How high should credit card limits REALLY be?

[Seeker]

Also, if you file Chapter 7 BK and try to discharge a debt that was incurred while unemployed the CC company has the legal right to ask the court to exclude that discharge of debt from the BK.

There are defined frauds associated with the forgiveness of debt (or BK).... and incurring debt that you have no intention or ability to pay off is "fraud".

[GREENBACK]

The cc companies may lose a little money to those who file bk but I think they consider that the cost of doing buisness. Think of the untold numbers of people making that bare minimum monthly payment. They're in it to make money, if their was a better(more profitable) way to do buisness they would have figured it out by now.

[boosami]

I agree that people without jobs should not be issued CCs; but who's going to enforce that?

Banks are so heavily regulated by outside organizations and government. I find it insane that credit card companies/departments have been allowed to self-regulate for so long. Why isn't there a dedicated organization to regulate them? The Federal Reserve Board or someone needs to step up.

[snafu]

From what I read on SA, consumers who miss a couple of CC payments have the interest increased and any new card charges whooping interest as high as 22%. I think VISA, Master Card, AMEX make money on defaults too as they write those off against income on corporate taxes.

It seems our education system does a poor job of informing/explaining/teaching how CCs work. Most people look at the minimal monthly payment and say..."I can do that.' They don't seem to absorb the fact that they will pay more in interest than the cost of the product. I see the promotions to spend $ 2K in a specific timeframe and get $ 200. It encourages people to buy more than planned to boost the balance, blissfully unaware that if they lose their job or something goes awry they'll end in a big mess.

[disneysteve]

I see the promotions to spend $ 2K in a specific timeframe and get $ 200. It encourages people to buy more than planned to boost the balance

We love those promotions. My wife has one right now to spend $1,000 on Discover and get an extra cashback bonus of $100 on top of her regular bonus. Stack it with the 5% bonus category (gasoline right now) and she's getting 15% off when she buys gas.

Of coure, we aren't buying things we weren't going to buy anyway. In fact, most of the $1,000 will be used to buy already discounted gift cards online so that also increases the savings. We bought about $400 worth of Target cards at 6% off and paid with Discover which gave us over 10% cash back.