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Thread: Banks are evil

  1. #1
    God/dess Deogol's Avatar
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    Default Banks are evil


    A new credit card aimed at millions of low-income families is to charge interest at up to 70% - the highest ever charged by a credit card company. Marketed under the slogan: "Stay in control of your budgeting", the typical interest rate on the new Vanquis card will be 49.9%, but for some customers the company judge as high risk, it will be 69.5%. MPs and debt campaigners yesterday condemned the rate, which is 15 times the Bank of England base rate and triple the standard rate on other cards. The card also has an annual fee of £19.

  2. #2
    Jay Zeno
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    Default Re: Banks are evil

    Wouldn't be legal in most states as exceeding the usury rate.

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    God/dess VenusGoddess's Avatar
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    Default Re: Banks are evil

    It's all in England. They have some wacked up rates there on mortgages, as well. Ick.

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    Banned Melonie's Avatar
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    Default Re: Banks are evil

    Actually, the British credit cards are charging interest rates on subprime credit cards which are more in line with the actual credit risk of the people involved. Because of usury laws here in the USA, subprime credit cards which present the same level of risk are held at much lower rates, with the net losses being subsidized by charging higher than necessary interest rates for financially responsible platinum card holders, and by charging higher than necessary transaction fees to merchants which indirectly increases the price of every product we buy (even if a credit card isn't used to buy it) !

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    Featured Member Destiny's Avatar
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    Default Re: Banks are evil

    So what? If people want to sign up for a credit card that costs them 70% in interest, that should be their business. Personally I don't feel the need to have the government acting like my mother and "protecting" me from the evils of the world. As long as the idiots are told up front what they are getting into, I see no problem.
    Dancing is wonderful training for girls, it's the first way you learn to guess what a man is going to do before he does it. ~Christopher Morley, Kitty Foyle

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    God/dess threlayer's Avatar
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    Default Re: Banks are evil

    What do they use in England to break kneecaps of slow payers?

    Croquet mallets?
    I loved going to strip clubs; I actually made some friends there. Now things are different for the clubs and for me. As a result I am not as happy.

    Customers are not entitled to grope, disrespect, or rob strippers. This is their job, not their hobby, and they all need income. Clubs are not just some erotic show for guys to view while drinking.

    NOTE: anything I post here, outside of a direct quote, is my opinion only, which I am entitled to. Take it for what you estimate it is worth.

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    Banned BigGreenMnM's Avatar
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    Default Re: Banks are evil

    Credit card companies are crooks.

    When you go out to eat at a small mom and pop restaurant,bring cash.
    If you use a credit card,the credit card company actually get 18-25% of the total bill in fee's to the restaurant.
    They charge you to use it,they charge vendors to except it.
    Its a helluva racket.

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    Banned Melonie's Avatar
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    Default Re: Banks are evil

    If you use a credit card,the credit card company actually get 18-25% of the total bill in fee's to the restaurant. They charge you to use it,they charge vendors to except it.
    Its a helluva racket.

    Well, this 'racket' would not be necessary if US credit card companies were allowed to charge poor credit risk credit card holders the type of interest rates necessary to cover the losses they create via bankruptcies. But because of our usury laws, the credit card companies have no choice but to try and make good those losses on the backs of the mom & pop restaurants and all of their cash and credit card customers who are charged higher prices to cover the fees (along with all other merchants who do exactly the same thing).

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    God/dess threlayer's Avatar
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    Default Re: Banks are evil

    Quote Originally Posted by BigGreenMnM
    Credit card companies ... actually get 18-25% of the total bill in fee's to the restaurant. They charge you to use it,they charge vendors to except it. Its a helluva racket.
    They charge interest, but retailers get charge only about 10% of what you stated, about 2.8% or less.

    Sort of like what Bill Gates charged for a license for your computer if you have a processor that CAN run DOS, even though you do not use DOS. Retailers signed the agreement as did the CC users.

