History and General Information
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/credit/etc/synopsis.html
The Secret History of the Credit Card
Excerpt:
The industry's most profitable customers, the ones being sought by creative marketing tactics, are the "revolvers:" the estimated 115 million Americans who carry monthly credit card debt.
Today, the average family owes roughly $8,000 on their credit cards. This debt has helped generate record profits for the credit card industry -- last year, more than $30 billion before taxes.
Some experts say the profitability of credit cards really began twenty-five years ago, when the banking industry successfully eliminated a critical restriction: the limit on the interest rate a lender can charge a borrower.
http://www.cardweb.com/cardtrak/pastissues/feb04.html
Excerpt:
Credit card profits in the last three months of 2003, topped $7.0 billion and may have exceeded $30 billion for the year.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Credit_card
Excerpt:
This implies that high-cost low-return fraud prevention measures will not be used if their cost exceeds the potential gains from fraud reduction. This opportunity for fraud has created a black market in stolen credit card numbers, which must generally be used quickly before the cards are reported stolen.
There is some controversy about credit card usage in recent years. Credit card debt has soared in recent years, particularly among young people. The major credit card companies have been accused of targeting a younger audience, in particular college students, many of whom are already in debt with college tuition and loans. Credit card usage has tripled since 2001 amongst teen-agers as well.
http://credit.typepad.com
A blog sharing various stories about debt and credit.
http://coopamerica.org/pubs/realmoney/articles/creditcards.cfm
Excerpt:
One question we get often from Real Money readers is: Which credit card is the most socially responsible?
http://www.lipmagazine.org/articles/feattalvi_121.shtml
Excerpt:
Today, there is no disputing that credit cards are everywhere. No less than 158 million Americans now own 1.5 billion shiny pieces of embossed plastic, ranging from retail cards to gasoline cards. Once the privileged possession of the credit-worthy and the employed, credit cards now jut out of the wallets of unemployed college students and Social Security-dependent elderly persons.
http://www.truthaboutcredit.org
The U.S. Public Interest Research Group’s (U.S. PIRG) website discusses the “The Truth About Credit” The site contains news and tips about credit.
http://www.creditcardnation.com/books.html
Credit Card Nation, Robert D. Manning
Excerpt:
VISA, Its Everywhere You Want to Be.” From resolving currency exchange problems during your European vacation or financing that “priceless” anniversary moment to mundane matters such as paying for gas at the speed pump or making last minute airline reservations on-line for an important business trip, credit cards have assumed a central role in our daily lives. In fact, with the ascendance of the post-industrial economy, bank credit cards have become an essential technological and financial tool for commercial transactions as well as an increasingly important macro-economic tool for U.S. policy-makers. In the process, they are contributing to the most neglected feature of contemporary American inequality: access and cost of consumer credit.
Fraud and Identity Theft
http://www.fdic.gov/consumers/consumer/news/cnsprg98/cons.html
Excerpt:
A thief may steal your credit card. Someone may order a new credit card in your name by stealing a pre-approved application from your mail and having the card sent to a different address. An unscrupulous sales clerk can make a duplicate copy of your credit card receipt or use a special device to capture data from the magnetic stripe on your card. One way or another, the thief using phony ID can make or order a credit card, in your name, and use it to obtain merchandise or cash advances.
http://www.msnbc.com/news/877978.asp?0si=-&cp1=1
Excerpt:
The difficulty of beating back bad data is at the core of the problem, and there are some proposed technological solutions. Instant fingerprint identification networks would cut down on misidentifications, for example. Some locales have tested computers that beam each suspect’s photograph along with warrant information to the arresting officer at the scene; that would prevent some wrongful arrests. But both solutions have civil liberty implications, and both are costly.
http://www.news1130.com/news/local/article.jsp?content=20040426_090353_3740
Excerpt:
The media officer for the Vancouver Police Department says she was the victim of identity theft. Sarah Bloor is warning you to be careful with any personal information you give out. Bloor says someone was charging up huge amounts on a fake credit card. Bloor says make sure you shred before you throw away anything with information that identity thieves can use.
http://www.idtheftcenter.org/index.shtml
The Identity Theft Resource Center (ITRC), ia a nonprofit, nationally (US) respected program dedicated exclusively to identity theft It provides consumer and victim support and advises governmental agencies, legislators and companies about this evolving and growing crime.
http://www.consumer.gov/idtheft
US government website on identity theft.
http://www.privcom.gc.ca/fs-fi/02_05_d_10_e.asp
Canadian government website on identity theft.
Over Credited Society
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,143037,00.html
Excerpt:
By analogy, you might think that consumers were saying, "I'd really like to owe a whole bunch more than I can afford, so that I can declare bankruptcy." There's a reason you don't hear anyone saying those words: It's because credit has been so easy to get that we've managed to inflate people's ideas of how much they can take on.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Criticism_of_debt
Excerpt:
Concerned with the equity of distribution of these things and the potential for unrest if simple luck is permitted to cause some to starve while others prosper, simply for having held a safer debt asset through a catastrophe, has alternative instruments that do not obligate repayment in the sense of debt but instead act as a joint venture type instrument. The justification for this is a hadith which states as a rule of trade: "nothing present for that which is absent". This avoids the problems of the devaluted asset or bad debt becoming a source of unrest later on, should it be devalued or defaulted through no fault of the borrower. Since Allah intends the misfortune to fall on all those involved, the argument goes, to leave the debtor obligated and the creditor with recourse to the state for collection, is to defy God. Christian philosophy is also often concerned with these very issues, and in fact, very similar sentiments prevailed in Christian societies until the end of the Middle Ages.
http://www.villagevoice.com/news/0451,duffy,59417,6.html
Excerpt:
When I started college, I needed and wanted funds—for an apartment, a car, a girlfriend, alcohol, and of course, tuition. Conveniently, the dorms and lecture halls were strewn with credit card applications, which are as much a part of the university experience as Wednesday-morning hangovers. The plastic loan sharks beckoned with low monthly payments and generous credit lines. It was an offer few of us could refuse.
http://www.theproblemwithinterest.com/index.html
Excerpt:
Left to itself, the physical world follows the path of compound decrement towards, but never quite reaching, zero. Meanwhile, loans at interest are often structured so as to follow the path of compound increment towards infinity. This chapter contrasts interest and entropy and highlights the contradiction between the laws of interest and the laws of nature. It is proposed that 'short-termism', pollution and resource depletion can be encouraged by the use of interest in the financing of industry.
http://www.counterpunch.org/brauchli12162004.html
Excerpt:
Interest Rates, Credit Cards and the Lethal Fine Print
My acquaintance was given a credit card by U.S. Bank when 17 years of age, below the age he could legally enter into a contract. He soon had a $2.00 overdraft which produced a $29 penalty thus causing his account to be overdrawn by $31. He repeated the exercise a few days later and incurred another $29 charge vaulting him into debt to the tune of $62. He was unable to repay the bank within 5 days as required by the fine print and began accruing an additional daily charge of $7. By the time an attorney intervened his $4 overdrafts had produced a debt of more than $200.
http://www.disinfo.com/archive/pages/article/id124/pg1/index.html
Excerpt:
To others, a cashless financial system would guarantee that everyone will be hopelessly caught in the dubious cycle of debt and repayment to which so many credit card junkies have become accustomed. Since all transactions are monitored and recorded by privately-owned computer systems, anyone who has access to them, whether they be lending institutions, governments, or individuals, has the power to make your life a living hell.
http://www.americanheritage.com/articles/magazine/ah/1991/7/1991_7_125.shtml
Excerpt:
In 1966 Chicago banks dumped five million unsolicited cards into the mail. Dead people, babies, and dogs got them.
Taking Control of Debt
http://www.consumeralert.org/pubs/commonsense/CSense0907.htm
Taking Control of Your Credit, Frances Smith - Commonsense Consumer Column, Volume 5, Issue 6, September 2001
Excerpt:
While most consumers are responsible credit users--they don't charge more than they can repay and they make their payments promptly--some people have problems using credit for a variety of reasons. For instance, a person may face unexpected medical bills, the home furnace breaking down, or emergency auto repairs, without the savings to act as a cushion for those expenses. For others, however, credit problems may be more of a way of life because they overspend or never learned how to use credit responsibly.
Figuring out your own credit habits is a good place to start assessing whether you are likely to have problems in the future and what corrective action to take now. Consumer Alert's "Credit Smart Quiz" can help you understand what your credit use habits are and whether you need to change those habits.
http://www.truthaboutcredit.org/roadmap.html
Excerpt:
As credit card companies intensify their marketing campaigns to boost profits, more and more glossy credit card offers are coming at us fast and furious. The average household receives eight credit card offers each month, and students, who often have no regular income, are encouraged several times a week by posters, flyers, and on-campus marketers to apply for credit cards.
http://www.simpleliving.net/ymoyl/fom-paper-05.asp
What to do instead of spending.
Excerpt:
Into this void I offer the following list of simple activities one can do, at little or no cost. But shop-aholics beware: don't let these suggestions devolve into excuses for further splurging!
http://www.financevictims.co.uk/credit-cards
A list of the various problems with plastic money.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/3167473.stm
Excerpt:
Admitting there is a problem and that you need help is an important first step. Before embarking on your debt action plan contact your creditors, tell them you are having difficulties and let them know why.
