Banks Now Flooding the Sub-Prime Market With High Interest Credit Card Offers
The economic meltdown and credit freeze played a major role in initiating the collapse of the sub-prime mortgage market. This devastating collapse resulted in banks writing off billions of dollars in bad debt. Since the sub-prime mortgage implosion, banks seemed to have got the message and had started behaving more financially responsible by denying people with poor credit scores the ability to borrow money. However, this seems to have only been a momentarily wake up call to lending responsibility as the banks have now started to promote cards with high interest rates to people considered sub-prime mortgage borrowers. That is, people who are at risk of becoming overwhelmed with debt.
Apparently the banks are either quite greedy or they did not actually learn lessons from the collapse of the sub-prime housing market. The sub-prime mortgage market has always been a profit generation tool of the banks due to the late fees they could charge and the high interest rates. Now that things are beginning to rebound, it appears the banks are looking for another way to make money. Issuing high interest credit is a way to making money from the high interest rates, annual fees, and late fees. They do not appear concerned about future massive defaults on the card payments, much like the massive amount of defaults that occurred with sub-prime mortgages. According to , in the last 6 months, “the number of credit card solicitations sent to consumers with FICO scores of between 620 and 660 has gone up 300%.”
Many experts suggest that this increase in high interest credit card solicitation by the banks is due to an improvement in credit conditions and the banks feel that making credit more available will improve the credit market. Or perhaps they just want to make a whole lot of money and not worry about the consequences because they think the government will bail them out. , has reported that the average interest rate for “sub-prime credit card holders is about.20%.”
It appears it is up to the consumer to prevent another economic meltdown. It is important for people to remember what happened in the sub-prime housing market and make sure it does not happen with the credit card market. Credit card targeted consumers must now take those credit card fliers and just toss them in the waste basket. If they get a marketing call, just say “no thanks” and hang up. The financial housing market collapse taught us all a lesson on greed and not reading and understanding the fine details of mortgage agreements. It is important for our future not to make the same mistake with the credit card market.
Creating a budget, living within our means, as well as prudent financial planning and investment, are essential factors to staying out of debt and living a happier financially sustainable life. The sub-prime mortgage implosion taught us that we all need to ask questions, do our research, and make more informed decisions regarding our personal finances, which includes credit cards.