    However, banks are every bit as exploitative as they can be.
    I loved going to strip clubs; I actually made some friends there. Now things are different for the clubs and for me. As a result I am not as happy.

    Customers are not entitled to grope, disrespect, or rob strippers. This is their job, not their hobby, and they all need income. Clubs are not just some erotic show for guys to view while drinking.

    NOTE: anything I post here, outside of a direct quote, is my opinion only, which I am entitled to. Take it for what you estimate it is worth.

  10. #10
    Jay Zeno
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    Default Re: Banks are evil

    We have a merchant account. I can't remember now, but I think we get charged 2.5% for Visa/MC. We don't do AmEx.

    I have no big problem with usury (i.e., "loan shark") laws. Poor people pay a premium for being poor as it is, and usury laws keep at least the worst forms of predators at bay.

    There's no law that I know of that a credit card company has to furnish someone credit. If they're crying that they can't charge enough interest (legal interest in Colorado is capped at 28% - don't know about other states), then they can simply deny credit or issue a secured card.

  11. #11
    God/dess Deogol's Avatar
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    Default Re: Banks are evil

    Quote Originally Posted by Melonie
    Well, this 'racket' would not be necessary if US credit card companies were allowed to charge poor credit risk credit card holders the type of interest rates necessary to cover the losses they create via bankruptcies. But because of our usury laws, the credit card companies have no choice but to try and make good those losses on the backs of the mom & pop restaurants and all of their cash and credit card customers who are charged higher prices to cover the fees (along with all other merchants who do exactly the same thing).
    It is not our usury laws, it is the credit card companies passing the risk onto the consumer. They are multi-million dollar companies for a reason - no risk.

    The right thing to do is not put cards into the hands of risky customers to begin with.

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    Banned Melonie's Avatar
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    Default Re: Banks are evil

    The right thing to do is not put cards into the hands of risky customers to begin with.
    Economically speaking, yes of course. Politically speaking, you're guilty of supporting the practice of "redlining" i.e. discriminating against poor people (a very vocal portion of them being minorities) because they are poor credit risks or because they are poor insurance risks or because they are just plain poor risks !

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    Default Re: Banks are evil

    You can always ask for better CC terms. This is a very competitive business, and if your card company doesn't give you better deal, some other one will. Use that fact when you call in your request.

    The whole idea of mass solicitations of usurous credit is quite destructive to personal and national economies. But financially rewarding to business. So guess what happens? But what can you expect when all states have gone Lottery-bonkers? Do you think that mentality is economically healthy?
    I loved going to strip clubs; I actually made some friends there. Now things are different for the clubs and for me. As a result I am not as happy.

    Customers are not entitled to grope, disrespect, or rob strippers. This is their job, not their hobby, and they all need income. Clubs are not just some erotic show for guys to view while drinking.

    NOTE: anything I post here, outside of a direct quote, is my opinion only, which I am entitled to. Take it for what you estimate it is worth.

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    Default Re: Banks are evil

    Usury laws act like any other price control and they hurt those with bad credit who would otherwise be able to get loans, yet at very high interest rates.


    However, banks are indeed evil, but the above article and situation is not why. Banks are evil because almost every commercial bank engages in legalized counterfeiting known as "fractional reserve banking" where they are allowed to print up fake warehouse receipts(effectively) and then loan them out at interest. That should be the real definition of usury, not "excessive" interest.

    The Federal Reserve System(and the Bank of England for an earlier model) were created to institutionalize banking fraud essentially, and that has been what they have done. For instance, did you know that the national debt you hear so much about here in the United States(7trillion and counting) is impossible to pay off? I don't mean in that it would take a long time to pay 7 trillion, I mean it is literally impossible to pay off because government debt acts as the "reserve" for which the majority of our money supply is pyramided off from. If the national debt were to be reduced a significant amount, the federal reserve notes(look at your dollar bills), would "dissappear" back into the bank vaults and computer screens from which they sprang.

