HuffPost's Arthur Delaney Discusses "Debtors' Revolts" Against Banks (VIDEO)

HuffPost's Economic Impact reporter Arthur Delaney joined a panel today on MSNBC's "Morning Meeting" to discuss the recent cases of "Debtors' Revolts," in which people who have made their minimum credit card payments and generally done everything right have still seen banks unfairly jack up their interest rates. On the panel with Delaney were two individuals who took to the internet to fight the banks who wrongly raised their interest rates.

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Comments

[DebtNavigation]

The Republicans have blocked Senator Christopher Dodd's effort to rein in the credit card giants. Now it's up to the people ... Ann Minch is fighting back and you should be fighting back too. Advanta Bank ratejacked all their customers, and within a few weeks at most it will be taken over by the FDIC because it's customers revolted. The other credit card banks are looking at the same scenario, because Moody's and Fitch both agree that chargeoff rates will exceed 11% through the summer.

[Mycall]

This particular post seems to have brought out an inordinate amount of the "crazies" . Difficult to find a reasonable person to engage in witty banter with.. I'm going back to the style section..

[budderbean]

Ernest T Bass

[wietog]

OK - HERE IS WHAT WE NEED TO DO:

- GET YOUR MONEY OUT OF THE BAILED-OUT BANKS.
- TRANSFER YOUR DEBT IF YOU CAN.
- FIGHT TO REDUCE THE INTEREST RATES.
- MOVE YOUR MONEY TO CREDIT UNIONS.
- DO YOUR BEST TO ELIMINATE AND PREVENT ANY FURTHER DEBT.
- NEVER DO BUSINESS WITH THE F-ED UP BANKS AGAIN. NEVER.

[leeto2]

Here's an alternativ­e..not sure if it's been discussed yet...Curr­ently my wife and I are moving all of our accounts, personal, business, checking, savings, and credit to our local credit union. Fortunately for us our town has three credit unions, all with simple requirements to join. (EG You must live in a specific County. )

Congress is useless, Obama too nice, so we're doing the one thing we can do...votin­g with our cash. If there's a credit union in your town, check them out. Many have very similar services that banks offer, most have reasonable rates. Your starting rate may be a bit higher for some stuff, but most credit unions cap the rates on their cards at a reasonable number. My base rate is 10%, but my max rate is 18%. The middle rates are controlled by prime + 9.99%. No fine print, no BS.

So screw the banks! Go Credit Union. After all, when was the last time you heard of a "credit union crisis"? (Savings and Loans are NOT credit unions.)

[budderbean]

I don't have a gun and I would never be able to pull a trigger if I did unless someone was going to attemp to kill me. But I don't have a gun. Now I do have a pitchfork and a wrist rocket slingshot and those are the only weapons my wife will let me have. she figures I cant kill myself with a slingshot. Oh well. But a good old fashion Wristrocket slingshot does work well during a riot. And that is big possibility if the banks and the collection hounds don't wise up, and quick. I'm a pretty level headed guy with exception of my mental "disability". LOL. Tell me. If your friend loaned you one dollar and said pay me back with five cents interest. And then the day you went to pay him/her back and they said "No NO' I changed my mind" I want 25 cents interest. Yeah I signed up fir it and I agreed. But it was a trap set up for the purpose of bilking MILLIONS of Americans. My solution to the problem is this. Don't pay on any of your cards and just go out and SHOP with it. That's stimulus. Take the banks out of the loop until we the people solve the problem without public discourse. I shed NO tears for Wall streeters. I wish I could whap a couple of um with a rock. REALLY I do But alas Wall street is thousands of miles away.

