Why are so many posts about "how can I screw the bank or my credit card company?"

[drowning123]

well i don't know about you 2...but i rather like being chastised....lol!!! It's the categorizing that has thrown me through the loop!

lol!!!

[Freddy03]

Again I ask you.....Besides lost their jobs and cant find new ones, were injured and can’t work, and the people that lost a spouse and the income that came with them.
What other reason are there. I'm being far from high and mighty and I don't have all the answers.

There are many reasons for "screwing the banks" (might I add you screwed them also)

1. People getting mortgages that they could not afford but were lead to believe they could.
2. Insurance rates trippled. Do you know that at my job if I were to elect insurance coverage for my family of 4 I would take home $166!! It cost $578 a WEEK for insurance at my place of employment! Not to mention that comes with a $4000 family deductible!
3. Credit card rates trippled at to no fault of the user.
4. Over-time is non exisiting.

I'm sure there are more. It still does not give you the right to judge ANYONE!

[Freddy03]

is it time for cocktails YET??? PLEASE????

in about an 1 hour and 45 mins!!!

[tobee43]

in about an 1 hour and 45 mins!!!

tonight's special happy hour we are serving grey goose straight up...no frills...just to the point! ROFL!!!!!

[drowning123]

I think the moderators may soon shut this down. LOL.

[drowning123]

I know, Freddy! Bkman is still judging!

[backtoschool]

For a lot of people bankruptcy and "morality" get intertwined. I personally think that one has nothing to do with the other. As more and more people do "strategic" foreclosures (walking away from houses they can still afford to pay the mortgage on) and "strategic" bankruptcies, and as the media continues to write about these topics, and consumers become more educated to their options, bankruptcy is becoming more a financial management decision and less of the "liquidation" of the past. Nothing has changed in the bankruptcy procedures (since 2005 anyway) but the reasons that people are filling bk has changed somewhat with the mortgage crisis in my opinion.

Ten, even five, years ago there would not have been the mass middle class exodus from home ownership that there is now. This changes so much in how we define middle class American life, contracts, obligations, etc, and I think this epic change is being mirrored in a smaller way on this board and in how people are filing bk and moving on with their lives.

I personally have no sympathy for the banks. If they had been more prudent in lending, and had been willing to modify bad mortgages, then they would not be in a position of having a person squatting in their house for 3 years. But, let's be honest and say that as an adult, housing is an expected expense, and if you are living rent free in a house that is not yours, you are a squatter, and can expect the uncertain status that squatters have. If you can handle the uncertainty and can use that time to save money, then the reward is worth it. I personally think that staying in a house that you know you are going to have to give up just prolongs the healing, but that is just my personal opinion. There are good reasons for walking away right away and good reasons for squatting. Both have pros and cons.

As to the judgments by the OP, well I have learned along the way, that those that are most judgmental about a topic usually feel personal guilt about that topic and are judging themselves.

Just my opinion.....

[tobee43]

well....after reviewing the situation, i just think the OP is just a bit confused...it's ok....it's just one of the many emotions we have on our off days.

remember...it's not what you say it's how you say it....maybe???

[NowImDownInIt]

Everybody's a critic. Unless you have lived in every one of these people's shoes you have absolutely no right to judge them.. and make no mistake, you are being judgmental.

Credit card companies and banks are no victims and they have been fiscally irresponsible themselves. Hence the mess everyone is in. Where do they come off being unaccommodating when they are the ones that changed the terms without asking or even notifying until it's already happened?

People have the right to stay in their house until the day the keys are taken away if the bank isn't willing to come after them.

[drowning123]

Well said, NowImDownInIt.

[tobee43]

For a lot of people bankruptcy and "morality" get intertwined. I personally think that one has nothing to do with the other. As more and more people do "strategic" foreclosures (walking away from houses they can still afford to pay the mortgage on) and "strategic" bankruptcies, and as the media continues to write about these topics, bankruptcy is becoming more a financial management decision and less of the "liquidation" of the past. Nothing has changed in the bankruptcy procedures (since 2005 anyway) but the reasons that people are filling bk has changed somewhat with the mortgage crisis in my opinion.

Ten, even five, years ago there would not have been the mass middle class exodus from home ownership that there is now. This changes so much in how we define middle class American life, contracts, obligations, etc, and I think this epic change is being mirrored in a smaller way on this board and in how people are filing bk and moving on with their lives.