    I know this sounds crazy but I gurantee you it is true and the Fed is actually quite candid about it. Congressman Ron Paul from Texas has been fighting the fight to get the Federal Reserve abolished for some time:

    Some links if you are interested:

    Short video to watch that explains the above very clearly in a short amount of time, with some historical background


    Congressman Ron Paul's website:


    Some pertinent columns of his:





    His "Honest Money Act"

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    Default Re: Banks are evil

    yes, 1913 was a very bad year. Not only did it bring us 'fractional banking' via the 'federal reserve', but it also legalized income taxes for the first time !

    FYI I'm partial to investing a certain amount of my funds in gold bars, on the off chance that the 'helium effect' necessary to keep fractional banking afloat develops a severe leak (i.e. another LTCM or S&L crisis) !

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    Default Re: Banks are evil

    Indeed, you are very astute and well informed

    1913 was a very bad year for America. The income tax was tried under Lincoln and the Civil War but went away a few years after the war(they snuck it in by claiming it was really an excise tax).

    I don't buy bars but I buy and hold physically gold coins(especially canadian ones). Always a sound investment and in the long run you will never lose against the dollar with such a strategy.

    Your "off chance" is an inevitable certainty. They have been inflating tremendously to pay for the ongoing war; it will not be without consequences.

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    Member MistressJennaIL's Avatar
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    Default Re: Banks are evil

    Keep it simple girls...PAY CASH for EVERYTHING, and never borrow...if you owe, they own you. If you can't buy it for cash you probably 1) don't NEED it 2) are living beyond your means. The ony exception to all the above of course being real-estate, but you can work that out for cash as well...if you're choosy and patient and can actually save your money, besides I'm not all togteher convinced that owning real-estate is such a good thing anyway.
    Just my .02

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    Default Re: Banks are evil

    Good advice. Mine would be similar but not quite as stringent. Basically you should never borrow to consume(to buy a tv or something), but I would say borrowing to invest in capital(school, tools for your business, etc), would be a smart use of debt.

    There are some severe issues with real estate, especially in the current bubble situation, in addition to real estate often being a liability in the form of the taxes that must be paid. Income generation real estate would be a solid investment, however. But owning land for the sake of owning land right now with the way local governments are jacking up property taxes seems like a bad position to be in(which I experience personally unforunately).

    Getting the land patent to your land would be a much better situation, if it was at all possible.

    I would say your .02 are worth quite a bit more. It is good, if not often heeded, advice.

    Americans as a whole are saving something in the area of only 1% of income. In earlier times we were the thriftiest nation on Earth with savings rates of up to 15+% at times.

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    Default Re: Banks are evil

    Read about John Maynard Keynes. He thought there was a reason for this all.

    That was before the govm't politicians successfully began bribing the electorate with public funds into helping them get reelected. Of course the public thought it was all a gift from unlimited coffers. And then the banks received rewards from the Reagan administration in the form of remving all reasonable usurous limits. The rest is our destiny.
    I loved going to strip clubs; I actually made some friends there. Now things are different for the clubs and for me. As a result I am not as happy.

    Customers are not entitled to grope, disrespect, or rob strippers. This is their job, not their hobby, and they all need income. Clubs are not just some erotic show for guys to view while drinking.

    NOTE: anything I post here, outside of a direct quote, is my opinion only, which I am entitled to. Take it for what you estimate it is worth.

  20. #20
    God/dess Deogol's Avatar
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    Default Re: Banks are evil

    Quote Originally Posted by threlayer
    Read about John Maynard Keynes. He thought there was a reason for this all.

    That was before the govm't politicians successfully began bribing the electorate with public funds into helping them get reelected. Of course the public thought it was all a gift from unlimited coffers. And then the banks received rewards from the Reagan administration in the form of remving all reasonable usurous limits. The rest is our destiny.
    Not to mention a big fat bail out.

    If your little company fails... hey - that's the market. You made a mistake and your company's life forfeited for it.

    Now... there are some companies out there more deserving... the kind with lots of rich friends in powerful places.

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