What if we all just stopped - stopped paying our credit cards, our house

[BR_Parkway]

payments, our insurance premiums.

When "the market" tanked, the government (that supposedly represents US) couldn't react fast enough in supporting Wall St.

But here we are, credit card bill passing with no Usary limits because our "reps" take too much money from the credit card industry and vote against us. And they can still change the terms of the contract - they just have to give you a few more days notice and put it in a bigger font or something.

health care reform being worked over by the exact groups who have the most to lose, not us who have the most to gain - because our "reps" take too much money from the health insurance and pharmacy industries and vote against us.

they vote against mortgage cramdown while funneling as much cash as they can into the banking system to socialize the losses - after keeping taxes low or non existent to privatize all the profits - after stripping out the regulations that were put into place to keep this same thing happening again.

If this were Europe, We the People would be in the streets until everyone in Congress knew we damn well want change from this status quo and gave it to us. Not as easy to do that in a country as large as we have, but maybe through the internet we could do something.

Maybe, to show Congress that we're serious - we should bypass them for now and go straight to the corporations. In the past, we've successfully boycotted various companies into changing their practices when we got enough people organized to have an impact. Pricing, discrimination, outsourcing, toxic materials - very few areas we've not been able to force them to do better by bringing enough public pressure to bear.

What if we all just skipped payment on next month's credit card bills - maybe 2 months would bring them to their knees. Or maybe just enough emails being sent to them saying we wouldn't be making the payments would be enough.

What if we organized a "planned withdraw" from one of the mega banks that constantly fights against our interests - just enough to tip their capital requirements far enough over so that the FDIC. Move it to the small regional banks who need to shore up their capital or your local credit union.

There have to be ways that we could pressure the companies (or drive them out of business) who are so determined to get what they want at our expense - beyond simply calling, emailing, faxing our Representatives who don't listen very well (especially in my district Virginia Foxx)

[Phoebe Loosinhouse]

1. You can protest immediately by not using your credit cards and paying them off.

I don't recommend that anyone not pay their mortgage.

I honestly can't think of an industry that is loathed on a more universal level than the credit card industry and recent stories say that there will be a concerted effort to gouge even their best customers with increased fees, charges, etc. You have to ask yourself as an industry - "Is it a good thing that all my customers/clients loathe me and would drop me and services in 2 seconds if they had the choice? " What does it say for long-term growth?

[Occam Bandage]

6. I don't think it matters if people loathe them,

so long as they continue to purchase items for which they cannot pay cash.

[trayfoot]

8. I have done just that - paid all credit cards off and am not using them

I have a stellar credit rating and i always paid on time and way more than the minimum payment. Then, as appreciation for this honest activity, I get a letter from the credit card company saying they were raising my interest rate of 6.9 to 15.9. I called and raised hell - the only response was that this was considered a good business decision for the company. So, I paid off the card and put it under lock and key. If enough people did this, the credit card companies would be losing $$$$$ big time, and they might just change their attitudes.

[BR_Parkway]

9. I don't have plastic or a mortgage anymore - and I don't know what

the numbers are that it would take to add up to enough people doing this for it to make a difference.

But the populist anger is there, even across a wide range of groups from both sides of the aisle in some cases. It seems like a time we should be figuring out some way to flex that muscle.

It only has to work once really, the first success would lead to a ton of credibility behind it when a second industry was targeted somehow.

[AndyA]

11. That's exactly what I did, too.

My credit cards are paid off and I'm not using them. So, the few dollars a month they normally received in merchant fees are gone. They have cut their own throats, as far as I'm concerned.

[coinstar queen]

22. Yes. Now that debit cards with Visa and MC logos exist

it's not really crucial to even obtain a credit card. I have never had one and do not intend to.

[msallied]

2. As someone who has been forced in many circumstances

to skip bill payments simply because there was no money to pay them, I can say that these people almost always find a way to get their money. Or they penalize the crap out of you until they get it.

[RebelOne]

10. Right, they will certainly find a way to get their money.

I had financial problems a few years ago and couldn't pay credit card bills. Well, I had three judgments put against me. And I had the embarrassment of the sheriff's office come to my office to serve one. I was finally forced to file a Chapter 13. It has now been discharged and I have sworn off credit cards. If I can't afford to pay cash for something, I just won't buy it.

