It's a DEBT CARD, Not a CREDIT CARD

I found this skit from a Saturday Night Live episode of a few years ago funny. It's also poignant in light of the path our society has chosen to follow in terms of spending, saving and credit.



I am a child of the 60's. My parents applied for their first credit card in 1969. They were 35 & 37 yrs. old. Having grown up in the Depression era, PLUS having the wisdom of 30+ yrs. of life experiences you would think that my parents could have managed their finances responsibly and not succumbed to over-extending themselves with credit.
Nope.
They both struggled with staying out of credit card debt over the rest of their lives.
Some people would point out that maybe since they didn't grow up in a world of credit, they were too naive about handling it well.
Maybe.

I applied for my first credit card when I was 24, years after I graduated college. I was young, but I had a job. I was turned down, for a lack of "credit history". You can't have any credit because you have no credit history.
How do you get credit history?
By using credit.....but you can't have credit because you don't have credit.
That was a common Catch-22 of credit back then but it kind of made sense NOT to take on someone who was a Financial Risk.
I got angry, but I got over it and obtained a credit card eventually.

Then in the late 1980's, the Credit Card Companies realized a new way to make money off of people. They could make lots more money by charging FEES. Besides the Annual fee for the honor of carrying their card, now you had Over the limit fees, late payment fees, pay by phone fees, expediting fees, cash advance fees, currency conversion fees, online payment fees, etc.
The list goes on and on.
They play with grace periods and monkey around with formulas to complicate how your interest rates are calculated. They then lay in wait for you to mess up paying the right amount on time just oncee and....GOTCHA! Your rate shoots up to 28% and you are in payment hell until you die.....or pay them off.

Fast forward to the last decade.
18 yr. olds arrive on college campuses and have to literally run a gauntlet of credit offers. Table after table of smiling recruiters offering these young adults free t-shirts and music cds, just for signing up for this credit card or that credit card. Offering Credit to KIDS, who have no credit history, let alone money or a J-O-B! Whatever happened to not giving credit to people who are a risk? I guess it went the way of that dinosaur, the Ethical Lender.

These kids with credit cards routinely get into financial trouble. They have grown to adulthood surrounded by parents using & abusing easy credit. Are they not paying attention to how easy credit is ruining our society? Can't they see the deep holes of debt their family members have dug using those MasterCard and Visa shovels?
I guess not. That would mean turning off the MTV or putting down the Wii controller(which was probably paid for on a Visa card).

We have a generation or two now of people who have grown up in our Easy Credit American Society. They have never had to save up or wait to buy something. They have no self-control when it comes to money. It's funny but sad that there are probably people out there, who are just like the Steve Martin & the Amy Poehler characters in this skit and don't 'get' not spending money that you don't have.

sluggy