Anybody know the breakdown on credit card debt?

[rucky]

How much of it is incurred to buy necessities?

How much of it is incurred from medical expenses?

How much of it is luxury items?

We all feel the cost-of-living pinch. Is it surprising that credit card debt is what it is? Before we judge if the borrowers are "responsible", we should look at the facts. The only sources of stats on this I could find were pay-for services, and i don't want to go into any more debt to find the answer.

[Speciesamused]

1. Most use them to survive...

There are huge amounts of people without jobs.
Most jobs do not pay enough for people to survive on.
Many without health care or affordable housing.
Including military personnel returning from Iraq.
The credit card industry feed off of these
unfortunate people. They do not care about
people. It is the bottom line. Of course Biden would never
know that. isn't he one of the Millionaires?

[sandnsea]

2. 30% use credit for medical

Low income people have more credit card debt, and it's due to medical expenses. I didn't find any credit breakdown.

http://health.msn.com/healthnews/articlepage.aspx?cp-documentid=100153442

[Selatius]

3. That's awful, using credit cards for medical expenses.

If the medical bills don't kill you, the credit card bills will. If universal health care passes, how are poor people going to afford health insurance if the government orders them to purchase it?

[SoCalDem]

4. Credit card companies have deliberately "blurred the line"

by offering cash-back bonuses & airline miles.. By doing this they convinced many people to use them for everyday living, and then to basically endorse the paycheck to pay it off every month..They KNOW, however, that MOST people will not or cannot do that, so those trips to the grocery store and to McDonalds will probably end up as part of your 30-40 yr mortgage when the debts pile up sufficiently so that you have to re-finance your home to pay off credit cards.. nice scam, eh?

Everyone "plans" to pay it off every month, but life has a way of intervening, and people get caught up in the whirlpool of late charges, finance charges on top of finance charges, escalating interest rates, and they are D O N E ..

Young people do not remember how it was when they started BankAmericard & Master Charge all those years ago. They limits were indexed to your INCOME, and they did not routinely raise your limits. There were only a few credit cards then..Am Ex, DinersClub were the other 2 main cards and they were limited in scope. AmEx had very high income requirements & DC was mainly for entertainment & restaurants. Getting a cash advance was not really an option because the overall limit was pretty small (I think our first BankAmericard ..in 1970.. had a $500 limit).. You could get emergency money from a bank , cheaper & easier :)

[rucky]

5. Back in the day...

people could live off of their income. It's less so the case now. When you're living hand-to-mouth you're not really thinking about finance charges as much. What helps us now hurts us worse in the future. It's a terrible cycle to be in.

[sandnsea]

6. Emergency money from a bank

Oh yeah, I remember that!

They're now offering no-credit-check, low interest Health Care Credit Cards. The entire health care industry of the boomers is going to be on credit. What a crazy economy and I sure feel bad for what we're all leaving to our grandkids. Our kids aren't listening very well to the warning signs either.

[SoCalDem]

7. Thom Hartmann referred to that scenario as the next big scam

It's the one where the Boomer's entire net worth will be quietly transferred to the medical "care" industry, as they age... He expects medicare to be whittled away, and the costs of those last few years of a Boomer's life will eat up all their accumulated assets of a lifetime..

[sandnsea]

8. I've seen it happen already

My mother had a heart attack at 46, destroyed 90% of her heart. That was lack of education for women on heart attack symptoms for us. Anyway, she did get a heart transplant, but that leaves you with a couple thousand dollars of prescriptions a month, and at least a million in medical expenses over the 10 or so extra years you get. She knew clearly what was going on. Now a family friend of theirs, who saved every nickle, has Alzheimer's and has lost everything to medical bills and is on Medical anyway. Carlyle Group just bought a bunch of nursing homes. So we spent the last 20 years paying extra into FICA so that Bush could give that money away in tax cuts so that those same people could invest in nursing homes and get what's left. I imagine they'll be investing in funeral homes before too long too. Why are so many people so dumb they can't see that we're working like serfs for the king just like we did hundreds of years ago.

[SoCalDem]

9. Yup.. we are all on that conveyor belt, right into the belly of the beast

More and more, I think the ones who had it the "best" were the ones who entered old-age in the early 80's. They had pensions, a vigorous SS system, a healthy medicare, and got the benefit of the advancing medical knowledge fo the time. they ate steaks, they smoked if they wanted to, they drank, they danced, they did it ALL, and they actually enjoyed their retirements..and many still had money left over to leave to their kids.. ( I am NOT counting in this group, the poor, who have always been with us)..

The late 80's & 90's brought with it , the "scaring of America", and of course more medicines & procedures to extend life, but for what purpose? to live broke and sick?..People gave up (and still do) things they enjoy, only to lose it all anyway..

[sandnsea]

10. I know what you mean

Somebody posted from Belgium yesterday about their "high" taxes - 45% for those making $100,000 Euros, but nothing for those around $25,000. Isn't that the same as we have? Well, unless you make all your money from investments. The thing is, we all pay, one way or another. Why don't we at least have the sense to demand we get some return on OUR investment into the capitalist system, a health care system that actually keeps us healthy and worry-free.

[Selatius]

11. They have different spending priorities over there.

With the money we spend on national defense, we could fix our health care system with enough money left over to bring forward world class public education and repair our infrastructure, which is slowly decaying from failing power grids to crumbling bridges. We're spending close to 600,000,000,000 on national defense each year. This is no way to live.