CREDIT'S BACK!

[supraTruth]

I've gotten TWO 0%-Promotion offers for a year on purchases from Citi cards in less than 2 weeks, & this morning I called to activate my renewal Discover Card which came in the mail yesterday; & when she asked if I would use it on my next purchases I said probably not. When she asked why not, I said because the interest rate is too high (doesN'T REALLY matter to me because I pay my cards off when I get the bills ANYway). Well she said let me transfer U to some1, who then told me my rate was now ALREADY 0% until 9/1/2012.

SWEET!

This means Obamanomics WORKED & the economy has finally turned back up from the DITCH that bushCO&CONS put US in.

[Sancho]

1. and I just refinanced at 3.3% fixed!

Wow...

[lunatica]

3. Who did you refinance with?

[sense]

23. Try this site.

We just re-fi'd there 3.25% fixed with less than $2500 in closing! Plus, so much better to deal with honest brokers.... than to have to wade through all the crap. Every single broker we spoke to, including at our credit union lied to us about the rate and closing costs until we located a broker through this site.

http://upfrontmortgagebrokers.org/index.asp

[Sancho]

26. yep..we're doing a similar thing...

but the rates are amazing...who knows?

[Sancho]

25. I went online to a page that hunts for refinances..

I got calls from 3 or 4 "brokers": Quicken Loans, and other big lenders. They all offered between 3.25$% and 3.75%. I'm getting the house appraised this week and I locked in the rate with one of the bank lenders who called...all on the internet.

[PoliticAverse]

4. 3.3% wow. n/t

[melm00se]

39. i am in the process of refi'ing

@ 3.275 fixed, no closing costs.

doing it with wells fargo (my current mortgage holder)

[Firebrand Gary]

2. You are on to something here.

I survived the last 3 years of economic turmoil, I have strong credit and the companied know it. I get more offers now than ever, Its crazy.

[sabrina 1]

5. So you're saying we should return to running up personal debt

just like we did before which was supposedly part of the problem? Why is becoming indebted to credit card cos being encouraged?

This is a very funny OP! :rofl:

[RKP5637]

7. I've been getting all kinds of offers for awhile now and it smells to me

like a repeat of the same stunt again, They're going back for seconds IMO!

[elleng]

8. Don't think so, but buying stuff is good; debt not so much.

[sabrina 1]

13. True, but why do we need credit cards to buy stuff?

I just use a bank debit card. If there's nothing in the bank, I can't spend any more. Which is fine.

Sounds like they did so well with this before, they're starting all over again.

[elleng]

16. Prolly they are; I'm with you, debit card.

[Yo_Mama]

17. Banks have a huge influx of money

and no use for it. Since the end of May, something like 450 billion more in deposits.

Deposits are a liability to the bank - they have to lend out most that money somehow, so....

[customerserviceguy]

18. I use credit cards to buy stuff

Then I just pay the balance in full every month before they'd start charging interest.

Why? Frequent flier miles. Take them away, and I'm doing the debit card thing along with you.

[supraTruth]

32. We do the same for the 5% cash back from time to time.

[Yo_Mama]

19. Me Too

Using credit cards as a payment mechanism really does the same thing, but of course some people have a discipline problem. Once you ever get into running balances you are truly screwed, so I don't see the point.

[AndyTiedye]

22. I Give the Little Guys Cash and Make the Big Ones Eat Plastic

If it's a small, local business, I'll try to pay in cash.
If it's a gas station or a big chain store, let 'em eat plastic.

Anything travel-related gets plastic, and they prefer it that way.
Airlines, hotels, and car rental agencies assume that if you don't
present a credit card, then you must not qualify for one. Hotels
look on you with suspicion, airlines flag you for extra security,
and most rental car agencies won't do business with you at all.

I have it set up to be paid in full automatically every month so
I can be sure they won't hit me with any finance charges.

Using a credit card and paying if off every month is the only good
deal you can get from the banks. It may not be such a good deal
for the merchants, particularly small ones, so I try to pay small
businesses in cash. The big guys can suck it.

The frequent flier miles are nice. So is the purchase protection
and extended warranty.

All those "0%" offers have a "transaction fee" which takes them
out of the realm of "free money". The float is free money.

[supraTruth]

24. LOTS of things made US the RICHEST NATION this planet EVER witnessed:

UNIONS that were largely responsible for creating the LARGEST MIDDLE CLASS EVER;

Social Security that gave US ALL the COMFORT to INVEST ANY EXTRA $ we had, EXPECTING to have SOMEthing at the end of our lives whether ANY of our BETS paid off or NOT;

CHEAP COLLEGES that gave our businesses am EDUCATED work force;

HIGH MARGINAL TAX RATES ON THE SUPER&ULTRA-RICH that helped make US the MOST POWERFUL NATION EVER & HELPED SUPPORT the CHEAP COLLEGES;

ADVERTISING that gave US ALL FREE things;

& CREDIT that allowed US ALL to live beyond our means EVEN AT YOUNG AGES.

As Lawrence O'Donnell has said we are ALREADY a BLEND of CAPITALISM & SOCIALISM.

Our SOCIAL SAFETY-NETS for the elderly are good for OBVIOUS REASONS; BUT CAPITALISM is good for the VARIETY that it provides.

After all, VARIETY IS THE SPICE OF LIFE.

[katty]

6. yes, i think it is, I got offers in mail...some good ones-but I

declined-don't need it, don't want it.

