In the old days reason prevailed. People actually looked at your credit history, spoke with you, and made their decision. Now it is cutthroat, computer screened and without logic. They hope that they will get some interest money from you for a while before you default or even buch the trend and pay it off. It has become a bait and switch game, with fine print, hidden clauses, hidden fees used to bait in the uneducated, and vulnerable. I taught a financial responsibility class for new check ins to my last squadron. I saved the hundreds of unsolicieted credit card offers I got in the mail and used them as training aides. If you actually read them some of the clauses are staggering. Interest rates that go from a respectable level to the highest legal rate in so many days or if a payment is 1 day late. Fee's, annual card fee's. If these accounts go late the fee's and penalties are so staggering you can not recover.
Many years ago I had a very good friend who worked in the banking business. He started as a check cancelor in the back room when it was done by hand. He worked his way up to Vice President of one of the only totally solvent banks in the nation. We used to sit and talk about financial stuff all the time. He used to be very tight when he was a loan officer. He would not loan more than 80% on a car, period, end of story. He would really scrutinize loans. He told a story one time of a couple who came in to borrow money for an engagement ring. He refused them. He told them that they did not need to start out in the hole like that, to go save the money and come back in a year. One year later he met with them for 2 hours and financially planned their first 5 years with them.
My friend also influenced my opinion of people and their financial health. His bank charged only $5 for a returned check. Almost unheard of because even back then the typical charge was $20. He leaned foreward and told me in all seriousness that his branch alone, made enough money $5 at a time from bad checks written on their accounts to pay the wages of every non management person in the branch every week, about 12 people.
Lastly, my friend used to go to every bankruptcy hearing filed against them. Nearly EVERY bank and lending institution today totally blows this off. When a person files bankruptcy, they have to list all their creditors. The creditor is notified to come to a hearing to either claim money, claim the collateral for a secured loan, or make arrangements for repayment. With the exception of Sears, not a single creditor bothered going to the 15 hearings I sat through at the US Court house, NOT ONE! they don't care, too much work, hassle, just let it go. So now the banks want the government to do their work for them?
I especially like the "dumb people are everywhere" line. Yes they are everywhere, the problem is that they do not know they are dumb. 