think the American Subject Populace voted them in even once

Florida 2000. Ohio 2004.

But it's all semantics. Where we failed as a Free People was where most nations eventually do, which was to notice the customary rise of totalitarianism (the totalitarianism which will ultimately supplant the nation, Obama's election notwithstanding) in our own midst.

Because it shed it's classical totalitarian visage, opting for a more Roman model of "directed coercion", and added a heaping helping of Plausible Deniability and psychological refinement to it's new disguise, we failed to stop it where it could be stopped.

And now we have Obama, our greatest hope against the descent into totalitarian darkness that the Bushies have for the last 30 years so very nearly created in full. Can he make himself heard through the noise of our Bushie-Owned-and-Controlled Media? Can he shatter the plexiglass walls of the Bushie False Reality Bubble that has brought insanity into the mainstream discussion, indeed made the National Dialogue little else than alternating bouts of celebrity and insanity?

The future is not yet written, and anything can happen. But Obama has quite the task.

[katty]

6. the next gigantic bubble burst

[SoCalDem]

11. Back in about '04, I predicted

1) housing bubble
2) 401-k disaster
3) credit card defaults

I had ONE unit of econ-101..back in 1968..:eyes:

[Waiting For Everyman]

7. It wouldn't occur to them to reduce interest to make it more payable, of course.

Why do something realistic and sensible? Load on more hardship! Increase the payments! Their typical logic.

They CREATE default. Until we realize that, and stop it by law, and help the victims of it recover, NOTHING will change. The banks and their lawyers today are a MACHINE which eats peoples' lives.

[fencesitter]

8. Yeah, that's me.

I'm late for the first time in years on a few of my cards. I have an Exxon gas card, which I've had for years, I was a bit late in my payment, a week or so. Just got my new invoice and my APR is 49.98% I'm going holy shit!?

[jb5150]

9. I'm probably less than 90

days away from defaulting on my one credit card.

[SoCalDem]

10. America needs shock therapy..

1) all credit cards canceled
2) everyone must re-apply, using CURRENT financial info
3) credit lines should never exceed total gross monthly income for 1 month
4) only ONE card per "brand"...not per issuing bank
....(one Visa, one Mastercard, one Discover)
5) maximum interest charged 10%...no "teaser rates"
6) full 30 days in billing cycles
7) maximum late fee $20
8) must be 21 to apply or get a card


If this was done, the people living on credit cards would have their eyes opened wide, and we would see some real push-back..

As long as people can still add to their debt, and live in fairyland, we just have the same old shit forever..
NOT EVERYONE SHOULD HAVE A CREDIT CARD..


someone with good credit and a $2K a month gross, could probably handle a $6K credit line via three cards..

[BumRushDaShow]

12. Usury laws need to be reinstated.

[Fire1]

13. Better late than never. They're lucky they're getting anything.

[Mari333]

14. breakfast lunch dinner

[serrano2008]

15. don't forget www.studentloanjustice.org

For those out there grossly neglecting your student loan payments for years and years cause you "forgot" about it.