The payment mechanism that consumers use to purchase goods and
services has changed dramatically over the last 100 years and credit card debt
has soared in recent years. Proprietary charge cards came on the scene in the
early 1900s, followed by “travel and entertainment” cards in 1950.
These cards did not have a revolving credit feature, it wasn’t until 1966,
that the first general-purpose credit card (such as American Express, Visa, and
MasterCard) was introduced.
Before credit cards, almost all consumer
transactions were in cash while business payments were in cash or checks. In
1970, only 16 percent of households had a credit card, but by 1995,
approximately 65 percent had at least one credit card. In 2004, the average
credit-card debt of US households was $9,300, up from $2,966 in 1990, according
to research firm CardWeb.com - - that's 214% more debt. Today, the average
American family carries eight credit cards and credit card debt and personal
bankruptcies are also now at an all time high. In 2009, analysts predicted
credit-card defaults could total more than $75 billion.
In Debt We Trust (Movie Trailer)
Lorenzo Fenix
Presents: An in-depth account of the ins and out of the credit card business in
America. In Debt We Trust was written, Produced and Directed by Dannny
Schechter. Once you watch this movie, you'll gain valuable insight into the
credit card game.
One of the results of all this debt is the destruction of the middle class and the transfer of wealth to the global elite. As people become more dependent on debt for their survival, they become defacto slaves to the ruling international bankers. The Bible tells us...
The rich ruleth over the poor, and the borrower is
servant to the
lender.
-
Proverbs 22:7
The 2006 documentary film titled
Maxed Out:
Hard Times, Easy Credit and the Era of Predatory Lenders chronicles the
abusive practices in the credit card industry while showing how banks and other
creditors deliberately market to people who are more likely to have problems
paying.
The major credit card companies target a younger audience, in
particular college students, many of whom are already in debt with college
tuition fees and college loans and who typically are less experienced at
managing their own finances. A recent study by United College Marketing
Services has shown that student credit lines have increased to over $6,000.
Credit card usage has tripled since 2001 amongst teenagers as well.
In
2011 the student load debt issue spilled onto the streets of American cities as
Occupy Wall Street protesters took aim at the growing student loan debt carried
by the nation's college students. Protesters in Zuccotti Park, for example,
tried to gather one million signatures from students vowing to ignore their
loan payments. The New York Federal Reserve Bank puts the total student debt at
$550 billion. Sallie Mae, the college loan giant speculates there is $757
billion of outstanding student loans. Lending this year alone is projected to
be in excess of $112 billion, which will send the total student loan debt owed
by American students to over $1 trillion with America's students now owing more
in college loan debt than Americans owe in credit card debt.
With no legal limit on the amount of interest or fees that can be
charged, credit cards have become the most profitable sector of the American
banking industry: more than $30 billion in profits last year alone. In the
Secret History of the Credit Card, PBS FRONTLINE and The
New York Times examine how the credit card industry became so pervasive, so
lucrative, and so politically powerful.
Because the fees banks charge
it's credit card customers make up such a huge part of their profits,
Providian, Bank One, Chase, and Citibank have all been found to "roll back"
posting times to extract more late fees. The due dates were "rolled back" from
1pm to 10am because mail was delivered in the afternoon so due dates were
actually rolled back to charge more late fees.
Universal default is
another corrupt feature of many North American credit card contracts. When a
cardholder is late paying a particular credit card issuer, not only can that
card's interest rate can be raised, but universal default allows other card
issuers to increase rates on their cards as well. Being late on one credit card
will potentially affect all your credit cards. (Citibank voluntarily stopped
this practice in March 2007 and Chase stopped the practice in November 2007.)
Some of the nation's influential top credit card issuers, who are among the top
fifty corporate contributors to political campaigns, have successfully opposed
Congressional regulations outlawing the practice.
"What's in Your
Wallet?"
In 1950, the Diners Club issued the first “travel and
entertainment” card. In 1958, American Express introduced its Green Card,
another “travel and entertainment” card.
That same year, Bank of America
launched its BankAmericard credit card and in 1965 began subscribing licensing
agreements with other banks. In 1967, Master Charge was licensed by United
California Bank (subsequently merged into Wells Fargo), and the Bank of
California (subsequently merged into the Union Bank of California) as a
competitor to the BankAmericard. With the help of New York's Marine Midland
Bank, now HSBC Bank USA, these banks joined with the Interbank Card Association
(ICA) to create "Master Charge: The Interbank Card".
Bank of America
gave up control of the BankAmericard program in 1970 when various BankAmericard
issuer banks took control of the program, creating National BankAmericard Inc.
(NBI), an independent non-stock corporation which would be in charge of
managing, promoting and developing the BankAmericard system within the United
States.
By 1972, BankAmericard had spread to 15 countries, and
in1974, IBANCO, a multinational member corporation, was founded to manage the
international BankAmericard program. In 1976, the directors of IBANCO
determined that bringing the various international networks together into a
single network with a single name internationally would be in the best
interests of the corporation; however in many countries, there was still
reluctance to issue a card associated with Bank of America. For this reason, in
1977 BankAmericard, Chargex, Barclaycard, Carte Bleue, and all other licensees
united under the new name, "Visa", which retained the distinctive blue, white
and gold flag. NBI became Visa U.S.A., and IBANCO became Visa International. In
1979, "Master Charge: The Interbank Card" was renamed simply "MasterCard".
Credit cards are very profitable for banks. Critical to the success of
these charge cards has been universal acceptance by merchants and influential
advertising to consumers to use them instead of cash. MasterCard's current
"Priceless" advertising campaign, furst run in 1997, is "There are some things
money can't buy. For everything else, there's MasterCard."
Corrupt Banking
System
Money As Debt
This highly informative and easy
to understand film covers just about everything that isn't taught in school
regarding the corrupt banking system. It explains how these institutions get
away with robbing the unsuspecting public by creating monetary policies
designed to enslave society, while keeping the system in a perpetual state of
rising debt.
