Consumer Credit Falls At Fastest Pace In 18 Years

[Purveyor]

Source: Associated Press

(05-07) 12:28 PDT WASHINGTON, (AP) --

Consumer borrowing plunged in March at the fastest pace in 18 years as Americans put away their credit cards and hoarded cash amid the worst recession in decades.

The Federal Reserve said Thursday that consumer borrowing dropped 5.2 percent in March, the biggest decline since an 8.1 percent fall in December 1990.

In dollar terms, consumer borrowing plunged by $11.1 billion. That's the largest dollar amount on records dating to 1943, and more than three times the $3.5 billion drop that economists expected.

The borrowing category that includes credit cards dropped 6.8 percent in March after a 12.1 percent plunge in February. The category that includes auto loans fell 4.2 percent after rising by 1.2 percent in February.

The Commerce Department last week said that the personal savings rate edged up to 4.2 percent in March, marking the first time in a decade that the savings rate has been above 4 percent for three straight months.

Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2009/05/07/national/w120215D67.DTL

[L0oniX]

1. Yea ...well ...changing terms and jacking up the credit card interest rates ain't helping.

My Capital one: 6.49% to 15.99%
My Discover card: 10.9% to 15.99%
My Chase card: 7.9% to 15.99%
My credit score is 758

[high density]

2. Not to mention that lenders are slashing credit limits

:think:

[xchrom]

3. the very same happend to me. nt

[customerserviceguy]

5. Wow

My credit score is a tiny bit higher than that, and I'm just waiting to see what Bank of America will do to me as soon as my "zero interest for a year" rate is up this coming statement. It's supposed to only be about 12%, but I swear, if they drag it even one percentage point higher, the balance is going to get transferred to a low-rate card with no fees, or a zero rate card with a 3% fee.

Capital One, Chase, and B of A are all in deep doo-doo right now, the only way they can boost up their balance sheets is to count all the money they plan on making from jacking people's interest rates up.

[Nay]

6. Same happened to me. Glad I pay the fuckers off every month and

never pay interest. No wonder people have stopped using cards. I would, too, if I knew I would end up paying any interest.

[Speciesamused]

7. Great customer service as always.

Good thing we gave them that money.

[pattmarty]

4. I have NEVER had a credit card. I DO have a debit card and use that as cash.

We are programed from early on to "borrow" for cars, houses, clothes and on and on. Well, that may have continued on with the already large profits banks and card companies were charging. BUT, the motherfuckers REALLY, REALLY got greedy. Exorbitant rates weren't good enough for them, no they wanted the "mafia" rates. Fuck them, fuck all of them. I believe the Congress just passed some kind of credit reform and from what I've "heard" of it, it's a joke. AND, I am hearing that it probably (as shitty as the bill is) won't pass in the Senate. If Barack Obama was fucking Jesus Christ he wouldn't be able to fix all the fucked up shit in this country. Didn't mean to rant, but I'm in a ranting after just seeing Sicko again on the tube.

[bemildred]

8. Losing your job will do that. nt

[sarcasmo]

9. Keep the one with the lowest limit and shred the others, just my opinion.

[Wednesdays]

10. K&R

:kick: