History of Credit Card Debts
Credit card Debt has become a problem not only in the United States, but world wide. Especially in this nation though, where credit has seemingly become a source of income in and of itself. No actual hard basis of cash or monetary sustenance exists for credit, and the system relies mostly on fees paid because of and due to interest. Though, that does fit well especially so with the mostly American need to have right here, and right now. That as many have found tends to be the economic down fall for the personal user and the private citizen about everywhere.
Many cards have hidden costs, things you have to pay for that they don’t directly tell you about. Often they aren’t spoken of period unless a person asks about the specific action that would incur an extra fee. You can easily see your minimum 50$ payment increase to over double that because of extra things, time of payment, items bought and more that increase what would have been a low payment. With the highest, at 4:1 ratio of population versus credit cards issued, this can rise to be a major problem for Americans.
One often unknown concept and practice is that of Redlining. Its like a sort of economic profiling, where a credit card company will analyze what the demographics for a specific area are. They see a certain type of people or a higher concentration of marked races, they will decline the issuance of the card, or more specifically alter the credit limit. A person could be completely able and be a repeat user of the card and still be turned down just because they were profiled in a certain area as not matching the desired user base.
From hidden fees, to total denial, the giving out of credit cards is a very lucrative business for the companies especially in America. We see it as a source of immediate funds were willing to pay a price for. But what is the price, and how much is too much? The companies may be gambling on the inherent need for everything to be had “right here, right now” by the typical American to gain them a more cemented foot in the card business.