Marketing of Credit Cards
Tic-Tac-Owe
Young Families in Debt
Elephant
Furniture from France
Consumer Debt
Stolen Credit Card
Young Families In Debt
Smelly Debt Collector
Credit Cards
Topic : Debt
Average Debt
Every person in the U.S.A. today has an average of $12,000 of debt. Rick Beggs, Ronald Blue & Co., 1997
Marketing of Credit Cards
Americans owe over $400 billion on their credit cards. Consumer debt is at a six-year high. The average household gets about 25 credit card promotional offers a year. Experts worry that the “irresponsible and rabid marketing of credit cards” could result in a crisis for the economy.
Tic-Tac-Owe
Game show veteran Wink Martindale is back, hosting “Debt” on the Lifetime cable network beginning next week. Contestants arrive with between $6,000 and $10,000 in debt—from credit cards, student loans and car loans—and try to head into the black by answering pop-culture questions. Instead of taking home TV’s or bedroom sets, players get a chance to win up to twice what they owe. “The reason contestants are in debt in the first place is that people have already gone out and bought these prizes,” says Martindale. What about the folks who pay their bills on time? “Buy the time-share you’ve always wanted and then come see us,” suggests senior producer Andrew Golder. “Or just enjoy the drama of watching others trying to escape the pit you were smart enough to avoid.”
Young Families in Debt
Spending habits of young married couples with children (both spouses 18 to 25):
Average after-tax income, $19,783.
Average annual spending, $21,401.
(they are spending around 8% more than they make.)
Elephant
The only reason a great many American families don’t own an elephant is that they have never been offered an elephant for a dollar down and easy weekly payments.
Furniture from France
A man was once boasting to an acquaintance, “We have a whole roomful of furniture from France that goes back to Louis the 14th.”
“That’s nothing,” replied the other. “We’ve got a whole house full of furniture from Sears that goes back to Harry on the first.”
Consumer Debt
Personal debt in the U.S. is increasing at the rate of $1000 per second and consumer installment debt has mushroomed to a point where it takes approximately $1 out of every $4 that consumers earn after taxes to keep up the payments—not including the home mortgage. For over 250,000 Americans, the burden of debt is so great that he/she declares bankruptcy.
There are even more serious consequences of this financial tension created by debt: 56% of all divorces are a result of financial tension in the home.
Stolen Credit Card
A man called the police and reported that all of his wife’s credit cards had been stolen. Then he added, “But don’t look too hard for the thief. He’s charging less than my wife ever did.”
Young Families In Debt
Spending habits of young married couples with children (both spouses 18 to 25): Average after-tax income, $19,783. Average annual spending, $21,401.
Smelly Debt Collector
He may dress like a skid-row bum and smell like a dead rat, but Andy Smulian is a hit among London businessmen plagued by those who won't pay their bills.
Employed by the London-Manhattan Debt Collection Agency, the 20-years-old youth will stumble into a deadbeat's office for $65 and raise a stink until the freeloader pays up. 'the receptionists do most of my work for me,? says smelly Smulian. "I hear them tell their bosses, "If you're not going to write a check, you'd better find yourself another secretary."'
Though the enterprising young man has generally been successful with his debt-collecting efforts, he has recently been taken to court because of his villainous stench. But he insists he is not to be sneezed at and is sure the London magistrate will rule in his favor. 'the law doesn't define when a smell becomes offensive,? he says with confidence.
But who is he to talk? Afflicted with permanently blocked sinuses, he can't smell a thing.
Credit Cards
Americans owe over $400 billion on their credit cards. Consumer debt is at a six year high. The average household gets about 25 credit card promotional offers a year. Experts worry that the "irresponsible and rabid marketing of credit cards? could result in a crisis for the economy.
