Hillary Clinton: Credit card interest rate-caps

I don't like Hillary and won't be voting for her, but I have to admit this is a great, great idea! Why should these companies be allowed to charge usury rates that would have landed lenders in jail as recently as the '50s?

Rock on Hillary!!! Yes We Will Win - Hillary 2008

I always have wondered how the credit card companies get away with such outrageous interest rates. Even the automotive companies don't go that high.

From experience, I know that medical bills can put you in dire straights. Insurance does not cover everything and with a catastrophic illness, you can be in great dispair and can lose everything including your home unless you have a mortgage company you can count on.

People should get rid of their credit cards and pay cash only. Buy only what you NEED. You can live without a pair of designer jeans for every day of the month!

Why is the president sticking her nose into this? People need to know who they are borrowing money from and how much interest they will be liable for. Gov't intervention might sound nice, but its not the solution.
now bring on the petty namecallers...

Yopu bet it is a great Idea. And why are you voting for Obama?

Obama was only elected to the Senate in 2004. Secondly , he has spent at least the last year running for President. Obama is totally unqualified to be President. He doesn't even have enough experience yet to be an effective Senator. It is one thing to run around and say Yes we can change, it is quite another thing to get it done. Wake up Democrats this guy is not going to get anything done. He will spend the first days in the White House looking for the mens room, nevermind figuring out who are the important people in the Pentagon. Yeah righ change. Also, Obama lists in his backgorund that he was a "community organizer". What on earth is that supposed to mean? You know what it sounds like to me a resume filler when you were un-employed. Do tell Mr. Obama what is a community organizer? Who pays you when you are a community organizer. Mr. Obama is just full of empty rhetoric.

WE LOVE HILLARY! Great idea! Hillary is in the solutions business, not the empty speech business.
VOTE SMART! VOTE HILLARY!

Bonus! Hillary is the hometown girl, born and raised in Chicago!!!!!!!

BOYCOTT MSNBC!
BOYCOTT OPRAH!

I think capping interest rates at 30% is outlandish. But I also think people get themselves into credit card trouble because they are to greedy and want everything right now. The main thing this country needs right now is affordable health insurance for everyone and quality day care programs so we won't have these kids shooting up the schools

I am voting for Obama, but I have to give Hillary credit (pun intended) for this one.

I would even go farther. I would put an amnesty on credit card debt and outlaw all revolving credit. Start over. The math is so complicted and interest rates just pile-up and pile-up.

You can do everything with debit cards. Use them and try to pay the full purchse price as much as you can at the time of purchase.

All purchses on credit, regardless of product, should have only a fixed payment structure. House, electronics, groceries, etc. So the purchaser knows exactly what is owed each month.

I don't necessarily mind FEES, at least you know it up front. Companies do have a cost of doing business and this should be considered. But it is the revolving credit, interest rates that change like the wind, and late fees and incidenatl fees that have to be stopped.

Revolving interest rates have backed good, hard working people into a corner for too long. It is about time something is done.

Another silly idea from the candidate of the Silly Party. She actually thinks that she can repeal the immutable laws of economics with a wave of her hand.

Credit cards are something an individual can use--or not use. Nobody has to have a card, and people have lots of choices as to which card they use and what rates they pay. They don't need some government bureaucrat telling them what to do.

Further, interest rates are market-driven. If you think some credit card companies are charging too high a rate of interest, switch to another. And if the rates are too high, there's a great business opportunity for someone (Hillary's cattle futures guru?) to make a zillion bucks by starting their own credit card company and charging lower rates.

Passing a so-called "cap" law would only tighten credit, because to stay afloat under a cap regime credit card companies simply wouldn't extend credit to high-risk debtors. This would force those debtors to look to other sources for credit--loan sharks and such--and drive real interest rates for these people UP--not down.

The real-world consequences of a "cap" law would HURT, not help, debtors.

Obama has stated that he would not agree to a cap of 30% because (1) it is too high; and (2) it was an arbitrary number picked without an economic justification. Most high credit card rates are at about 28% so guess what? They stay put if the cap is that high. A real cap, I think, would be 20%, or something that digs into the credit rates as they stand now.