[budderbean]

Jeeze why did everybody go silent on this thread. Was I "Theading". lol. This is the point. I am a loyal Democrat that leans heavily to the center. I'm no radical right wing socialist Nazi tax evader like the woman that's trying to bundle all of us real Credit card Revolt types. Now DON'T mix me in with that crowd. I support Obama but something has to be done NOW on this issue. If the "Lawmakers" wont do it it's left up to us according to our situation. BofA The bank of "Opportunity" really sums it all up. They and many of their big investors and even some small ones are looking for an "opportunity" to FORM and utilize the laws to legally steal from the 'Lower cast" of America. I use the term cast because my wife and I are of average IQ. BUT we both have health issues like my mental health issues and my wife's epilepsy We have done well with our meager ability's. But last year we accidently paid 4 credit card companies early. The next month our interest shot up and the late charges started. What do you do?.

[budderbean]

Credit card companies, Investment houses. Wall Street. Consider yourselves SERVED. We're fed up with your bull shite. It's time fir us to "Just say no". Just say no to the dopes that hedged bets. Need or greed?. Which is/was it?. Just because you were/are looking out for your family is of no concern to me. I have lived in apartments all my adult life. I didn't buy a house for $200.000. I don't drive a $50.000 car. I didn't buy a big screen TV. I didn't fly off to some distant place. I didn't have the chance to take a week off.

We did work overtime. We did work for $10.00 per hour. We did work both day and night. We did get food from the local food bank. We did wash your toilets and picked up your dog's Shite. We did mow your lawns and washed your cars. We did get looked upon as work horses and threatening "people".
We did receive help from your donations to food banks and homeless shelters.

Now do you feel good about your helping the lower "Cast" of American society? You put us here, Now quit your bitching and grow up. I have your money now and it's your own fault you didn't look after it with as much zeal now as your zeal is now that we have it. It's only class warfare when you loosing now Eah.

[max08]

Thank you, Dylan, again. Hey people, buy this book "The Lost Science of Money" by Stephen Zarlenga.[­I have NOTHING to do with the author, publishing firm, or anything related to it. Zero. ZIp.] This book is about the 3,000-year history of money. Once you read it, you will understand what has worked in the past, why our debt-fueled economy never will, and what you have to do to fix it. It is about 3 in thick. But every page is a revelation. Stunning what we dont know. I wish the author would make it an e-book.

[LHB58]

It doesn't seem as if anyone has noticed yet that the reason that CC companies boost your interest rates to insane levels if they find out that you lost your job is because they don't expect to be paid back. All the interest and fees they add to your outstanding balance become a tax write off when they write down your debt after you've been in default for about 6 months. The reason they behave more "reasonably" if a person is employed is because they would prefer to be paid back, and no person in their right mind would feel obligated to repay a debt they originally incurred at a lower interest rate after the rate has been boosted to the point where repayment of a significant balance would be nearly impossible;

If it's "just business" to behave in ways like this when you're a business, why isn't it "just business" when a person repudiates their debt when the benefits of doing so (much higher cash flow) exceed the costs (a lower credit score when everyone is advising to buy everything with cash anyway)?

[KOSMOCITIZEN]

here is how the down fall of the middle class start in America ...25 years ago the big banks...
first they gave us easy credit ,remember the stories, 2 year old got a credit carts.
then they integrate credit with services and consumption to accumulate points and other non sense bull
then they sold us the easy way to use debit ,no cash
and then they sold us on the idea the more we charge the more we save...
and then the other big business sold us on the idea and the hype we have to buy computers and other electronics, ipods, big cars,luxury cars big houses and all that non essential staff we never actually needed ..
and then the wages stop growing ...
people start charging on food (no more debit) McDONALDS ...you get the picture...
so to support our life style we fall into a debt of 5 to 10 thousand dollars a year (our wages supposed to absorb this debt)
the credit cart interest ,fees. penalties went up
Meantime the health care premiums and co payments skyrocket and any other insurance, services provisions , taxes of all types went up.
the only hope we had was our house ATM
to bad the Wall Street was on pyramid SCAM for a while.. inflating the really state and.housin­g market
for their bonuses and their fat wages and fees.
then the gasoline hit $4.50
you now the rest...

