Ban Instant Credit Cards

[jmowreader]

We've all heard the spiel: "Would you like to sign up for a This Store credit card today and save 10 percent off your first purchase?" Cashiers are trained to say it and can probably get terminated for not. Salesfloor associates say it. Some stores have Credit Captains whose whole job is selling credit cards. The system works pretty simply: when someone applies for one of these things, a very perfunctory credit bureau check is run. If the applicant's FICO score is high enough, they're approved. The amount you're approved for is predicated on the stated monthly income, with little regard for other debts, medical expenses and other things that can eat up your disposable income.

I've seen this WAY too many times: Someone would come in to the store I worked in to buy, say, a lawn mower blade for their old push mower. Our credit captain would talk them into taking out a card...Home Depot card limits are really high, so this person might wind up with a $15,000 limit. "Honey, you've never liked pushing that old mower all over the yard, why don't we look at lawn tractors?" Next thing you know they've spent $2800 on a tractor when they were planning to spend $19.95 on a blade. And you can't have a shiny new tractor if you don't also have a clippings cart, and a weedeater, and a new grill because the back yard's going to be nice enough you can finally have company over...oh but we need to paint the shutters so we need some paint, and we don't have any furniture for our guests to sit in...

At the end of the month when the bill comes in..."honey, can you go out and get a second job? Our minimum payment is $225." We actually had people apply, and get hired, specifically to pay off their Home Depot bills.

The ideal would be for all credit card issuers to be required to perform a thorough check like they used to, but at the very minimum there needs to be a one-week cooling-off period before a new card can be used.

[L0oniX]

1. LOL "cooling-off period" ...so cc's are like buying a gun.

[Arctic Dave]

3. Interesting question you bring up. What's more detrimental to society,

too easy to purchase a gun or too easy to get a credit card. Someone needs to make apoll for this.

[MercutioATC]

2. Alternately, people could just excercise some responsibility...

Do we REALLY need legislation to protect people from making unwise purchases?

[FarCenter]

5. I'm in favor of making almost all transactions happen more slowly

Like not being able to buy and then sell the same stock on the same day.

Or opening up a loan or credit card and using the money the same day.

The "instant" transactions are exposing everyone to greater risk - both of fraud and bad judgement.

[Odin2005]

7. Yes, we do.

If the "personal responsibility" shtick worked advertisement creators would be out of a job. Our minds are being messed with daily by corporate psychological manipulation determined to turn us into consumerist zombies. People think what they are doing is OK when in reality they, indeed all of us, are to some extent or another, enslaved by this psychological manipulation. Our brians are input-output machines, there is no prime mover in the brain divorced from causality.

[MercutioATC]

8. We're not incapable of responsible behavior, we're just lazy and impatient.

...and WE decide to be that way.

[agoraphile]

10. Hey, no person should be held accountable for his/her own actions. Ever.

At least that seems to be the opinion of a few people I know...
:eyes:

[jmowreader]

12. Don't be that way

Let's say we implemented a 72-hour hold on the use of newly issued credit cards. This would give you enough time to at least read the payment schedule and the interest disclosure and think, "if I want to buy a $4500 lawn mower, I would be financially much better off if I went to my bank and got a signature loan at 12 percent than if I put it on this 16-percent credit card--or better, if I took out a home equity loan at 10 percent which I could write off."

Credit cards have their uses, and people need to be responsible for their actions, but man, give someone a $30,000 line of credit on the spur of the moment and they're going to USE the fucking thing!

[MercutioATC]

16. Why not just make it illegal to buy anything you don't need?

Set up a government bureaucracy to approve all consumer purchases.

If you want to save people from themselves, do it right.

[agoraphile]

19. Anyone dumb enough to put a 4500 dollar mower on a credit card he got 5 minutes ago

doesn't deserve any relief. He needs a 2x4 upside the head.

[jmowreader]

25. You'd be surprised...

It makes sense in a very limited number of occasions, specifically when you can actually afford to pay cash for the unit. Buying a $4500 mower with a new card, then paying it off the same or next day with your debit card, means your $4500 mower is actually a $4300 mower...or a $4050 mower if you get into a "10 percent off the whole purchase" event.

If we want to make sure we don't have another recession like this one, we need to get rid of some of the worst abuses of the financial system, like instant credit cards and banks being able to sell stocks and insurance. (Allowing banks to be one-stop financial institutions is one of the things that led to the Great Depression.)

