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Cap Interest At 10%

S

stonesfever

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Joined
Aug 29, 2013
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Location
Grande Prairie, Alberta
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Interest on personal loans and credit cards should be capped at 10%.

High interest rates are ruining people's lives. High household debt is one of the economy's most pressing issues. If interest was capped at 10% people would have more money. This money would flow to businesses and growth would create jobs.
 

How about we get the government out of the way of increasing employment opportunities, so borrowing isn't necessary? Why aren't we pursuing energy independence to accomplish this?
 

From what I have seen most people with real good credit has credit cards and loans below 10%. Of course there is little risk that tese people will not pay the credit card companies and banks back what they owe. Now those with bad credit tend to have the credit cards and loans at a very high interest rate as the credit card companies and banks aren't as sure they will get their money back or the loans and cards will be repaid.

Capping interest rates at 10% just might cut in half if not more the number of credit cards avaialbe to everyone. The percentage or interest rate usually depends on the credit risk these companies take.
 

You can do that all by yourself, if you are a big boy. Refuse to borrow at "usury" rates. If you are not smart (educated?) enough to read the "fine print" then don't take the loan (or get an attorney to read it for you). I see morons using high interest credit for the "emergency" of seeing a concert or going on fishing/skiing trip. Do not borrow more than you can comfortably and confidently repay. Use secured credit, wherever possible, making sure that the amount owed cannot exceed the value of the asset securing the loan, when in any doubt, get (LMI/PMI) insurance.
 

Poor people just wouldn't be able to get credit except from crooks who would still charge you more and kill you if you did not pay up or went to the po-po.
 
I've seen first hand how predatory lending practices ruin families. I know families right now that are struggling because of high debt. You can't minimize these families by calling them stupid. They need to be protected.
 

Do you know what they say about a fool and his money?

We should not write our laws as though all people are incompetent to make their own decisions, as this breeds further incompetence.
 
stonesfever said:
I've seen first hand how predatory lending practices ruin families. I know families right now that are struggling because of high debt. You can't minimize these families by calling them stupid. They need to be protected.
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Exactly...


...from their own stupidity.
 
It's a free country. I like being free. And I'll determine what to charge someone for interest on my money not the govt. find someone else that will offer slower rate.

 
The "lower rate theory" doesn't work. Price collusion brings up prices all the time. Governments have to protect consumers. The finance industry has a thousand ways to trap people. Letting them get away with it is terrible on a humanitarian level, as well as an economic level.
 


Exibit A : of whats wrong with this Country ans why we're devolving down into a corrupted society.

Post and ideas and concepts like the OPS

Nevermind the damage that interest rate control has already don to our economy, the thought that anyone and everyone is at fault with the exception of the person that filled out the application and signed at the bottom is evidence that the " where's mine" generation is growing older. But not wiser.
 

No one holds a gun to their head and tells them they must use credit cards, they choose to.

The government has put in place several laws that require disclosure of all fees, interest rates, and the terms there of to a third grade reading level. If people cannot understand what they are signing, then they shouldn't be signing the agreement.

No further government involvement is going to help these people.
 
AlabamaPaul said:
How about we get the government out of the way of increasing employment opportunities, so borrowing isn't necessary? Why aren't we pursuing energy independence to accomplish this?
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From what I have seen on the news, we are well on our way to energy independence. I think it is predicted to happen in something like five or ten years.

But I do agree that borrowing in the lower income brackets has been necessary in order for them to have a higher standard of living than their parents did. This is because of income disparity, many people have far less income than they need, and others have far more income/wealth than they need, so they meet and agree on a debtor/creditor relationship. In many cases and in many industiries, wage levels are now lower (adjusted for inflation) than they were 40 years ago.

Debt isn't the problem, it's a symptom of the problem, and the free market economies way of temporarily redistributing wealth in a manner to satisfy the need for wealth. Higher debt levels generally indicate worse allocation of income.
 
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Fisher said:
Poor people just wouldn't be able to get credit except from crooks who would still charge you more and kill you if you did not pay up or went to the po-po.
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Thats very likely.
 

Here is a thought, people should live within their means. Interest rates are so high due to the level of defaults amoung the whole. People who don't pay their bills drive rates up, if everyone lived within their means and were reasonable with regard to borrowing we wouldn't have high interest rates.
 
Consumer Credit Outstanding is at $2800 Billion (stat taken from the federal reserve), which is the highest level all-time. It keeps rising. Disposable income is drastically shrinking, and that is partly because of money lost to interest payments. Interest is draining the economy, and putting people in a downward spiral towards bankruptcy. We have a responsibility to take care of the less fortunate.
 
stonesfever said:
I've seen first hand how predatory lending practices ruin families. I know families right now that are struggling because of high debt. You can't minimize these families by calling them stupid. They need to be protected.
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Why don't you just pay off their debt?
 

Don't people pay high interest rates because they didn't have the money in the first place? So how would they have more money if rates were capped? How about not using the credit card to lower the rate you pay?
 

Intrests rate indicates the risk the loaner is taking the higher the intrest the higher the risk. I see you have a good heart but all you would end up doing is decreasing the number of loans out there.
 
It should be regulated. A 10% cap seems arbitrary and not realistic.

Please cap my taxes at 10% while we're fantasizing.
 
stonesfever said:
I've seen first hand how predatory lending practices ruin families. I know families right now that are struggling because of high debt. You can't minimize these families by calling them stupid. They need to be protected.
Click to expand...

How did these familes incur this high debt?

Your term "predatory lending practices" removes the responsibility of the borrower in what they did.

Is that your idea with this OP, to pay off peoples debt with OPM?
 

Define less fortunate. Please.

Are people less fortunate because they borrowed money they can't pay back?

I will have you know I live in Mexico and I pay 40% on my credit card which is down from the high of 64%. I got tired of paying that so I paid off the card. Done deal.

US Citizens have it good with the govt and its usery laws.

Stop complaining and pay your debt.
 

I don't think there are any federal usery laws in the US. Max interest rates are established by the states and depend on the type of lender and loan.
 
imagep said:
I don't think there are any federal usery laws in the US. Max interest rates are established by the states and depend on the type of lender and loan.
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But there are regulations that do not allow the credit card companies or anybody else to charge loan shark rates.

That was my point, yet he is still complaining because it is not enough.
 

Never happen.

These places need to make a profit, and can't collect on everyone they lend to. Besides, if inflation rises near 10%...

Just how authoritarian are you?
 
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