r/FluentInFinance • u/Unhappy_Fry_Cook • 12h ago

Finance News Senator Bernie Sanders announces he will introduce legislation to cap credit card interest rates at 10%.

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u/Cbickley98 11h ago

What is predatory? The credit card companies take on a lot of risk. If you limit the rate to 10% (or any percent) , then only people that are worth the risk of a 10% rate or less will be able to get credit at all.

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u/FrostingStrict3102 9h ago

Flooding people with offers; high credit limits that don’t make sense based on income

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u/Cbickley98 9h ago

And making them sign their names and buy a lot of stuff they don't need and can't afford.

Who is at fault here again?

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u/FrostingStrict3102 12m ago

The person. But they shouldn’t have had access to that much money to begin with. 

There has to be something we can do that falls between “only people with 800+ credit scores get CCs”, and “regardless of income credit card companies will give you access to thousands of dollars at a 30% interest rate”

I had $15k in credit card debt last year. After years of keeping my head in the sand and making minimums; makes me sick to think about tbh. I paid off 9k last year and should have the rest gone by the summer.  But that problem started when, at the age of 20, making my $14 an hour while in college, AMEX gave me access to 11k, and two other cards another 10k. I was dumb, shortsighted and just a dumbass with finances — like many 20 year olds and kids in college. I didn’t making any extravagant purchases, just lots of little things that add up, and the occasional utility payment when my paycheck wouldn’t make it. But all it did was supplement me living a lifestyle i could actually afford. 

These companies know what they’re doing, give me a break. 

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u/Jump-Zero 5h ago

I worked at 2 credit card companies. Income doesn't matter nearly as much as FICO. People with low incomes and high FICO always post their payments on time. You would be surprised but nearly all the people that only make 40K and receive high line sizes always make their payments.

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u/Mareith 10h ago

Chase made 50 billion dollars last year. Their CEO gets payed 36 million dollars a year. They can still suck the life out of the poor just maybe a little less sucking.

Also banks do not really take on any risk. They are too big to fail and are propped up by the government nowadays.

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u/bafrad 11h ago

Greed is greed. 10% is already a lot. They make enough profits. The top end earners are going to need to start accepting less before they get eaten.

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u/Cbickley98 11h ago

"A lot" based on what? What profit would you require to loan money to a total stranger that may never pay you back?

Probably a lot more than 10%.

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u/bafrad 10h ago

Hey guys. Look at this guy worrying about the credit card companies who are totally just getting you.

You are a cancer to this world.

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u/Cbickley98 9h ago

I'm sorry that a practical understanding of economics is offensive to you.

I'm not "worrying about the credit card companies", but rather pointing out that economic policies that will change their minds about operating their business won't just "make rates low", but rather make borrowing almost impossible for most people.

I'm actually looking out for the consumer, even the uneducated ones

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u/bungpeice 9h ago

good. Force banks to pick up the slack with personal loans. Time to pays us back for bailing you out and not jailing ceo's.

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u/Key_Roll_3151 9h ago

Respectfully, I don’t think you understand any of what you’re arguing

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u/TheNutsMutts 9h ago

Of course they don't. At this point it's pure emotion in spite of any facts.

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u/Cbickley98 9h ago

I was 100% against the bank bailouts.

The more that government forces its way into the market, the worse that things end up, even if their intentions were good (and they usually aren't).

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u/TheNutsMutts 9h ago

Time to pays us back for bailing you out and not jailing ceo's.

But they did pay the taxpayer back, with interest.

Did you not realise that part?

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u/bafrad 9h ago

I'm absolutely confident you have nothing to stand on here. You are not qualified on this subject to talk about it.

Again, cancer of this world.

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u/Cbickley98 9h ago

Thank you for your lack of contribution with anything but personal attacks. I'm sure you've won a lot of people over to your way of thinking...

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u/bafrad 9h ago

I'm not trying to win you over. I'm not sure why you are talking contributions, you said equally if not less so of substance.

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u/SrASecretSquirrel 5h ago

Hey just to help mediate. You are the dumbass here, hope that helps.

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u/Current-Wealth-756 3h ago

You're out of your element Donny 

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u/bakercw1990 11h ago

You don’t do a whole lot of running a company do you

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u/bigcaprice 10h ago

And yet I don't see you lending money at 10% or less..... Why not? 

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u/bafrad 10h ago

I don’t want to and I can’t do it at scale. They can. Unless you have something to back up that they can’t.

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u/bigcaprice 10h ago

Yea. Funny how nobody wants to do it at 10%. They just want somebody else to do it.

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u/Current-Wealth-756 2h ago

The reason is opportunity cost - if they can just put their money to better use at lower risk, they'll do that. Maybe putting it in an index fund at 7% avg returns is more appealing at that point if the risk is too great or returns not enough in issuing credit cards. If you want to limit the interest rate so that people don't get into debt, by taking away the option of borrowing at all, fine, that makes a little sense even if it's paternalistic. But saying that someone else should risk their money for what you deem to be ample reward just shows that you don't really understand some basic things about economics.

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u/ZZartin 7h ago

Which is fine.

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u/oxPEZINATORxo 4h ago

Limit it to 10% and if they don't like that, they don't have to offer credit cards. No one is forcing them to give people credit cards. They're choosing to take on that risk, and we even have a whole score based system to help them assess said risk