As for healthcare, the 15M figure she quotes is debated; and she is just lying when she says that under her plan everyone will be covered. There is NO plan under which everyone will be covered. Under her plan, when everyone does not buy health insurance, and believe there will be people who don't, they will have to be fined or have their wages garnished. Both candidates mandate coverage for children, who are not able to choose.

How can you buy a populist Hillary? Of course she was already, as she tried to project onto Obama, picking out the drapes for the Whitehouse?! She and Bill are megalomaniacs. When John Edwards was still in this, she mocked him for not taking lobbyist money and would not promise not to. She actually tried to say most lobbyists work for the people. Yuck.

And now, she keeps saying talk is cheap. Well, Bill Clinton was a great orator once upon a time, as were JFK, RFK, Reagan and Lincoln -there is nothing wrong with oratory. Further, lacking oratorical and people skills is not a plus; it doesn't validate your bogus experience, erase scandals, a healthcare failure, a vote in favor of the war in Iraq, etc.

One need not even look that close to see that Hillary just blows smoke.

Are some of you blaming the credit card companys for people debt? Heres a little tip on personal reponsbilitiy I picked up in my years - If you don't have it, don't spend it!!!

I'm not voting for Obama. I'm voting for McCain. It's still a great idea.

Obama is the Democratic version of Bush, all bluster, metaphor, and no action. Mr. 'Present' vote isn't for you, he is for his ego - don't you know he is the savior of American politics?

If she is putting her camapign on credit cards that is a good move for her. Maybe thats why she wont release her financial info. ;)

Henry Jones said: "Also, Obama lists in his backgorund that he was a "community organizer". What on earth is that supposed to mean? You know what it sounds like to me a resume filler when you were un-employed."

That's kind of funny because analysts point to Obama's time as a community organizer as experience which helped build a massive camapign generating record-breaking contributions and shifting polls in every state they go into.

Meanwhile, Clinton's campaign squandered over a hundred million dollars before the New Hampshire primaries, appointed management in Solis Doyle who hid the truth from Clinton even as Clinton was lying to Solis Doyle, needed a bail-out from Hillary's own pocket and now needs the free media coverage from debates to try to keep up with the rallies and ad-buys Obama can afford.

You're right -- that community organizing experience was worthless resume filler. Better to bank on the woman who ran her campaign into the ground along with her incompetent staff. That's who I want handling the nation's economy, not some silly "community organizer" swimming in cash.

I'd agree with you, Bruce, if the government hadn't already gotten involved by prosecuting Al Capone and others for charging interest rates of upwards of 22%. The banks can't have it both ways. If it's illegal for a gangster to charge rates that nobody can reasonably pay off, it should be for a bank or credit card company, too.

Are some of you blaming the credit card companys for people debt? Heres a little tip on personal reponsbilitiy I picked up in my years - If you don't have it, don't spend it!!!

Posted by: Steve S | February 15, 2008 2:32 PM

That's the problem. The whole idea behind credit cards is to encourage people to spend what they don't have.

Buy now, pay later.

Credit cards are one the worst things to ever come out of capitalism. Whose entire concept revolves around greed. Credit card companies now resemble nothing more than legal loan sharks. They are dispaicable. Their advertising makes it seem like its free money. And, like all evils, they prey on the most vulnerable of society.

They need to be stopped.

Another thing credit card companies will do is give you two credit cards one with a low limit that allows them to double your finance rate.

That's the problem. The whole idea behind credit cards is to encourage people to spend what they don't have.

Buy now, pay later.

David J

Not only that, they are targeting younger and younger people. High school kids get solicitations. There have been many stories about college kids not only racking up student loan debt but massive credit card debt as well. This puts them way behind by the time the graduate.

I was always taught that unless it is a true emergency, you save for what you want.

The credit card (banks) companies and other "bargain" companies have become addicted to fees:

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=18212223

>>>>>That's the problem. The whole idea behind credit cards is to encourage people to spend what they don't have.

I'm not gonna say the credit card companys are squeaky clean, but people have to be smart enough to know that free money doesn't exist. The government isn't there to bail out people from their own stupidity. Sometimes we have to take our lumps and learn our lesson the hard way.

Hank Jones- what has Hillary done that Barak hasn't? Bankrupted a campaign 6 months early? Cried about how she's being treated? Had her husband make her even-more-polarizing?

Impressive indeed.

McCain or Obama- Billary won't be back in
08.

