San Diego Union Tribune: Holidays are open season on military wallets

[question everything]

Holidays are open season on military wallets

Small-print schemes, overspending common

By Rick Rogers
STAFF WRITER

December 12, 2005

Ever heard of a yo-yo sale or a 1995 Dodge Neon that costs $45,000?

Camp Pendleton's Maj. Daniel P. Harvey has. He's also heard of other schemes aimed at the pockets of service members living in San Diego County and elsewhere.

Financial inexperience, the angst of war and the holiday season are transforming the most wonderful time of the year into the most ruinous one for the enlisted and their families who skip the small print and spend blindly.

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It's a theme repeated time after time across the country, said Catherine Williams, vice president for financial literacy at Money Management International, a nonprofit consumer counseling service in Chicago. "In a lot of cases, the Marine has been away a lot and the thought is: 'I've been gone so much and the wife has done such a great job of holding the family together. Boy, we really want to have a nice Christmas.' Williams said thankfulness for being alive and guilt at being away from home can produce an avalanche of Christmas debt.

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The troops are flush with cash because they collected combat pay and usually don't spend that money overseas, Harvey said.

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A recent survey by the federal Government Accountability Office said many in the armed forces take out short-term loans carrying interest rates of more than 200 percent in some cases.

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Rick Rogers: [phone]; [e-mail]


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http://www.signonsandiego.com/uniontrib/20051212/news_1n12beware.html