[themodernleader]

When I was a kid there were usury laws stringently enforced. These and other protection laws kept speculation and exploitation at bay. The available investment money went towards building energy and manufacturing facilities that hired thousands, then millions of good paying jobs that created demand for goods and services. Now only foreign goods and services are the American choice. We must admit the failure of international "free trade" and do what we have to do to regain our national independence, confidence and opportunity.
If we don't act promptly and responsibly, a leader will arise that will; that leader will put our able bodied citizens in uniforms and be imbued with the devotion to die for ideas and ideals of outrageous power. And then we will realize the folly of forsaking manufacturing and invention for the slot machines of financial speculation and outrageous, undeserved wealth..

[stargazer13]

Merrill lynch must not have read that

[camanokat]

Below, a few people were complaining about "irresponsible people" who filed BK to get out of paying their debts. In the 20+ years I have been looking at people's credit reports, I have seen only ONE couple who used their credit cards to buy "stuff" and not pay it. The number one reason is medical bills. Almost all of those people had insurance.

The next was job loss, a lot of times combined with medical bills such as in a car accident. Divorce was next on the list. Next to last on the list was business loss, such as the owner of an ISP using dial-up or a real estate agent not able to make it with declining business. These people were not irresponsible, they had bad luck. Almost all of them were completely ashamed that they had to file BK.

Now I'm talking to folks who have lost their jobs, unemployment is running out and they are using their cards to buy food and pay the rent. The cc companies are raising their rates and they are in a crunch.
I can see the writing on the wall...the­y will be filing thier bankruptcies next year.

[oldpol2]

Really? What the heck did they do with the tarp money?

[wallisp]

Reading these posts really help explain why so many are in credit trouble. Most of the posters act like they live in a little bubble, ignorant of our banking crisis. Then there's Mr Credit, who is like many now, a second level of corruption to keep foreclosures up(one every 7 seconds in America now), active and steamrolling for their level of corruption. We now live in a Financial Dictatorship, instead of a democratic capitalist society. After they have destroyed all they can, they will bbe looking for new victims. That will be Mr. Credit and the "info shutins" that don't care about this country's destruction of reasonable regulation to protect the mass's, and America's future generations.

[CarbonCreditSeller]

Roughly half of the citizens in the US do not pay any income tax, now many of these same people don't want to pay interest?

[helen]

Excuse me?! What the heck does your statement have to do with the credit card rates? Rates as high as 29.9% violate the Judeo-Christian principles regarding usury. However, I don't hear any Republicans trying to follow the Bible on this one!

[batmancw]

I was thinking the exact same thing. Kudos to you Helen

[KOSMOCITIZEN]

listen my friend you about to learn something ..
i am working in this country for 32 years on the private sector or on my own business
every week the money taken out of my pay check, i support the social security,medicare, medicaid,
and because i have this false notion i have to own a house,a car,carry 4 different kind insurance
(health,car. house,term­s..)use phones,cells,TV, internet,electric ,water, and more
i pay 5 different kinds of taxes and fees.
municipal taxes,town taxes county,sta­te,federal­, and fees on all service providers,
the rich people they don't own stuff they use the stuff who belongs to their corporations
they own bank accounts with a lot of money in it.
they pay taxes on the end of the year
so the money they are making all year they can invest them and buy opportunities and make more money before it is time to pay taxes
i can't do that . my money is taken out weekly....
never got a penny from the government­...ever

[camanokat]

Guaranteed a lot of them are earning over a million a year. The richest ones can afford investments and tax credits to offset income. Way back when, I analyzed the tax returns of a successful businessman who earned $1.5 mill a year. He had a great CPA. He paid no tax at all.

I was working for a bank and paid a good 30% of my income in state and federal taxes..

[Mycall]

Untrue.. if your statement said that half of the wealthiest people did not pay income tax, some might be prepared to swallow it.
But more importantly, what does that have to do with the price of tea in china?!?!?