Suze Orman Hails The "Debtors' Revolt" Movement (VIDEO)

Personal finance guru Suze Orman gave top billing to the fledgling "debtors' revolt" movement on her eponymous CNBC show Saturday.

"There is a phenomenon happening in the United States of America," said Orman. "It's where people are getting seriously angry, so angry at their banks, their credit card companies. They feel like they are not being treated fairly when it comes to the interest rates they are paying. Guess what they're doing: They are staging a debtors' revolt. Oh yes, a debtors' revolt."

The debtors' revolt started with Ann Minch, a 46-year-old woman in Red Bluff, Calif., who declared via YouTube that she would not pay off her credit card debt after Bank of America hiked her interest rate.

"You are evil, thieving bastards," she said. "Stick that in your bailout pipe and smoke it."

Minch's video made a huge splash, and Bank of America cut a deal with Minch and also with other YouTubers who boarded the debtors' revolt bandwagon.

Orman had Minch on her show to tell her story. When Minch mentioned that she'd closed her savings and checking accounts with Bank of America and put her money in a local bank, Orman seized on that and encouraged viewers to do the same -- to do business with financial institutions that treat their customers ethically. "I now am on the bandwagon of credit unions, everybody," Orman said.

And she offered some of her more guru-like wisdom to the banks.

"I have said many times on the Suze Orman Show that your thoughts create your destiny. Be very very careful about what you think, because what you think you'll eventually say, your words become your actions, your actions become your habits, and your habits become your destiny," said Orman.

"Banks, I want you to listen to me right now. Your thoughts are creating your destiny. When you think people who are going to be ethical, they have every intention of being ethical, they have every intention of paying you, it never, ever, ever crossed their mind to not pay off their credit cards on time, whatever that figure is there, they pay it.

"When your thought is that these people are not going to pay, these people should be paying more to make up for other people, I don't know what you're thinking. But when you think honest people are going to become dishonest, and therefore you need to get as much from there right now as you possibly can, your thoughts have become your destiny. You have good, honest people that are starting to do things that in a million years they never would have done."

Watch:

Comments

[DebtNavigation]

With Moody's and Fitch both reporting that the chargeoff rate for credit cards will run above 11% through the summer of 2010, there will be plenty of people involuntarily joining the Debtors' Revolt. In Mexico in the mid-1990s, the debtors formed "El Barzon" and by the millennium the movement had removed the 60+ year ruling party from power. Americans might likewise make a virtue of necessity and give their dissatisfaction with undemployment, underemployment and the consequent inability to keep up with their debts a political tinge.

Ann Minch is intent on developing that attention that has come to her into a movement that will restore balance to the debtor-creditor relationship rather than allowing the continuing usury that the Supreme Court's ill-considered Marquette decision foisted on the States, which had previously been able to prevent it using their own state laws. In short, you haven't heard the last of her, but if something or someone does stop her there will be others, just as economist Marshall Auerback predicted in August, a month before she posted her viral video.

[Bushdepression]

Yay! Let's let a waitress that made millions selling books tell us about debtor's revolts.

[roooth]

Yes, let someone who knows what it's like to struggle, but who pulled herself up and is now reaching behind to help pull others up tell us. You have a problem with that? Really?

Would you prefer the wisdom of those who inherited their wealth? I bet Paris Hilton could help you out.

[Alessandro Machi]

Bush depression, you are presenting a strawman's argument. Are we supposed to trust a banker instead?

[fuel4thefire]

The answer is simple -- new banks; But this next question begs an answer: why on Earth would we allow our Treasury to back the same banks that made massive questionable & nefarious loans? New banks would have clean balance sheets and we could start from scratch; but you see the government is pretty much an oligarchal structure these days; Read former IMF Chairman Simon Johnson on the American Oiligarchy -- meaning the banks -- who own our government; a must read;

[fuel4thefire]

The first stage of a wider cultural shift; the rejection of USURY punitive policies by lenders; i advise people to go BK or pay off all credit cards if possible and go cash and carry; barter is good too; the old economy is dead; the old two party system is history; it's time we completely change the way people earn money in this country; no more lobbies; no more PACS; no more 401ks; no more free market BS; we the people need to own our own lives and not be beholding to politicians, bankers, and cable TV companies;once the money stops flowing to the top, they will be out of business and out of power; the fact is the power elite rely on the populace to fund their pyramid; get it?

