They’re paying for it, you eat it.
Remember the scene in Full Metal Jacket, where Hartman finds the jelly donut in “Pyle”’s locker? He’s frustrated at his “inability” to train pyle, so he decides to enlist the help of the rest of the company. Knowing full well what the outcome will be, he has the rest of the unit bear the punishment for Pyle’s mistakes, beginning with having them do pushups while Pyle eats the donut.
“They’re paying for it, you eat it!” he screams at Pyle, handing him the donut.
Welcome to the “jelly donut” of personal finance…high risk credit cards.
Despite the fact that every individual who holds a credit card signed an agreement to be bound by the terms and conditions of the issuer, mass whining and hand wringing prompted congress to enact new legislation to “protect” people from the “evil” credit card companies.
How DARE a company seek to make a profit, through means expressly and willfully granted to them by their supposed “victims”??? Why, those evil greedy bastards, wanting to charge PRECISELY the fees they TOLD you they’d charge, that you AGREED to let them charge when you WILLFULLY charged more than your “limit”.
Of course, with the new legislation going into effect this past Monday, we’ve been regaled with news stories about the new “traps” and “sneaky policies” the card companies are using to make back the estimated $12,000,000,000 congress took out of their industry. Apparently, wanting to replace the income you just had forcibly removed from your pockets is “sneaky”.
It seems that now, even those who pay balances “on time”, never go above their “limit”, and “use credit wisely” will now be paying “outrageous” fees and charges.
…get ready for higher annual fees, higher balance-transfer charges, and growing charges for overseas transactions.
says http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2010/02/21/federal-credit-card-law-create-new-traps-consumers/
Banks and other card issuers have already been aggressively implementing new fees or raising existing ones to help make up for any potential revenue lost as a result of the CARD Act.
says http://money.cnn.com/2010/02/17/news/companies/credit_card_rules/
Pyle got caught with his jelly donut…now all of you ‘responsible” cred card users are going to pay, while he eats it.
Enjoy your pushups, folks.
Meanwhile, those of us with no cards will quite happily laugh our collective asses off while you try to explain to us how important your credit cards are, and how you simply can’t survive without them.
Wake up, folks. Stop buying things you can’t afford, and start living on what you make.