[Odin2005]

23. Being held accountable does not mean ignoring social causes of our behavior.

[RB TexLa]

15. Oh no, personal responsibility are dirty words here. To some you might have well have said

you are a republican.

[Odin2005]

22. Talk of "personal responsibility" is just throwing social problems under the rug.

That's why Republicans and Libertarians use it so much. We are the sum of our environment and genetics. That is not to say "people are not responsible for their actions", but it does mean that the SOCIAL FACTORS that lead to such behavior must be dealt with.

[Statistical]

4. Or you could just say no.

Nope don't need a card and 10% off $19.95 is $1.95 so it isn't worth it to me.

[jwirr]

6. Another form of credit that should be limited or at least checked before

issuing is the bank reserves that go along with a checking account. They are way out of line with income and ability to pay. They would be helpful if they had say a $500 limit to cover any overdrafts but not as a loan system. I can never figure out why banks think that a social security direct deposit is a good risk. For God's sake - we die.

[defendandprotect]

9. yes....

[Gormy Cuss]

11. Instant credit is a boon to retailers.

Otherwise they wouldn't continue to push the product. It sounds like it works out well for HD as a source of loyal part time hires too.

Since credit scoring models are designed to give enough one-stop info on a person to judge creditworthiness there's no need for a more thorough check.

That's the thinking anyway.

Now a one week cooling off period, that's the ticket. Any time people have a chance to think away from a hard sell spiel it's a good thing.

[show us yer moobs]

13. I am an adult. I have been asked if I want to get a store credit card.

I say no. Why should we ban everything that could be handled simply by not doing it?

[agoraphile]

17. The conventional wisdom nowadays is that Americans are too stupid to manage their own lives

and there is some truth in that observation. Several decades of attempts to make everyone equal in every way have produced a society where too many of us actually -are- equal...equally ignorant.

[Codeine]

14. Dear consumer;

DU has decided you're an idiot who is mentally enslaved by. . . well, like commercials or the hard sell or some shit like that, so they, in their paternal wisdom, have determined that your diminished mental capacity demands a Mandatory Shopping Waiting period for all credit purchases. Bear in mind that these same people generally advocate - quite rightly in my opinion - sweeping drug legalization laws, abortion rights with zero restrictions, and a host of other unrestricted freedoms, all of which entail responsibilities and consequences.

Yeah, I don't get the contradiction either. Some of them are crazies, man.

- Sincerely, Codeine.

[agoraphile]

18. +42

;-)

[jmowreader]

24. Dear Codeine:

I'm not advocating a Mandatory Shopping Waiting Period for ALL credit purchases. Just for the first use of a new credit card.

Years and years ago, before we had computers in stores that can access a consumer's credit report, someone who wanted a credit card couldn't use it the day he or she applied for it. In fact, they had to MAIL OFF THEIR APPLICATION and wait for weeks while sober-minded bankers evaluated the creditworthiness of every applicant. Many were turned down. Today getting turned down for a credit card takes some work.

This nation is in the midst of a severe recession, and credit is one of the big reasons for it. I think instant credit approval, which leads to people spending money without thinking, is a huge problem. I'm like "look, go home, relax, read the stack of documents that came with the new card. Take a couple days to decide whether you can afford the bills. If the answer is yes, the thing will still be there when you get back to the store."

[MadHound]

20. As much as I loathe credit cards, the fact of the matter is that at some point the consumer

Has to take responsibility for their own decisions. If you are enough of an idiot to take this course of action, then frankly you shouldn't be allowed out of the house for any reason without supervision.

There is a simple word, called "no", which prevents these sort of things from happening. Practice using it in the privacy of your own home, then go out and use it in real life.

[LatteLibertine]

21. It's not a joke

People in this country have a serious problem with low to no impulse control and mindless consumerism. This problem is compounded by marketing. They attempt to make people feel inadequate and incomplete. So if you buy some new piece of garbage you'll be; better, happy, more complete etc.

[yodoobo]

26. Well there is a 3 day cooling off period for all home equity loans and refi's

Once you sign the papers, you have to wait 3 days before you get the proceeds of your home equity loan.

That's been in place for at least 15 years.

(looking around...) Didn't help much.