[msallied]

14. Same here.

I am anti-credit card. We paid off our last one, which had defaulted, and I have no intention of ever getting another one. They are evil things.

[RJ Connors]

3. I already have

I haven't made a house payment in over a year and got rid of my credit cards years ago. I am not going to be a slave or prisioner in the fascist economic institution.

[closeupready]

4. That would be an interesting protest.

What would the credit card companies do? Would they threaten the United States or something? Show their true colors? :rofl:

[Occam Bandage]

5. You know what would be a much better protest?

If you paid off your credit cards and stopped using them in the future. Getting a few thousand people to skip a payment or two reminds me of those "don't buy gas today" gimmicks; they're a completely and utterly ineffective means of protesting.

[msallied]

15. Precisely.

[Nicholas D Wolfwood]

16. Not to mention impractical.

People like to think that we've racked up that credit card debt buying iPods and other bullshit. The truth is that most of that credit card debt went to essentials or emergencies because they've lost their jobs or the jobs they have don't pay enough to build up any kind of a cushion.

[Warpy]

7. I dumped plastic in 1991

when those junk fees and demands for ridiculously low minimum payments appeared. I smelled the beginning of a scam and I was right.

I didn't get to join friends on trips to Europe. I didn't buy much of anything new unless I got a really great deal at an auction. I cooked for myself and ate a lot of beans and rice. I survived on shrinking wages without a credit card to supplement them.

That's my protest. The other effective protest is to pay them off monthly, although everybody in trouble started out that way, too.

As for not paying the mortgage, it all depends on what rents in your area are doing. If you want to eat a foreclosure and just save your money for six months, renting a week or two before the eviction, let your conscience be your guide. I can't imagine being stuck in California with a shack purchased at the height of the insanity that would rent for a quarter of the monthly mortgage check. For other people in normal areas where rents and the monthly payment are close, it's insanity to avoid paying.

The only other thing I can suggest is voting against incumbents across the board, working especially hard to oust them during primaries.

[BonnieJW]

12. Did anyone see the news the other night

featuring a small local bank in Texas that started advertising on billboards that they did not take any TARP funds and they were still solvent? Thousands of people closed down their accounts at the "big" banks and opened accounts at this small bank. That's how you show the big guys. We don't give them any business. I bank at a local bank, but I believe it was bought by a big bank that received TARP funds. So far, nothing has happened, but as soon as the big name goes up, I pull out my $ and open an account at another local bank.

I use my debit card as credit since I get points for doing it, but I can see that it gives the bank the chance to charge merchants more on a credit transactions. That never bothered me before but it does not. I'm even thinking of taking out the cash from the bank ATM and using cash at the stores, thus denying the bank any fees. There are ways we can object and since corporations only know how to read this one symbol $$$, that's the only one you can use.

[NNN0LHI]

13. If I were to stop paying my mortgage which is now 20 grand on my house worth 225 grand ...

... my banker would get a woody. My bank would like nothing better for me to do something that stupid. Dont ya think?

When my credit card comes due I just pay the entire balance every month so I don't care if they are charging me 99% interest on the outstanding balance because I don't carry a month to month outstanding balance.

Its best to pay for stuff with cash anyway. At least for me anyway. Otherwise I begin to forget the value of a dollar and buy stuff I don't need. I am not disciplined enough with my spending to rely on using credit cards for everything. I would be in the poor house if I did.

Don

[schmuls]

17. I'm not going to use my hard earned money paying credit card

interest and fees. My extra money goes right into my secret saving place. I feel so good when I just pay by cash! A straight out transaction without any middle-man pricks!

[ccinamon]

18. Instead of not paying, what about a slightly delayed payment...

For those who normally pay as soon as the bill arrives...delay paying for a few days...not enough to incur late charges, but enough to get their attention...especially if thousands/millions did this for several months...

[Echo In Light]

19. We haven't owned a credit card in over ten yrs, and never will

Good idea, tho...re the OP. W/o a national platform to organize it, such a collective endeavor would prove very difficult, to say the least.

[lefthandedlefty]

20. It would work,,,,,,,,BUT!!!!!!!!!!!

People in this country won`t stick together on ANYTHING never have never will.It is just like the truckers we have never stuck together that is why we pay more taxes than any other industry and consider a 100 hour work week a slow week.

[leftstreet]

21. Proof of that right here on this thread

Welcome to DU

:hi:

[lefthandedlefty]

23. Thanks