What’s In Your Wallet But More Debt?

One of my banks had the gall to “entice” me to increase my credit card debt with a no-interest balance transfer deal that included a future 22.3% rate. Other banks are also doling out more credit so's to saddle us with “$1 TRILLION” in new debt.

They think I am that stupid? Not that I’m the only one being targeted … and basically suckered. This scenario was similar to the one detailed in a recent WSJ story and the newspaper says it is “playing out on millions of credit-card statements, at least, according to federal data it’s reviewed: “Credit-line increases are becoming more common as companies … entice customers to spend more, which boosts their revenues. Higher limits tend to be followed by more spending,” so that “America’s total credit-card balance hit $1 trillion for the first time last month” per the Federal Reserve Bank of NY.

The down and dirty gets even dirtier: “The nation’s largest banks raised limits on 18.4 million credit-cards accounts in the first quarter of this year, up 22% from the same period in 2019 … as limits increased, so did spending, with consumers continuing to use roughly 8% of total available credit.” To OUR collective credit, the WSJ notes “most” people pay off their monthly credit card bill every month,” thereby avoiding those double-digit rate charges that keep going like the EverReady Bunny. Still, the souls that can’t do so for whatever reason are subsidizing the banks by going deeper and deeper into debt. And, the banks know it’s a marketing ploy that keeps giving to themselves: “Expect to see more line increases or credit-card offers in coming months,” the WSJ says, as executives at the “top credit-card issuers including Discover, Financial Services, Synchrony and Capital One” say they “plan to spend more this year to fund promotional offers such as 0%-interest balance transfers for new customers this year.”

Davd Soul