[landoffreee]

For a more perfect unions we must have:

Jobs,job securi.ty, job benefits, universal pre school-K.12, housing, affordable college education affordable health are that doesn't ban.krupt sic.k families

good articles; http://ow.ly/dmzm

a better society is one that creates opportunity & while providing safety nets and welfare programs for disadvantaged

[fuel4thefire]

in America freedom is a groundswell from common men and women; we need to free ourselves from the credit dollar that has robbed most Americans from living good lives;WE DEMAND USURY laws be reinstated and credit rates reduced to 2-3%; Obama would serve the masses right if only he would see beyond his own charming narcissism; nice guy -- wrong leader; that means we, the people, must take the banks on; no problem; do you hear us out there? you are on our short list of things to do to get our country moving again;

[roooth]

You get all your exercise jumping to conclusions? You go from decades of growing greed and usury, enabled by Republican led deregulation right to if only Obama would do something.

I'm really getting tired of the immature whining that Obama hasn't done everything at once. Good grief - you want to tie this mess to your impression that Obama is a narcissist?

For starters, you obviously don't know what a narcissist is. Obama isn't one. Charming, yes.

[fbs]

The evil practice of usury is condemned explicitly in the Old Testament and Quran for a reason. The banks shouldn't have taken risks they couldn't afford. And I don't want to hear how banks were forced by the government to make loans when the banks went out of their way to market and cash in on these 'products'. The simple fact of the matter is so many people were making money no one wanted to stop the gravy train and now we all have to either clean up this mess or wallow in it. Posturing with Ayn Rand style social-darwinism will not save or protect you. Also, this psudeo-moral blame game on people supposedly "buying things they couldn't afford" needs to stop...were all in this together whether you like it or not, no one saw 10%+ unemployment coming soon three years ago.

[hoopesaz]

Banks make me angry, but she's a rambling nut job. When are we going to revolt against all of the irresponsible borrowers who bought houses they couldn't afford, then pulled all of the equity out to buy a new car, a vacation, a boat, etc., and now, when their house is being foreclosed upon, they vandelize the home, remove appliances, fixtures, etc. as retribution. Retribution for WHAT? You got yourself into this mess...the banks don't have to pay for it, WE DO!

Banks raise rates for a variety of reasons, but one KEY reason they raise rates is when people don't pay their loans. Be a responsible borrower. When you're not, the rest of us pay for it. Yell at your irresponsible brother, sister, or neighbor before you go chopping off the legs of the faceless corporations.

[shamanbart]

hoopesaz -- you're full of it -- lots of pompous, self-righteous blather there. Oh, those poor faceless corporations -- we dare not criticize them. "the banks don't have to pay for it, WE DO!" -- that's hardly true. Guess what, idiot, if people didn't default on any credit cards, banks would STILL charge you 12 to 25% even though they get the money at 0% or 2%. They made billions in profits this year off ridiculous fees and ridiculously high interest rates.

Wake the F--- up! The banks are not on your side and the credit card companies are not on your side. Bush and the Republicans changed the rules of the game when the changed the bankruptcy laws to make it impossible for people to get rid of debt when they're unable to pay.

DEBTORS REVOLT NOW!!!

[honoursplendor]

Wow, hoopesaz attempted to raise some valid points and you refer to the poster as an "idiot". Are you unable to participate in discourse? What about the points that are being made? Lots of individual borrowers screwed up. Yep, the banks are definitely blood suckers but is there no responsibility on the parts of buyers or consumers in this equation? Many borrowers did exactly as hoppesaz points out, took out loans they were ill-equipped to handle and floated on equity and the idea that their home prices would continue to rise rise rise. Were some of them sold on a dream and lies? You betcha! But just like everyone else in "the bubble" they failed to realistically look at the potential pitfalls of their choices. Many Americans consume above their means because of the 'I need this' mindset where getting more (just like the banks) is a mainstreamed concept. At what point do we say enough to all of the players and not just to corporatists?

[ceefee]

It was bankers who convinced people that they could afford houses that they really couldn't. Who was it that offered interest-only, ARM's with teaser rates, zero down mortgages, and so on?

Perhaps experienced borrowers should have known better, but many--if not most--believed the horse when the horse's mouth said, "you can do it!" I don't blame anyone who wanted the American dream and then took it when offered.

Another often-advised nugget: "Banks hate to foreclose! If you call them, they will work with you." Hah. They do not. Now think about this, during the first years of a mortgage, all those payments are nearly pure interest. If they foreclose on hundreds of thousands of people, they've already made billions in pure gravy. Then they put the house on the market and recoup their "loss", the principle. Even if they sell the house at less than what was the market value, they'll still make out just fine.

