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That is not the point. If we are in a credit crunch then why are we getting credit offers.
I swear. This is exactly why politicians can get away with what they do.
There's nothing political about this, and nothing to do with the economic climate. Banks and credit card companies - BofA, WaMu, CitiBank, Chase, Wells Fargo, etc. - send this kind of spam all the time. They want your business. So they'll keep sending time after time until some day you take up on their offer.
"Not when Bush desperately needs Democratic votes to pass the $700 billion (that's with a b) plan to buy distressed assets from financial institutions to shore up the banking system and unlock the nation's severe credit crunch."
"But many investors are up against their credit-card limits or, because of the credit crunch, are no longer able to tap their home equity for that needed cash. Instead, they are increasingly turning to their retirement accounts to stay current."
Again, banks have been sending junk mails about credit offers since their inception. Just like car dealerships offer low-rate financing even though you don't qualify for it. But they won't tell you that. They promote as an enticing offer to you. Does it matter if the economy is in a recession? No. Business is business.
The two links you posted do not prove that credit offers in themselves are the cause of the crisis. If that is the case, the economy would have remained in a slump since 1929.
Quote:
But many investors are up against their credit-card limits or, because of the credit crunch, are no longer able to tap their home equity for that needed cash.
We are having a bail-out because greedy morons can't get credit?
Are we all investors? No. Who gets credit offers in the mail most often? Everyday Americans! Investors are less than a fraction of the population. It's those greedy morons that are responsible. Remember, guns don't kill. People kill.
Furthermore, most of the posters here stated that they junk such credit offers. So how can they contribute to the crisis when people don't take up on it?
Further furthermore, when I want a professional opinion on a subject like this, I wouldn't be listening to President Bush!
Last edited by phoenix_talons; 09-25-2008 at 05:01 PM..
LOC is a great thing to have, if you don't abuse it. If you use it as intented, it's great, if you can't manage money and think you can buy anything you want with it, it will kill you...
By having one, the money is at your fingertips in case of an extreme need. You don't have to go searching for a loan when you're in an ememgency.
I just got an offer in the mail yesterday from Bank of America for a $50,000 line of credit....write checks..blah blah blah....Just call..determination in 10 minutes.
WTF?
I thought credit was frozen.
Exactly.
Take a look at this:
Banks throughout the United States carried on with the business of making loans yesterday even as federal officials warned again that their industry is on the verge of collapse, suggesting that the overheated language on Capitol Hill may not reflect the reality on many Main Streets.
I have credit card companies all the time complaining at me for not using my cards enough, then offerning me even MORe credit which I just don't want or need.
I guess I am going to have to use some of these cars and pay on them just to keep them active.
Location: Georgia, on the Florida line, right above Tallahassee
10,471 posts, read 15,787,504 times
Reputation: 6435
Evidently, there is no credit freeze.
Non-financial commercial paper increased from $156 billion at the start of the year to more than $204 billion from Sept. 3 to Sept. 17, dipping only modestly since then.
I forget the name of it now, but a money market fund 'broke the buck' which basically means the share price fell below $1. This was due to Lehman declaring bankruptcy. When that happened people started pulling money out of money markets and purchasing t-bills like they were going out of style. In fact, the t-bill interest rate hit zero at one point. Guess how money market funds make their money? Largely in the commercial paper market. That's why it froze up for 12 hours when peolpe started pulling money out like crazy. Anyways, at that point the government did two things. The first thing it did was insure money market accounts. The second thing it did was scream "OMGWTF$700Billion!!!" Well, the MMs are still insured and fear is waning as time goes by. Money is trickling back into the market. You want to know the effect this had on the real world? Caterpillar used to get loans for 5%, now it gets them for 6%. Do you know how different this is than what happened during the last recession? Not different at all. We had a big panic, but now the panic is largely subdued and the bailout isn't warranted. Bailing out the banks doesn't have anything to do with the commercial paper market because the banks aren't the primary lenders in that market. It's the MM funds that do that. The banks are just the brokers.
I get them too - and they have not slowed down during the credit crunch.
Seriously though, I think we have established that the overwhelming majority of folks that post here are NOT your typical consumer. We have credit for convenience and do not abuse it. We have little to no debt. For folks like us, credit is easily available. I have looked at my limits and they have not increased, but they have not decreased either.
The other thing is that these are offers .... and not a guarantee that you'll get the credit. They are still trying to get business anyway they can!
If they know a person has a really good credit history/score, why wouldn't they want to have you on their team? Especially when so many people have gotten upside down in credit card debt.
I get probably 2-3 credit card offers a day. I think my credit is pretty good, but don't have a basis for comparison.
I get 0% Credit Card offers all the time from my exisiting cards. O% for nine months. So I write a Credit Card Conv check to myself and then deposit it in a high yield account for the nine months paying the minimum payment each month. At the end of the nine months I pay off the account in full and then pocket my interest income.
In the last 3 years I have made thousands that way.
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