[whatchamacallit]

9. CRACK IS BACK!

:banghead:

[Donnachaidh]

12. +1 n/t

[Le Taz Hot]

41. +1

and our new DUer seems to be an Obama enthusiast as well.

[onethatcares]

10. we're in the middle of re fi ing to 3.6 fixed for 15 years,

we will save a bundle in interest.

I'm just hopin it moves fast, like closing in 3 weeks (just after labor day or there abouts would be great.)

[Donnachaidh]

11. yeah, the banksters need more blood, so they are spamming the crap out of everyone

I've received dozens of those, and my kid with no job got *6* this week. We'll stuff the postage paid envelopes with crap and mail them back to them.

Debt = slavery.

[sabrina 1]

14. Exactly what I'm thinking. And if people fall for it again,

it will be their own fault this time.

Debt = slavery

[Uben]

15. I've been getting offers almost daily in the mail

I just tear them up and toss em in the trash. I use two cards, one for gas, one for everything else, and they get paid in full every month. I don't pay finance charges or fees to anyone. I've been using my credit union as a bank for the past 20 yrs or so.

[winstars]

29. you can go to http://www.optoutprescreen.com and drastically cut these out.. nt

[Sherman A1]

33. You could

help out the Post Office by mailing back those postage paid envelopes (empty of course) and allow the banks to assist the Postal Workers. After all if they didn't want their envelope back, then why did they make it postage paid?

[Selatius]

20. Fuck credit cards. Just because they want you addicted to credit crack doesn't mean it's good.

Wake me up when home foreclosures have fallen down to a low roar, and the unemployment rate drops back down below 5%.

[OffWithTheirHeads]

21. debt is slavery. nt.

[marmar]

27. "the economy has finally turned back up from the DITCH"

You can't be serious.

[supraTruth]

28. Yes, I am serious; it was when the banks quit lending in 2008 that the bottom fell out.

Credit available leads to spending which leads to jobs.

U may not think so; but it does.

[girl gone mad]

30. This would be the worst thing possible for our economy.

People need to get out from under their debt burden, not create more debt.

Spending capacity should be increased through wage and employment growth.

[supraTruth]

31. There are a LOT of people that need more help than CONgress is willing to give; & being able to

buy groceries & put car insurance on a card for a year may help them keep their lives together long enough for the economy to start helping with REAL jobs.

[girl gone mad]

34. The Fed and Treasury can act w/out the consent of Congress.

Our crisis was caused by too much debt. People must continue to deleverage, not bury themselves deeper.

The only way out is for the government to put more debt-free money into the economy. Bank created money is just borrowing from the future, pulling forward demand and causing an even bigger crisis down the road.

[Tallulah]

35. I agree

the only way to financial freedom is to be debt free. It takes a lot of work. In a perfect world, everyone pays off their cards monthly. But this isn't a perfect world. If it were, we would not be in the fix we're in now.

Those credit card offers ? A trap looking for a kill.

I was offered a Black Card from American Express. I have near perfect credit but not credit I earned. The application came in my name. I don't have a job. I am listed as deceased on one credit report.

I remember a time when American Express wouldn't give you the time of day unless you had money in the bank to back up a card. Now they're begging for customers.

Resist if you can. It's not worth the stress.

[girl gone mad]

36. I think this graphic puts it into perspective:

It's really frustrating to think that people are resorting to using these cards to pay for groceries and basic needs.

[LooseWilly]

37. people apparently can't be bothered with ideas of sustainability...

Not that they can really be blamed, in many cases of desperation... but the fact that the government is fighting to keep interest rates low (which would encourage the lending of the money through credit cards) rather than fighting for jobs or even reasonable wages on the jobs that haven't disappeared... says something.

The evidence indicates to me that the Obama administration is happy to have hollow debt-driven consumption prop up the corporate "sellers" ... if it will prop up stock prices for mall-corporations, lead to more jobs (minimum wage, whatever), and maybe make the profiting corporations so sweet on him that they'll actually pay their taxes (though, if they don't... they probably won't be prosecuted, any more than W and Cheney and...)

"look forward... always... don't waste your mental processes on the "now", which will be the past, tomorrow...

[supraTruth]

40. My point is, that these offers were common before 2008, & then we did not see them at all until NOW.

That is a significant change.

Small contractor's can use the credit to start a new job without having to go begging to a bank. It get's things started & TURNED AROUND to a POSITIVE ECONOMIC OUTLOOK.

What the LAMEstreamCORPORATEmedia & FIXEDnewsCORP missed, is that the Fed BURST the ECONOMY when they JACKED the Fed Discount Rate up to over 6% in 2006. EVERYtime they jack the Discount Rate up over 5% it CRASHES OUR ECONOMY, & then it takes time to turn things back around again. This time was worse because of goldman-sach's slicing & dicing weak home mortgages into Credit Default Swaps & then secretly hedging against them as the Fed was JACKING UP the interest rates that were BURSTING the ECONOMY.

The turns up & down lag the Discount Rate by as much as a year or 2 or longer this time because of so much Gov. DEBT caused by bushCO STUPID & FAILED wars & then the OBSTRUCTIONISM of CONgress.

http://www.newyorkfed.org/markets/statistics/dlyrates/fedrate.html

[ipaint]

38. Wages are still declining.

Until that reverses, nothing is getting better. Smoke and mirrors.