Carrie won’t answer her phone

My daughter Carrie is barely past her teens. She has lived the last decade with a phone apparently attached to her ear. At one time, I suspected it was an ear ring since who could possibly think of that many things to talk about? Carrie once told me that she and her friends would just go through the alphabet if they ran out of things to talk about i.e. what words start with the letter "A," etc., to trigger conversations. Yikes! My poor phone bills!

Last night, Carrie happened to call me. Lately, she has not been returning my calls. She said she doesn’t answer her phone anymore. And she doesn’t listen to the messages. Not from me, not from her friends, not from anyone.

Carrie said she is afraid to answer her phone and she is afraid to listen to her voice mail – she is getting very nasty phone calls from credit card companies. And every time they call they get meaner and nastier.

Credit Card companies? How could she possibly have a credit card? She hasn’t worked in years. She is a college student. I was horrified enough when I heard about John’s credit cards.

When John was a college student, he worked summers and part time during the school year. I understand why the banks gave him credit. But I thought it was like $300 or something manageable. Actually, he had a couple of credit cards. And although he had never earned more then $4,000 a year by his junior year in college he had amassed a credit card debt of $4,500. I was furious. How dare the credit card companies run up his debt to more than 112% of his annual income? That is outrageous. That is greedy. That is intentionally destroying a young person’s future by intentionally destroying the young person’s credit.

My bank manager at that time said the credit card business was the sole reason 20% of the banks in America were still in business. The money they made off credit cards kept them profitable. Obviously, very profitable. Else, why would we have banks on almost every corner? The banker also said that there were really only seven major banking firms that own most of the banking chains, and most were not even American owned, in fact, most were owned by Arabs.

I don’t know if that is still true. But the 9/11 attacks sure made me look at destructive attacks against Americans–subtle and not. Destroying a person’s credit in a society like America is a hugely subversive act. Bad credit means paying inflated prices for insurance, being denied home ownership, and sometimes is used to deny employment. Bad credit is devastating in America.

So why does the average household carry $8000 in bank credit card debt? And why do they pay an average of $1,000 in annual interest. Why do 80% of teens (ages 18-20) have credit cards? The average college student has $3000 in credit card debt by their fourth year. 25% of the adult population has some history of credit problems. In 1991, 1.3 million credit card holders declared bankruptcy. In 1992, Americans owed $660 Billion to these bank cards. It just keeps getting worse.

I wonder how to start a movement.

First, I want a 10% of annual income ceiling on accumulated credit card debt.

Second, I want some sort of parental input on credit to non-working students.

Third, I want some serious warnings and education directed at young people in the schools and directed at parents who live in a dream world where greed and treachery don’t feed on young people.

Fourth, I want my daughter to be able to answer her phone and talk to her friends and family.