Foolish Spending Has Led to Massive Credit Card Debt
We’ve managed in recent times to take our debt woes and get creative with them, or rather the credit card and loan companies have. By encouraging you to put off one loan so you can overspend on another line of credit, and the interest-only mortgage is one of these culprits. We’ve definitely reached a new level when it comes to ways to submerge ourselves in debt.
Really, what do the credit companies expect when they extend us these loans, piled on top of other loans, to a level that well exceeds an acceptable debt to income ratio, and then question why so many loans are going into default.
The whole point of establishing these limits, as well as credit checks was to help protect not only the credit companies, but the consumers as well. Unfortunately, one thing that wasn’t counted on was the credit industries overall lack of apathy toward the woes of consumers. They’ll gladly hand out loans they know have little chance of being repaid, because it still works to their benefit to do so.
Even worse is that the credit companies prey on us before we even have a fighting chance. Credit card companies offer easy balance transfer cards and set up shop at every university and college campus in the country, eager to hand out loans to kids who are already in deep debt from school loans. Most have no current income to speak of to pay things back and quickly find themselves in debt.
The interest only mortgage is the new tool that strikes at the adult population which has been overextended to the breaking point by this time. Instead of letting consumers come to the harsh reality that they’re overextended and need to cut back in some, and probably many, ways, we offer them a new debt disguised as a cure-all for our debt woes, when in reality it’s nothing but more debt.
Of course the credit companies don’t want to advise you to stop seeking their newest debt remedy by actually not taking on more debt and cutting back on spending, because that doesn’t benefit them. So they give you a new debt that gives you false hope that your unmanageable situation is not what it is. All we need look at are the rising mortgage foreclosure rates to see that this plan is indeed not a viable one. People have finally reached the breaking point, with no new credit schemes to keep them in the loop yet, though some are surely on the way.
As consumers we need to seriously take stock of our spending habits, our acceptable debt to income ratio, and other factors. Do not leave it up to credit companies, and assume that because they extend you a loan that you must be in good shape. Credit companies have anything but your best interests at heart. Continuing to subsidize credit with more credit is a fool’s errand that will eventually end in disaster. You can choose to limit your spending and get rid of the reliance on credit, or you can choose which seedy apartment you will be living in once you lose your home and nearly everything else.
The choice is yours and only yours. The archaic thinking that credit cards give you a better life has now been totally and forcefully debunked. Do not live in the past, look forward to a brighter future, one free of credit and one free of debt.
