The North Carolina Bankruptcy Information Blog

As someone facing serious financial difficulty, learning how much money is made by the huge banks to which you owe money can be frustrating. While we understand that we need to be accountable for our decisions, it stings to realize that profit models are often based on customers going into debt. Therefore, we can’t help but a feel a bit had, like the rube who just bought a cure-all tonic from the traveling pitchman selling from a horse and buggy.

CNN.com published an article recently that described what it deemed the “biggest rip-offs” in today’s society. We thought it relevant because knowing how some of these products are sold may encourage you to quit buying, using or subscribing to them and in the process, start saving more money to pay down debt or keep rebuilding after bankruptcy.…

It started about 15 years ago with the promise of an untold number of deposits into your bank account, supposedly from Bill Gates, for just sending an e-mail. Little did we know that with the click of the “forward” button, we pushed the proverbial SPAM boulder over the crest and created a perpetual avalanche of dangerous, credit-crushing e-mail based nonsense.

E-mail based crime is responsible for a great deal of debt for people that have done nothing more than react to a message from a friend. And once we identify ourselves formally or agree to a “balance transfer” offer, it is quite often too late to go back.…

Most of us go on vacation to get away from the things that are causing us stress. Well, that might not be so easy anymore. Travelers across the country are reporting an increase in collection agency contact for even nominal amounts of money because of a dispute they raised with airlines, hotels and rental car companies–even after the company has acknowledged its own mistake. A few examples:

A gentleman traveling through Pennsylvania was pulled over for an expired registration on his Hertz rental car. Despite repeated attempts to reconcile the issue with Hertz, he was notified by the company that collections activity was underway because of the unpaid ticket.…

It’s important to remember that credit card issuers are businesses. While they may not necessarily sell a tangible product (other than a sleek piece of plastic) they are very much in the business of making money. Interest, clearly, is the primary profit generator. In the last several years, however, more marketing incentives and added services have come online to generate fee-based revenue for those how don’t spend much and therefore, don’t provide a great deal of interest income to the company. One of those services is the credit protection plan. And like most add-ons to a credit card, they aren’t worth it.…