Bone In The Throat

This post is bumping one that I was working on for today.

The reason is that I picked up the mail and there were some things that caught my attention. So much so that comment is necessary.

Credit card companies keep sending my other half, who has been dead since the beginning of the year, all kinds of applications.

This cracks me up!  The only way to reach him might be via a medium, or séance.

Since these are credit card applications I dutifully open the oddly sized, overly thick, packages then feed them to the shredder. The applications are specifically built to not go through the shredder without being opened. I’ve been looking for a heavy duty shredder.

These applications usually have his name all over them and even though he’s dead, I don’t need to make it the least bit easy for some illegal alien to break the law by committing identity theft and/or credit fraud in addition to breaking our immigration laws.

I know… I’m a mean, Old, Racist, MAGA, Terrorist Threat, KKK Member, Transphobic, Self loathing fag, White, CIS, Male.

As I was shredding the 4 different mailings addressed to my other half I noticed the first thing.

Back in the day, Credit Card companies would send people with really good credit, a Pre-Approved application. We all were on the lookout for these. They were golden tickets. In some cases all you had to do was sign the form, put it in the supplied prepaid envelope and drop it in the nearest mailbox. 

4 weeks later, often sooner you’d get a brand spanking new credit card typically with a stupid high limit and not too bad an interest rate. I made the down payment on my first new car with one of those credit cards. (Another story entirely and indicative of being young and falling in love with a set of wheels.)

The language was, “You’re Pre-Approved for XYZ credit card.”

These applications I was shredding today said, “You’re Pre-Approved to apply for a Capital One credit card.” That’s when my brain rebooted. Pre-Approved to apply? What a waste of ink!

Literally everyone is Pre-Approved to apply. I could fill one out and have Jesse sign it. 

That was sort of offensive to me because it treats people like idiots. Granted there are a lot of idiots! 

I shrugged my shoulders, and with a smile fed the stupid waste of words into the waiting maw of the shredder. 

The second bit of information was the interest disclosure.

As I was shredding, a bit of paper fell onto the floor and this one really blew my mind!

This was the disclosure paperwork about the interest of this credit card my dead husband was approved to apply for.

30.49%

WTF???

No one but a moron would apply for this card! Jeez! I bitch about 16% or 18% on cards. But it gets better, the second package also had a disclosure, this one was, 

30.74%

Bear in mind, these two bits of mail arrived within 7 days of each other. Regrettably I didn’t happen to notice the disclosures from the other two “Pre-Approved to apply” mailings. 

What kind of dipshit would apply for a credit card with this interest rate? If you do the math, just a few thousand dollars of carried debt could screw you for years to come. You’d never get out from under it.

However, since reading and math are racist… I’m sure there will be a bunch of college kids applying for these cards. Then 5 years later, these dumbasses will be begging for the federal government to pay their debt off again. Just $5000 debt could run someone straight into the poorhouse. Something like 1500 dollars added to the debt per month??? 

How is it that a savings account pays, (the best I know of is Apple’s) pays 4.15% most others, you’re talking 0.04%. The discrepancy is mind boggling. The bank loans my money out, then charges 30% and only pays me 0.04% ? What a rip off! The bank is pocketing the difference and the bank executives are rolling in coke and hookers.

Again, I suppose that’s why the powers that be say math is racist. If you can do the math you can see the outright theft. If you can’t do the math, then you’re happily going to be owned and drowning in debt.

This is why I think people aren’t concerned about the national debt, or the insanity of our administration borrowing trillions. Eventually, our nation won’t be able to pay the interest, much less the principal. The young folks may not get how this works.

I didn’t, when I was young. I ended up in front of a bankruptcy judge because all those “You’re Pre-Approved” cards were just too sweet to pass up. I wasn’t looking at the interest rates and never planned on losing my job. Once I lost my job, I could pay for rent, utilities, or credit card debt. But there was now way to pay for all three. Oh and did you notice? I didn’t even include food in my list of necessities.

It was a very hard lesson and I learned it well. I watch my credit card interest and debt really closely. I’ve got one card that that worries me & I have a plan to kick it in the balls.

I’ve called out another of the credit card companies recently because they started applying the current interest rate, (sent up because of the Feds efforts to control inflation,) instead of charging the rate in effect when the debt was incurred. They fixed it, but it was one of those little tricks banks like to play.

The bank is hoping you won’t notice and they can make some extra bucks profit.  This particular card, hasn’t changed the agreement about how interest is charged on existing debt. I’m sure they will, and when they do, I’ll have to decide if I’m going to pay ‘em off and terminate the account or not.  That’s a bridge I’ll burn when I get to it.