[fuel4thefire]

that's not quite right Hoop -- the banks were lending and then repackaging their loans as deriviatives selling to the big financial houses ( Merrill Lynch, Bear-Stearns, etc); THEY were in turn issuing false CDS paper ( credit default swap insurance -- unregulated); and when the home loans started to default they came to find there was not enough capital backing the CDS paper; that is what caused the credit freeze last year and panic in Washington DC; there was an estimated $62 trillion in CDs out there; the US in a good year produces $13 trillion in GDP; see the problem? that's why Hank Paulson was panicked and had Bush hold the emergency session; there is not enough money in our treasury to cover the debt load, or even a portion ( the default portion); so they stuck a "floor" under the economy to stop the cascading; that's the initial $700 billion; the problem here is that did not stop the defaults as everything is interconnected; in fact, a new report this last week estimates another 4 million home defaults in the next 12 months on top of the Commercial Real Estate which is now crashing; pretty ugly mess;

[urbangreen]

Banks raise rates to levels that would make a loan shark ashamed. Why? Because they can! When rates were regulated they didn't lend to people who were high risk. Then they bought Congress and got deregulation passed. Then the banks went wild with greed.

And Citi is the worst of the worst! They're raising rates to 30% because they're about to go under:

Citigroup's "Hail Mary Pass": How To Know Citigroup Is In Serious Trouble
http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com/2009/10/citigroups-hail-mary-pass-how-to-know.html

[roooth]

Your Honor, I only raped her because she let me. She thought she was safe on the street - how is that my fault?

[Daniel Leyva]

Love it!

[fuel4thefire]

We're not gonna take it
Never did and never will
We're not gonna take it
Gonna break it, gonna shake it,
let's forget it better still - The Who

time to seize the day;

[Sundialsvc4]

"We, the 307,744,462 'People of the United States,' are =perfectly= =aware= that we are ALL the victims of Organized Crime here. We will not live this way. We will not accept, endure, condone, or permit such conduct."

"You are willfully engaging in truly-ancient crimes, which anyone can read about in, say, the Book of Deuteronomy ... or upon engraved clay tablets which might well be far older. Get a clue: the people of this nation (and this planet) are NOT going to follow your primrose-path to (their) perdition."

There are a couple thousand of "you (expletive­_deleted)s­," and guess what: 307.74 million of "us." So, I guess that means "you're outnumbered." Therefore, it means: "WE win. Really. ..."

"... Honestly."

(Uhh, we do understand that you do not seem to be familiar with that word ...)

[goodog]

You the 307,745,081 people...
http://www.census.gov/main/www/popclock.html

Minus the top 6% so-called earners...
http://www.google.com/search?q=307745081+-+6%

Minus the bottom 24% (!!!!) working poor in America!
http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/04_22/b3885001_mz001.htm

Are perfectly aware that you're the willing dupes of the top 6% because you willingly accepted that credit was money and believed those who said a $350,000 house could only increase in value, because it cost $175,000 just 5 years ago!

That's what happened.

[fuel4thefire]

The immediate reinstatement of USURY laws would be Obama's shining hour; he does not have the will to do it; he was funded by the same lenders who continue to rape the American worker and citizen;

[whit4brains]

I'm shopping around for a credit union now so I can close my checking and savings account with Wachovia.

[hershala]

Do it, you will be amazed at the services they offer, and for free. They are also local and thus more responsive. In addition you will be a shareholder of the Credit Union and they actually treat you well.

[lazercat2008]

Why should we follow their effed up rules?

[artgurrl]

Why stop at credit card revolts? People who can't pay their student loans and people whose house is being foreclosed on should also revolt. The people in this country are being forced on their knees by the giant lending institutions and Wall Street. Time to revolt back en mass and force the banks and student loan lending institutions to their knees. Time to take back our rights as U.S citizens NOT to be ripped off by the greed of Wall Street.

[StandUpUSAplease]

This is outrageous. I closed my BOA credit card and bank account about 3 years ago. I currently use credit union and I am so happy. You got to revolt, how long are people going to live in fear in this country. Revolt! Revolt! Fight back

[TruEngineHearing]

Suze is spot on; this should happen now and not stop until we strip the gold off the teeth of the swindlers, their wives, their kids, their world.

[ceefee]

I think the Debtor's Revolt is a great idea! Will it damage your credit if you participate? Probably. But what good is a credit risk assessment system that rewards irresponsible behavior such as paying only minimum balances without also rewarding responsible behaviors, such as using credit sparingly or not all and paying off balances or paying more than the minimum due? You will receive no boost to your score for doing so.

And now, BoA and perhaps other banks are planning to penalize consumers who pay on time by charging them a fee for doing so!

Pretty soon, lenders will have to acknowledge that credit ratings as they are currently scored, are not as meaningful as the credit bureaus would have us all believe--especially after the current, devastating economic woes that are causing many people to be laid off and to fall behind on bills--people who otherwise would be good credit risks. Now, or at some time in the near future, lenders will have to re-visit credit assessment or they will not have many people to lend to. People who will appear to be poor risks may actually be good risks who fell onto hard times and who, frankly, were screwed over by the banks and then punished further for it by having their credit assessed as poor.