First off it takes several years to get several 25k credit cards. Then if you default they file a judgement on you. The judgement sticks until you clear it up by paying for it or filing a bankruptcy. If you take out alot of cash advances then try to file a bankruptcy they will toss it out and you are left hanging. Remember the bankruptcy laws were changed a while back so they favor the creditors. Goes to show when you have a lot of congressmen in your back pocket you can get laws passed which favor you. Keep in mind banks have a lot of power in this country. They have at least 700 billion dollars to show for it. Wait, that is a loan, they will pay all that back........wink, wink. Now days what can you not do without credit? Let's see, buy a house, rent a apt, rent a car, buy a car, motels, hotels, phone, electricity, gas, insurance ( who by the way own about 50% of the country) and probably most important tade stocks with a margin account. That is if you are some kind of stock trader.
that's why i said fractal is a fraud and is just showing his false bravado. he's pretending that he's real cool for defaulting on his debt but won't mention the downside. anyway, who the hell pays 31% interest on a credit card? you gotta be a total loser who's constantly late on payments to pay that high.
Ya, ya, like I could prove anything to you. I never get in these pissing contests but essentially, I've been on vacations this year, stayed in hotels, never needed to rent a car but I've rented one before with no credit, you give them a $50-$100 deposit to cover their insurance deductible and you drive out, that's what they want your card for anyhow.. I don't need to rent, I don't need to finance a car, I have real estate, some paid for, some not.. I have trading accounts that I got before I defaulted, etc.. I just don't need credit for anything that I can think of... I've had none for 2-3 years, it's a bullshit scam and a real mind bender when I can see that I'm fine without it and everybody is giving me these dire warnings!! Hypnotized chickens for sure... I heard that I could not sign up with eharmony, they check credit, wow, I'm married happily, not going to miss that one... there is only one business I'm interested in, that's trading, I have the account already, they don't seem to care if I have other banking stuff going on or not, no biggie to them, they protect themselves by changing the margin rates, not eying the wallpaper in my house and asking about my credit cards. I talked to a prop shop, they said that bankruptcy might keep me from getting approved by them but not credit history, that's why I simply just stop paying the unsecured krap, it's better to just not pay them than file bk. I'm not sure but I heard that regarding a home loan, no-credit history was fine if you had the down payment and the income verification, that's before the recent Clinton-induced insanity with the liar loans and all that garbage.. it's largely illusion that drives people toward all this credit garbage... conventional wisdom just loads people down with tremendous burdens of stupidity, do your own thinking, you'll be happier...
Exactly - and who or what agencies were stupid enough to loan this much money for so little chance of repayment?
When they get a judgement, it means that by the order of the court, they can come after you and your assets. At some point, they can even force you to come in and disclose your full financial picture under oath (as if noone lies under oat, lol). But really they will just try to find your bank account by searching nearby local branches and major national banks.
Let's be serious, declaring BK as a rich person to get rid of bad debts & bad ventures is smart business strategy. Why is it looked down upon for the regular folks? Companies use BK to re-establish themselves and it's considered normal. Executives & board members rarely get reprimanded for squeezing out money from companies to pay their salaries & bonuses, then sticking it to the creditors. Credit card companies literally create debt from nothing to lend to you. The whole monetary system runs the same way. It's the game, so play it. Or stick to your morals, which simply have no place in that game.
You know, when I posted this article, I didn't expect it to generate 20 plus pages of comments, much of it vitriolic, and then devolve into a discussion of credit card debt avoidance and bankruptcy tips. The point of posting the article was threefold. 1. To point out how an individual could rack up $160,000 of school debt in a profession that would never allow them to pay it off. 2. To illustrate the special status of school debt - how difficult it is to bankrupt out of, that it can be eventually recovered out of one's social security payments (!) - creating a situation where people feel the need to flee the country . 3. To raise awareness of WHY the cost of education can rise above the economic benefit thereof. I don't disagree that the music teacher accumulating so much debt for what is known to be a low paying field was ill-informed, but there should be some responsibility on the school and lender's side not to place the student in penury. Its a well known fact that the rising cost of education has exceeded inflation. Why? Same reason as the runup in homes - subsidized loans which are 'government guaranteed' resulting in wildly reduced risk in lending. Since money is freely available for school in loans, what's to prevent the school from increasing its tuition - it can always be covered. That way, you don't need to tap into your endowment. See: http://www.elitetrader.com/vb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=120399&highlight=student+loan Once upon a time, you would invest 'in yourself' with an education and profit from it. Then, a while ago, it turned into more of a situation where you were purchasing the credentials for a job; i.e. purchasing an income. But now if the jobs go away, and you can't repay your debt, what benefit is it to incur that debt? Its one thing to go to Juliard in the hopes it will make you a great musician. Perhaps you are star struck and will pay anything for fame or a chance at it. That's perhaps even a reasonable economic transaction - chance at fame for money, etc... . However, there are plenty of folks who are taken in by 'schools' to train you as a medical technologist, transcriptionist, sound engineer, etc... those training programs get paid through student loan money and their graduates come through only to find the same miserable job prospects for themselves as when they went in, but now have the student loan debt. That's a scam anyway you call it, and more insidious than the above example. People aren't so exceedingly stupid forever and this will eventually result in an alteration of behaviour. Unfortunately, some folks will be hurt. But it is not their 'stupidity', it is simply 'inexperience'. You are asking a 17 year old to make life long decisions and I doubt anyone has sat that kid down to explain to them what they may mean. I have intimate knowledge of student loans and have paid off an amount equal to an upper middle class home mortgage in the northeast through them. But I know how difficult it has been for me to accomplish this goal - there has been significant delayed gratification and living well below my means. Its not fun nor easy. And I've been luckier than most. If it was difficult for me to do, how will it be for those who haven't had the good fortune I have had? That's not realistic. And not sustainable. Carry on.
Once again, It's just another by-product of the monetary system. It's not meant to be sustainable or "realistic" for 90% of the people affected.
This ^ Like i said before, and better explained by drsteph, you 100% pay for a job. You should see some of the retards some very elite schools are putting out. In my honest opinion i could have learned what i did in college in probably 2 years tops. I'm a recent college grad and i agree when your 17-18 u don't know shit and think "i'll pay it back, whatever" I found a job online yesterday where they wanted a bachelors degree and 5 years experience for $18 bucks an hour for a full time job. Realistically, i figure my total education a state college was 17k a year for 4.5 years (tuition+living+food etc). Yes for you old people it's impossible to graduate in 4 years without taking summer classes unless your masochistic and take 5-6 classes a semester. So say you worked part time and paid 20k of it yourself. You still have 56k in loans which is over $300 a month even with consolidation. This is not excessive borrowing it is minimum cost. @18 bucks an hour you'll probably net under 2.5k per month. Even living in the slums it will be very difficult and not allow you to save much if any. More and more recent grads will default on these loans as jobs decrease, you can put your money on this becoming common because there is just no other option.