I personally have no sympathy for the banks. If they had been more prudent in lending, and had been willing to modify bad mortgages, then they would not be in a position of having a person squatting in their house for 3 years. But, let's be honest and say that as an adult, housing is an expected expense, and if you are living rent free in a house that is not yours, you are a squatter, and can expect the uncertain status that squatters have. If you can handle the uncertainty and can use that time to save money, then the reward is worth it. I personally think that staying in a house that you know you are going to have to give up just prolongs the healing, but that is just my personal opinion. There are good reasons for walking away right away and good reasons for squatting. Both have pros and cons.

As to the judgments by the OP, well I have learned along the way, that those that are most judgmental about a topic usually feel personal guilt about that topic and are judging themselves.

Just my opinion.....

well...of course backtoschool is armed with caffeine alertness and of course, wisdom.....

absolutely, correct with your analysis of the situation...and i truly believe some may just simply not know exactly how to express themselves and may get misunderstood?????

[NowImDownInIt]

well i don't know about you 2...but i rather like being chastised....LOL!!! it's the categorizing that has thrown me through the loop!

This wins the award of favorite post of the day. ROFLCOPTER

[mrskal]

There are many reasons for "screwing the banks" (might I add you screwed them also)

1. People getting mortgages that they could not afford but were lead to believe they could.
2. Insurance rates trippled. Do you know that at my job if I were to elect insurance coverage for my family of 4 I would take home $166!! It cost $578 a WEEK for insurance at my place of employment! Not to mention that comes with a $4000 family deductible!
3. Credit card rates trippled at to no fault of the user.
4. Over-time is non exisiting.

I'm sure there are more. It still does not give you the right to judge ANYONE!

I would like to add to Freddy's #1 reason, in my case, when I got my loan, here is what the crappy broker told me, you can just pay the interest only portion of the loan on your 5 year arm,(great low rate I might add) and since you will move before that 5 years is up it wont matter anyway. I was planning on moving by the 4-5 year mark and selling the house. What she did not bother telling me was about the defered stuff that got stuck on the back end of the loan, and capped at about 12,000. Now you cant pay the lowest amount that is shown on your statement, you have to pay the highest. With a few short months notice, I went from paying abt. $680 a month to $1100 a month. That happened at about the 3-4 year mark. Tried to get by with that payment and did ok, until the child support dried up and was another loss of $450 or so a month. Then the economy tanked and took the real estate market with it. No way of selling my house now!

Is that a good enough reason to be mad? I was mad, but what are you gonna do, I was naive, did not really understand what I was getting myself into. My fault for sure. I tried to keep up. Who would have thunk it back then that you would not only make no money on your house when you sold it, but you would owe. hahahaha
I am doing a BK because of the house. Might as well add in the CC's too then. I was paying them until the lawyer said to stop.

[tobee43]

Everybody's a critic. Unless you have lived in every one of these people's shoes you have absolutely no right to judge them.. and make no mistake, you are being judgmental.

Credit card companies and banks are no victims and they have been fiscally irresponsible themselves. Hence the mess everyone is in. Where do they come off being unaccommodating when they are the ones that changed the terms without asking or even notifying until it's already happened?

People have the right to stay in their house until the day the keys are taken away if the bank isn't willing to come after them.

[Dee]

There are many reasons for "screwing the banks" (might I add you screwed them also)

1. People getting mortgages that they could not afford but were lead to believe they could.
2. Insurance rates trippled. Do you know that at my job if I were to elect insurance coverage for my family of 4 I would take home $166!! It cost $578 a WEEK for insurance at my place of employment! Not to mention that comes with a $4000 family deductible!
3. Credit card rates trippled at to no fault of the user.4. Over-time is non exisiting.

I'm sure there are more. It still does not give you the right to judge ANYONE!

This happened to us, too. Never a late payment and our interest rates jumped from 9-12% to 27-40%. When I called the banks to ask why, I was told..............wait for it.................."Because we can"!!! Minimum monthly payments doubled and tripled. Went from paying around $500/mo to over $1300/mo on cc's!

And don't even get me started on the tornado, the gas leak, the plumbing leak, the dog getting sick, and then hubby losing his job.

Through all of that I still did not say "screw the banks". In fact, I was still current on all but 2 of them (the ones that gave me the "Because we can" line got the axe first). Then hubby had a gap in his unemployment compensation one month and I was late on the bills. They smelled fresh blood and the feeding frenzy began.

To Bkman2, even if it hadn't been for all of the other extenuating circumstances, the increase in our cc payments alone would have eventually pushed us into bk. Raising our interest rates and payments like that was completely unwarranted and, as far as I'm concerned, inexcusable. So yes, I am mad at the banks for doing that. But more than that, I'm mad at myself for continuing to pay those blood-sucking vampires for over a year after they did it.