I agree we have to be responsible for our own actions and poor use of credit cards. But what frosts my butt about credit card companies is they have no mercy when someone does get into a pickle financially and goes way beyond their means. It is awful rare a CC company when notified about a situation where someone has gotten into a situation where they can't even afford to keep up with the interest that is accumulating, will agree to stop the interest onslaught and give the persona fighting chance to dig themselves out from the ever deepening hole (never understood that phrase).

Case in point: I have a 40 year old sister with bi-polar disorder and we (my family) do our best to keep her and credit cards away from one another. But with the constant stream of pre-approved CC applications coming in the mail and when my sister is in one of her "bad periods", a couple times she has managed to get a credit card issued to her. And this is with an outrageously bad credit rating to boot. Anyway, each time she gets her hands on one sooner or later she ends up buying with schizophrenic abandon till we eventually notice she is showing up frequently with new clothes and the like and get her to admit she has a card and lets us cut it up. Of course that is a couple thousand dolars later. Twice now I've appealed to CC companies to make a deal with them that I'll agree to pay down the her debt over the next year or so if they will just stop the interest accumulation.

Twice they brushed me off with, so sad, too bad. I point out she has a mental disorder, a poor credit rating which calls into question how the CC company could have approved her in the first place and the financial burden isn't helping her mental health any (or me for that matter). That and she may decide to declare bankrupcy cause she doesn't have a nickel to her name and no job, so not much to loose compared to them. Do they care. No, they couldn't give a tinkers damn.

I don't really like what seems like our societies ever increasing marginalization of the disadvantaged in the face of increasing wealth, but I REALLY HATE when given an opportunity to improve a situation that big business had a part in creating, a company would rather squish ya like the bug they obviously think you are. CC companies all too often have a bad rep. and seem to fall into this camp.

Ok, I best sign off and settle down before I go home to my wife and kids - Paul



Last edited by PaulM; 04/19/05 10:08 PM.