Theory and Financial Alternatives
http://www.counterpunch.org/cockburn12112004.html
Excerpt:
"Being poor in America", I wrote, " which is a reality for millions who might once have called themselves middle class, means having to face debts each month, without any decent financial services and hence dealing with interest rates of around 20 per cent."
Payday borrowers mostly have no idea what they're getting into. On the customer disclosure form the annual interest rate won't carry a percentage sign. Just a number, like 805. A payday lending business plan, cited by Ms Hammerstein, advises: "Remember, in your response to clients' questions regarding your fees [say] 'We charge $15 per $100 advanced sounds like 15%, but in reality, since it is an 8 day loan, the true annual percentage is 805%"
The Armed Forces recruiters target poor neighborhoods. The payday lenders target the Armed Forces. At Fort Bliss in Texas, Paul Fain wrote earlier this year in Military Money, "the Army Emergency Relief office estimated nearly one-tenth of the 10,000 active duty troops stationed there have had to undergo credit counseling because of payday loans and other debt problems."
Just so you know, Military Money calculated that if you borrow $200 for two weeks from the bank under your overdraft protection, you probably pay back $235, which translates into an annual rate of 456 per cent, 65 per cent more than the payday loan rate for the same sum. Payday lenders aren't the only sharks in the water, and sometimes they're the only sharks prepared to lend to the small fry.
http://www.gold-eagle.com/gold_digest_99/kutyn071099.html
Death of Rational Knowledge, John Kutyn – Gold-Eagle
Excerpt:
The creation of our economic systems is political. Our present banking system, the power given to those that create and control money, is a result of political decisions. Our present economic system is not a natural system: it is a system that was created to serve those that created it. The lifeline of our financial system is money, and money is now only found within our banking system. Therefore, to understand our economy, we must first understand our banking system; and we must understand how our banking system is allowed to influence economies.
http://www.sfasu.edu/finance/FINCASH.HTM
Cashless Society or Digital Cash?, Reynolds Griffith
Excerpt:
For more than a decade there have been predictions of the elimination of physical cash as a transaction medium and the substitution of one form or another of an electronic payments system. Some forecasters view the prospect with delight, looking on it as increasing the efficiency of the economy. Others behold it with foreboding, anticipating it to be another way in which the details of our lives become subject to scrutiny. This paper examines the issues surrounding the prospect of a "cashless society" and the possible alternative of digital cash.
Student Targeting
http://money.guardian.co.uk/creditanddebt/creditcards/story/0,1456,1172582,00.html
Excerpt:
It seems incredible that as a student, with no other income than a tiny grant, a few student loans and a small handout from my parents, I was offered credit at all, but on both occasions when the salesperson checked my credit record I was duly offered a few hundred pounds, virtually no questions asked.
http://www.consumeralert.org/pubs/research/Aug99StudentDebt.htm
Students and Credit Cards, Frances B. Smith - Consumers' Research Magazine
Excerpt:
College kids and credit cards have been in the news lately, following a June 1999 report by the Consumer Federation of American (CFA) that blasted card issuers for luring unsuspecting students into debt. Sociologist Robert Manning, the author of the CFA study, was quoted in a Reuters story as saying: "The unrestricted marketing of credit cards on college campuses is so aggressive that it now poses a greater threat than alcohol or sexually transmitted diseases."
http://www.iccu.com/newgeneration/creditcardguidance.htm
Credit Card Companies Aim Marketing At Young Customers, Carol Frey, The News & Observer collage student program support.
Excerpt:
Long before Alan Broughton got his high school diploma, he got a Capital One Visa card.Like many of his classmates at Raleigh's Sanderson High School, Broughton had received two or three credit-card offers before his 18th birthday last October.
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=4488488
All Things Considered, February 6, 2005
Host Jennifer Ludden looks at how the credit card industry markets to teenagers. Legally, banks may not issue credit cards to minors, but solicitations for cards often go out to kids under 18. It seems the card issuers are counting on parents to bail their kids out when they overcharge.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/3168367.stm
Excerpt:
BBC News Online asks the experts how Joanna Kelly, a financially-challenged graduate, should tackle her £14,000 debt problem.
Quizzes
http://www.creditcardnation.com/culturalquiz.html
Find out where you stand in the our Credit Card Society
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/shared/spl/hi/business/healthcheck/index.stm
The Financial Healthcheck was developed jointly by the BBC and the Financial Services Authority (FSA), the UK watchdog for the financial services industry.
The healthcheck aims to give you some information to help you identify your financial needs and make your financial decisions. It only provides a general guide and you shouldn't take any decisions based solely on your results.
Video
http://www.bbc.co.uk/videonation/feature/heybigspender
Video Nation brings you a selection of shorts exploring the subject of debt. Most of us will have some form of debt during our lives and some of us will have difficulty clearing that debt.