>>>I wonder when credit card CUSTOMERS who handle their credit carefully will DEMAND that companies take FAR MORE CARE in issuing cards so that interest rates and penalties can be brought down to sensible levels??????
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>>Those of us who handle our credit cards carefully couldn't care less what the interest rates and penalties are because we never pay them. AFAIC, the only interpretation of handling credit cards carefully is paying the balance in full every month. A credit card should be a pay to avoid carrying cash and to protect yourself from scoundrel sellers, nothing more.
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>Yes, I have to agree. I handle my credit card carefully, but do get stuck once in a while having to carry a balance an extra month and it really irks me.
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>But there's still the case that credit is granted too easily by the banks. For example I understand that at colleges and universities there is great competition by all the issuers to nab students, to the point that they really don't care if the student has applied for 6 others already... they'll take him too. And it's gotta be tough for many students to use them carefully.
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>We have no idea as to how credit card defaults affect the costs of other banking services. But I think we can be quite sure that bank's costs would go down if they were even a tad "diligent" as to who they issued cards to.
>As I see it their current practises have created a house-of-cards that is in iminemt danger of collapsing. If that should happen then we'll ALL pay a price, no matter how carefully we handle our card balances


Jim, You're right on the money on this. :-)

For me I have on couple of occasions those deals with 18 months interest free for an appliance or electronic gadgets, but paid them off in time. I plan to do that for my HDTV purchase toward end of this year, just in time for football season.