12 points

Bracing? Wont they make huge profit on the absurdly high interest?

Of course some may default, but its extra profit from the others.

permalink
report
reply
9 points

Its profit in the long run yes. But in short term extra people accumulating debt means less cash floating around the bank to put into other investments.

This can be an actual problem if it someone goes to withdraw their balance and the bank literally doesn’t have money becuse too many of their credit users spent the banks cash.

permalink
report
parent
reply
1 point

Nah, that’s what the federal reserve is for.

Banks also need to hold on to cash if you have a massive credit line, even if it’s not used, because they need to be ready to use it. So banks already have reserves to handle increases in demand, and they can close some dormant accounts to free up cash if needed. For example, I have something like $100k in total credit limit across a dozen or so cards, get I only use like $4-5k at a time and pay mine off every month. So I’m taking a disproportionate share of the total credit limit, so banks want to close my cards (and they have closed like 2 in the past year due to lack of use).

permalink
report
parent
reply
1 point

It’s not like the banks need to set aside the full $100k that they extend to you on paper … they have to have “assets” of about 1/10th of that …

Fractional reserve banking . Basically just create numbers out of thin air

permalink
report
parent
reply
1 point

They also hedge and buy insurance to cover potential defaults and then they write off the bad loan they got stuck with to help offset taxes… So it’s kinda good in a way and they want some but it makes business sense to find the right balance to keep regulators happy and make maximum profit.

permalink
report
parent
reply
4 points

See the problem with this is that not enough people are doing it. If a large enough percentage of the population just stopped paying their credit card bills, the institutions that rely on them would just implode. But that doesn’t happen, and until the overwhelming majority of the country is starving to death or something similar, because they can’t afford food, it won’t ever happen. And if we get to that point, there’s going to be bigger problems for the banks. Like having their CEOs dragged into the street and eaten.

permalink
report
reply
1 point

Uh, try that and see what happens

They have the upper hand , they will take your assets and sell your debt to collections and the courts will side.

The terms are such that you agree to pay.

What would be better is for everyone to always pay their credit card on time and reap the benefit from cashback rewards on purchases.

permalink
report
parent
reply

Personal Finance

!personalfinance@lemmy.ml

Create post

Learn about budgeting, saving, getting out of debt, credit, investing, and retirement planning. Join our community, read the PF Wiki, and get on top of your finances!

Note: This community is not region centric, so if you are posting anything specific to a certain region, kindly specify that in the title (something like [USA], [EU], [AUS] etc.)

Community stats

  • 7

    Monthly active users

  • 198

    Posts

  • 3.2K

    Comments