Travis Plunkett
Travis Plunkett
card consumers credit information onto
Credit card lenders are luring consumers onto a minimum-payment treadmill. Consumers don't have the information they need to get off of it.
absolutely amount bills bottle card credit enormous industry power
They've done nothing, absolutely nothing. The credit card industry has an enormous amount of power in Washington. They bottle these bills up.
ability afford beyond bills breaks breathing card companies control counseling credit far minor offer people provide relatively room
If your credit card bills are completely out of control and far beyond your ability to afford them, then the relatively minor breaks that credit card companies offer to people in credit counseling may not provide enough breathing room for some people to afford a three- to five-year debt-management plan.
credit gaining interested lucrative market share
What the credit bureaus are most interested in is gaining market share in the increasingly lucrative market for credit scores.
people prefer telephone
Some people prefer telephone counseling. Some people prefer in-person counseling.
companies flooded gradually guidance time until waited
Most issuers waited until at least mid-2005 or later. Credit-card companies should have started implementing this guidance a long time ago. They should have done so very gradually ... That hasn't happened. But we haven't been flooded with complaints, either.
bankruptcy credit decided delivered early helpful late people point support whether wonder
We support credit counseling, especially if it's delivered early, and this is not early intervention. This is late intervention at the point where people have decided that bankruptcy is the only way for them. We just wonder whether this kind of late intervention will be helpful to too many people.
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shouldn't have to jump through hoops to get bankruptcy relief.
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We don't want this credit counseling requirement to be yet another hurdle that consumers who really need bankruptcy relief have to jump over to get it,
kindness west wild
It's kind of like the wild west out there.
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The bill simply doesn't balance responsibility between families in debt trouble and the creditors whose practices have contributed to the rise in bankruptcies.
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It's extremely lucrative for the insurers, much more so than other types of insurance.
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Taking on debt to accumulate savings is an obvious contradiction. It seems more like a clever marketing ploy than a legitimate method for increasing savings.
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We're going to see people in a debtor's prison without walls, ... They'll essentially slip through the safety net, hit the ground and then sink into an underground economy.