Comments on: Bank Qualifies Crippled Beggar for Credit Card

By: Greg Dallaire

Greg Dallaire — Fri, 19 Jun 2009 04:17:48 +0000

Well the banks love to prey on college students why not open up a new target market the beggars. People think nationalizing the banks are going to save our economy quite the contrary when it was government legislation that opened up the pipelines to loan money to anyone with a pulse.

By: Ann

Ann — Sat, 11 Apr 2009 05:35:34 +0000

This story reminds me of the mortgage industry a few years ago. No Document loans down to a 540 credit score. Like this lady with no job and little assets, people were getting mortgage loans. Of course most of these loans carry adjustable rates, so now these same people are walking away from their home. And banks are failing why?

By: Madison homes for sale

Madison homes for sale — Tue, 31 Mar 2009 15:08:07 +0000

If the banks were smart they wouldn’t be offering credit cards to people, they’d be doing huge volumes of micro-lending like the Grameen Bank of Bangladesh and in many other creditors in developing countries (it’s even happening in some poverty-striken areas of the U.S.). Small loans made to people who belong to lending “circles” have been proven over decades to be paid back at a much, much higher rates (over 99% compared to 70-80% at regular lending institutions) than traditional loans due to a sense of duty and responsibility each member has to the rest of the group. Members don’t want to let each other down by defaulting because it ruins the opportunity for the rest of the members of the group to get small loans. This could be very lucrative for the banks if they had any imagination and starting administering such loans for profit. More importantly, it would make it possible for huge numbers of people to get out of poverty by starting small businesses (in some countries a loan is made for a sewing machine or cow, in the U.S. it could be a supply of umbrellas to sell on a busy street corner when it’s raining, a cart for distributing another product that’s sold on consignment, or just about any other idea you can think of). But the fact is that the U.S. banks are largely lazy and short-sighted and simply don’t care if the irresponsible loans they make are ever paid back. They’re just in it for their fat paychecks and big bonuses and figure the U.S. taxpayer will bail them out when things go awry!

By: Colleen

Colleen — Wed, 04 Feb 2009 01:02:06 +0000

Wow! On the one hand you’re happy for the lady who was able to save money and possibly turn her life around. On the other, it’s scary to think that you trust these banks to handle your hard earned money!

By: Buenos Aires Real Estate

Buenos Aires Real Estate — Wed, 14 Jan 2009 14:16:06 +0000

If were not a story from the BBC I wouldn´t believed it…incredible

By: Mike Pannell ( Fort Worth Realtor)

Mike Pannell ( Fort Worth Realtor) — Sat, 22 Nov 2008 20:10:35 +0000

That was pretty funny Cedar, I do the same thing. But i use people names that i dont like.

By: UK Pubs for Sale

UK Pubs for Sale — Tue, 04 Nov 2008 14:44:07 +0000

Thats so good. My 14 year old is often being offered goods and services over the phone. A bank asked if they could speak to him about a credit card and when I laughed they asked me if my Dad was there.

By: Andalucia Property

Andalucia Property — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 00:02:30 +0000

@Cedar,

Hahahah..that’s so clever of you to do away with spammers! Now, I am thinking of doing it myself. Probably I can get one for my cat.

By: Braxton

Braxton — Thu, 30 Oct 2008 16:29:09 +0000

@Cedar City real estate: That’s pretty funny. Not too long ago, I bet you could have bought a house in your dog’s name.

By: Cedar City real estate

Cedar City real estate — Thu, 30 Oct 2008 14:17:36 +0000

I recieve credit cards for my dogs consistantly. You see i use the dogs names when I fill out something I think is going to spam me or junk mail me. I even had one offer me a $10,000 dollars credit limit. Do you think they could put my dog in debters prison? JK