This Is Where the Banks Are Taking Us

I know this isn’t a real essay.  It’s so important, though, that I’m willing to embarrass myself by making it one.  

There’s a documentary on most PBS stations tonight, 8:00 PM Eastern Time.  It’s about the credit card industry.

We need to watch it.

Link:  http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/…

(I’m sorry.  Haven’t figured out yet how to make these links appear here in spiffy text.  And frankly, I don’t care…just so long as the word gets out.)

Back to my point.

Our mailbox today contained no less than three offers for credit cards.  Two of them were addressed to my husband or me. Each of them offered cards with credit limits of $20,000. Yes, we do own our own business.  There are precisely two employees in said business–my husband and our elder son.  That business barely supports the two families.  Neither of us has a checkbook that could cover a $20,000 credit card bill.

But we’re not without savings and that may explain the banks’ eagerness to get us on board.  What it doesn’t explain is the third offer.

The third offer was addressed to our younger son, who is currently not working.  It offered him $10,000…on his signature alone. He could sign the application and run up ten thousand dollars in debt almost instantly.

This day is not unusual.  An unusual day contains no offers of credit cards at all.  It’s a rare week when we don’t get at least one from Citibank and another from Chase.  Offers to our younger son come less frequently but often enough to be alarming.  I usually throw them away before he sees them.  Yes, I know all about tampering with the US mail.  But he’s twenty-four and still figuring out that there’s a substantial portion of the world that’s out to fleece him.  

Fleecing people is what this program is about.  Please…if you can find the time, watch this program.  Encourage PBS to do more of the same.  They’re fighting an uphill battle these days.  Viewership is important to them, especially for programs like this.

And you’ll be doing yourself a favor when you watch.