Trump And The Max Percentage On Credit Cards Talk

 This week, Trump talked up the idea of making the max that credit cards can charge on interest....to be set at 10-percent.

Odds of VISA and Master-Card agreeing?  Zero.

Odds of getting Republicans to agree in the House/Senate?  Near 10-percent (they might agree to set it at 19-percent).

I worked in a office with a female contractor (the multiple-marriage gal).  One day, I had lunch with her and my female co-worker.  Credit debt came up.

What the female contractor had....was around $85,000 in card debt.  Naturally, I was curious, so I asked....how did you arrive at this point?

Basic answer?  Around age 23, she signed up over a 1-year period.....to five credit cards.  

Over a 5-year period...she charged up around $45,000.....where she halted herself, but could not pay enough off on each card....so the 20-to-25 percent interest kept growing.

I asked....where did you spend the $45,000?  Well....this went off to five or six things (car repairs, trips to Vegas, new washer/dryer, weddings (3x), and gifts).  

So I asked....how much are you spending to get it down?  Well....she detailed this out....almost $1,800 a month of her engineer salary went to payments.  But even then.....without any use of the cards....she'd need at least 12 years.

If she'd had a 10-percent interest limit?  That would have helped.  The other thing though.....you need a absolute limit on each card....no more than $10,000, and you need a strategy where you don't do reckless vacations where 100-percent of the cost is covered by the credit cards.

It's been 16 years since that conversation.  I'm guessing she's pretty close to paying off the cards.  Twenty years of her life wasted on this?  That's my gut feeling.  

What happens to VISA if this was forced through?  Their profit margin diminishes in a harsh way (you'd need to dump their stock).   Would something appear to get around the 10-percent interest?  Oh, I have no doubt that some gimmick would occur.