At blog.HSH.com we strive to write about the hot topics in the mortgage and housing markets. Once in a while we delve into personal finance, credit cards, or anything else that’s bound to have a profound impact on your bottom line.
That said, we want to make sure that we’re writing about the issues that matter most to you. If you have an idea for a story, or would like us to look into an issue that we haven’t yet discussed, feel free to let us know.
Update1 (03/01/10):
This new and alarming trend of borrowers prioritizing their credit card payments before their mortgage payments is even occurring amongst borrowers with high credit scores, according to FICO:
“We’re identifying lending industry situations in FICO Score Trends that to our knowledge have never been seen before,” said Dr. Mark Greene, CEO of FICO, in a statement. “Economic instability is creating unknown risk in lenders’ credit portfolios as well as counter-intuitive trends in consumer behavior.”
The credit card industry is in a constant state of change. The CARD Act, signed by President Obama in May of 2009, is dishing out its new mandates for credit card companies in three phases. Part two went into effect yesterday, February 22, 2010.
Here’s What My Credit Card Said
During my morning scan of Twitter, I came across a tweet from personal finance gurus Ken and Daria Dolan:
Cutting up your credit cards? Great! But don’t forget to close the account. Our sample letter makes it easy.
The recession spawned a national trend which saw thousands, if not millions, of American shift from spenders to savers. High charges and fees imposed by credit card companies made the transition all that much easier. But before you pull out the scissors and kiss that plastic goodbye, remember that merely cutting up your card doesn’t mean your account is closed.
We write about credit cards a lot in this blog. We’ve covered the credit card reform pretty closely, documenting many of the “unintended consequences.” However, today we want to address a different form of plastic: debit cards.
While we’ve encouraged consumers to some degree to focus on debit as opposed to credit in order to help keep spending under control, that doesn’t mean that debit is perfect. Like most things, it has flaws. Today, we want to examine some of the possible downsides of debit.
We’re “borrowing” this topic from our friend Mitch over at TopFinanceBlog.com. While Mitch’s latest post is titled “Why I Say Credit Scores Are Worthless,” we’re taking a somewhat different approach.
Banks and credit card companies have been jacking up interest rates and fees (if not simply canceling cards) more and more these days — sometimes without warning — as they prepare for the new business landscape that will be created by Congress’ upcoming credit card reform.
Personal finance blog “FiveCentNickel” asks their readers to imagine a world where cash is king in a recent post titled “Is It Possible to Live Without Credit Cards?”
The notion may seem unrealistic to some, especially in this uncertain economic environment where thousands of Americans are unemployed or under-employed and rely on their plastic to get them through each month.
Lawmakers may have thought the new credit card rules — some which have already taken affect, and others that will begin in February — would be able to, in some respects, save borrowers from themselves. But if Congress thought that the Credit Card Accountability, Responsibility & Disclosure Act of 2009 (CARD Act) could save consumers from the credit card companies, they were wrong.
Late last month we already informed you of one loophole the card companies found in the “45-days notice before a rate change” rule. Now personal finance blog WalletPop.com says the companies have found even more.
Some say it was inevitable. First came the wave of mortgage defaults, in which some borrowers essentially just mailed in the keys and stuck the lender with the mortgage… and the property.
Perhaps it was just a matter of time until some credit-card borrowers did the same thing:
Those on the front lines of the debt industry say there is a small but increasingly noticeable group of strapped consumers who, like Ms. Birks, are deciding they will simply stop paying. After loading up on debt eagerly provided by the card companies during the boom times, these people now find themselves trapped in an endless cycle where they are charged interest on interest and fees upon fees while the lenders get government bailouts.
As expected, President Obama today signed into law a slew of new rules and limits on credit-card issuers:
Under the bill, credit-card companies will have to take several steps, including posting their credit rules on the Internet and giving cardholders a written statement explaining pending interest-rate hikes 45 days in advance.
Credit-card companies won’t be able to increase interest rates on existing balances except in limited circumstances, such as the expiration of a promotional rate or failure by a customer to make a payment within 30 days of the due date.
