Credit cards are on the move again, they stalled out for awhile. I guess they were sitting back and waiting on the dust to settle?
In today’s mail, another offer of a matchless pristine greatly reduced, no interest, you don’t have to pay until all the Icebergs melt, offer of a credit card. Which promptly became dumpster chow, and out of the house.
As our credit standing in the community is aces, we receive a lot of these offers. Nine times out of ten, they are rejected and thrown away. We no longer think of our sixteen digit identification number as our own personal limit … When MasterCard or Visa raises our personal limit … We do not rush out to meet the challenge.
Back in the old days, I would fill them with other peoples trash and mail them back, when you have to pay $2.50 in postage for an envelope full of cigarette butts or last weeks’ TV Schedule, you remove the name from the list quicky pronto.
So if you are in good “credit shape” they might be sending you a notice too.
It appears in as an effort to drum up business, they are once again lowering the rates on Credit Cards. Which is kind of surprising to me, as credit in the U.S. has come to be in short supply here lately, unless you are applying to the government, they have ocean’s of credit and money too.
When ever they come up short a couple of billion, they just print up some more, must be nice eh?
“Two years ago, if you could fog a mirror, you could get a mortgage, now, what you’re going to need to do is go through your credit and make sure it’s as clean as it possibly can be.” The average rate for a variable-rate credit card was 11.3% last week, down from 14% a year ago, according to Bankrate.com.
Again, though, only borrowers with excellent credit will enjoy those rates. Like other lenders, card issuers have tightened their standards. A year ago, a 700 FICO score would have qualified you for the lowest rates. Now, many lenders want a score of 720 or higher.
Still, if you can meet that bar, this is a good time to shop around. Some credit card issuers are offering fixed rates as low as 7.5% to borrowers with outstanding credit, he says. “If your credit score is in that 720 range, and you’re paying over 8.5% or 9%, you’re paying too much.”
Might be advisable to remember one thing. All these checks that Bush and the Boys are writing, all this worthless paperfloating around, checks their a** cannot cash, it is going to come due some day. If you don’t believe me, then read the GAO Reports yourself.
The GAO Reports: The federal government’s long-term financial obligations grew by $2.5 trillion last year, a reflection of the mushrooming cost of Medicare and Social Security benefits as more baby boomers reach retirement. That’s double the red ink of a year earlier.
Taxpayers are on the hook for:
A record $57.3 trillion in federal liabilities to cover the lifetime benefits of everyone eligible for Medicare, Social Security and other government programs, a recent USA TODAY analysis found. That’s nearly $500,000 per household.
When obligations of state and local governments are added, the total rises to $61.7 trillion, or $531,472 per household. That is more than four times what Americans owe in personal debt such as mortgages.
The $2.5 trillion in federal liabilities dwarfs the $162 billion the government officially announced as last year’s deficit, down from $248 billion a year earlier.
Now isn’t that “Priceless?”
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