Don't tell Bernanke or anyone at the fed (allegedly not a part of government, when sued under FOIA or other statues, but part of government, sort of, when seeking additional powers from Congress) or anyone in government that fractional banking is not sustainable - the very book that the federal reserve relies upon, 'Modern Money Mechanics,' pits our very future surivival on it.
Yup got my letter informing me that they are raising my minimum payment to 5% on Monday starting in August. My payment is going from $352 to $880 to which my response is....who cares! Besides, every month your minimum payment drops as the debt goes down. I would assume that anybody that took out $25K+ in credit card debt somewhat knew what they were doing and had planned for this so I would hardly qualify this as a "Massive Credit Card Default Problem"......unless they work in the banking industry then all bets are off.
That's not the point. Chase mailed offers to their good standing card holders offering balance transfers and outright loans at a "life of loan" low interest rate. The minimum payment was 2%. They didn't tell people they may increase the minimum payment substantially at their discression. So, people thought they had a fixed loan with a fixed payment. Now they have an unexpected increase in their loan payment to 250% of their thought to be permanent payment. That takes a $500 monthly loan payment to $1250 monthly without recourse and little notice. Under any other loan contract that would be fraudulent. They also tried to add a $10 monthly fee ($120 annually) to those loans but dropped it because they were sued because it was against state and federal laws. There is an ongoing class action suit over the increased minimum payment, too. (I'm not a lawyer but I've personally beaten some shyster lawyers in court a few times in my life) To: huh, You and I can afford an unexpected increase of a few hundred dollars but a lot of people can't. What Chase is trying to do is to cause many of these people who can't to miss or be late on a payment so they can take that low interest rate up to 21% or 29%. Chase also sent out some letters to people saying they can keep their 2% minimum payment if they would accept a higher interest rate. Otherwise, it was going to a 5% minimum payment. I beleive that is legally called extortion.
Bingo! Anecdotally, I personally witnessed a federal magistrate counsel a poor elderly couple who were filing Bktcy due to medical bills. She (da judge) was visibly moved by their plight, and took the time to give them contact info for free legal assistance.