"Jeff" says: "I'd agree with you, Bruce, if the government hadn't already gotten involved by prosecuting Al Capone and others for charging interest rates of upwards of 22%."

Jeff, Al Capone was convicted of income tax violations, not (as you claim) loan sharking.
So your analogy between credit card companies and loan sharks collapses right there.

The main reason our economy is in such bad shape right now is the same reason the real estate market is in tatters and the sub-prime mess is causing so much havoc. Bill Clinton, when he was President, just gave in to the Republican congress on whatever the banks wanted to do.

It used to be against the law to charge over 10% interest on anything at all and that's what we should go back to. The banks and credit card companies should not be allowed to extend credit of any kind to people in amounts that they cannot comfortably afford according to their proven income.

It's true that most of us would have to wait a little longer to buy the wide screen TV or upgrade the size of our homes, but it would also be a little harder to live so far beyond our means.

The government needs to get involved and regulate this because the mess we're in now proves that the banks, credit card companies and the American people cannot be trusted to act responsibly on their own. The small percentage of Americans who have acted responsibly are now the victims of a recession that they did nothing to cause.

This is just a big gov't solution to bailout the individual mistakes of the democratic supporters.

I think Otter from Animal House put it best: "I think that this situation absolutely requires a really futile and stupid gesture be done on somebody's part."
With Belushi following: "We're just the guys to do it." This could be the motto of the democratic congress.

Go Hillary!

She has the best ideas and the most details. Hearing her speak recently at a rally, I can't beleive how well-informed she is on EVERYTHING!

30% cap? What the hell does that help? A 20% cap would help people. Perhaps Billary ownes a bank in...where is she from again? Illinois? New York? Arkansas? I can't keep it straight nowadays. Perhaps she has lived everywhere?

Consumers get themselves into debt on their own...just like Hillary's campaign, and I bet the common folk will be the ones bailing her out.

Wisconsin for Obama!

As a former supporter of Mr. Edwards, I encourage him to endorse Senator Obama. John Edwards still has much to offer this country, and he can contribute now by supporting Senator Obama and encouraging his former supporters to do so, as well.

O8ama 08

Hillbill will try anything now to ring up some votes now.Why did she vote against middle class voters in 2001??

"I don't like Hillary and won't be voting for her, but I have to admit this is a great, great idea! Why should these companies be allowed to charge usury rates that would have landed lenders in jail as recently as the '50s?

Posted by: Jeff | February 15, 2008 12:46 PM"

Jeff,
Well, this is an odd role reversal, but I don't agree with Hills on this one.

The banks charge the interest because Americans are addicted to their charge cards like a heroin junky to his 'horse', as the kids are calling it today.

Solution; Stop using the card, or pay down to zero $$ every month for 6 months, and see what happens.

This, of course, won't happen. I've seen people charge up hundreds of $$ worth of Halloween yard decorations for devils sake!

she voted for the giving the banks the advantage in bankruptcy cases. what's in HER koolaid?

For those believing Team Clinton has been in the solutions business, then please do us all a favor and explain what solution the Clinton Administration delivered when he repealed Glass-Steagall ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gramm-leach-bliley ).

Much of the deregualtion regarding the financial sector, ranging from reducing credit card company restrictions to the expansion of banks into stocks and subprime markets, can be directly traced to Bill Clinton's embrace of Third Way politics. In other words, he gave big business what it asked for, and more. See: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Third_Way_%28centrism%29 .

That's the reason Alan Greenspan affectionately called Bill "a good Republican President." Firms like Godlman Sachs, leading law firms, the AMA and many health-based Fortune 500 companies have enthusiastically supported Team Clinton.

Why? Because they're interested in the middle class? Because they hope the average Joe gets Healthcare? Because they want higher wages? No.

Because they want their own agenda, including further globalization and exploitation of workers, perpetuated. And a vote for Clinton will ensure that.

Obama may not be a perfect or pure candidate. But in terms of aligning himself with middle class aims, he's a much better choice.

The Credit Card Companies are now run by the Mafia and the Corporate Fascists that are now taking complete control of this country. It amazes me that anyone would vote Republican in the Fall considering all the current crisis. It's like your on a sinking boat and most of the people aboard are cheering the guy on who is poking holes in the ship. The right wing "mind controlled" voters would vote for a monkey as long as they say "I'm a Conservative."

go hillary!