The following report is from Study Finds:
Many Americans have a love-hate relationship with their credit cards — and for half, their credit cards are their lifesavers. A survey of 2,000 people with poor, unknown, or no credit finds that most Americans struggled with managing their finances when they first moved out on their own (56%).
Nearly three in five say that one of the toughest parts of becoming an adult was learning about how credit works (58%).
Results also show that two in five people (41%) don’t think there are enough resources available to them to help learn about credit. More than half the poll (58%) wishes they had a handbook they could reference to help answer questions about credit.
What Is Credit Anyway?
Conducted by OnePoll on behalf of Oportun, the survey finds people are most likely to get information about credit from the internet (52%) or banks (37%). Although 35 percent prefer to get their information straight from the source — credit card companies — most people think the companies overcomplicate credit by using jargon or fine-print limitations (59%).
Despite the average person having two credit cards open right now, nearly a quarter of Americans (24%) think that credit card companies don’t make it easy to open a new card. The most common reasons credit card companies deny people from getting a credit card include not having enough credit history (35%), having too much debt (35%), and not having enough income (34%).
We estimate there are 100 million people in the U.S. who are effectively locked out of the financial mainstream because they either don’t have a credit score or have been mis-scored by the major bureaus. For many people this is a maddening Catch-22: how do I build credit when no one will loan me money to build credit with?
The good news is that some lenders now use technology and alternative data to make responsible credit available to people without a score.
Matt Jenkins, COO and GM of Personal Loans at Oportun, in a statement.
Monthly Credit Card Payment Peril
Aside from trying to open credit cards frequently, the poll finds that there may be other habits at play that are affecting Americans’ credit scores. Those with credit cards have taken an average of two cash advances, which is likely to pull their score down a bit. One in five don’t make payments to their credit card every month (21%) and 43% only opt to pay the minimum amount due.
Surprisingly, nearly a quarter of those with credit cards admit they pay less than the minimum amount due or make no payment at all (24%). Many don’t realize that when you pay matters, too; respondents with credit cards have made an average of two late payments within the last year.
More than two in five have difficulty keeping track of the credit cards that they own (44%) and a similar amount admit that they’re so deep in debt that they don’t even know where to begin to pay it off (41%). Despite 54% feeling confident in understanding how to build good credit, the survey finds Americans still fall for credit myths all the time.
The Myth About ‘Good’ Credit
Half of Americans incorrectly identified credit scores under 670 as being “good credit.” Nearly one in four still think checking their credit report will lower their credit score (24%) and another 18% believe closing a credit card will increase their credit score when the exact opposite is true.
One in five believe that as long as their debt is paid off, their negative history including late or missed payments will be erased (21%). The same amount also incorrectly believe that credit scores are the only thing that lenders consider.
A credit score impacts more than how much you pay in interest, it can also determine the kinds of employment you can hold, where you can live, and more.
Consumers who find themselves with no or low credit should seek responsible lenders, those with APRs below 36% who will report their payments to the credit bureaus. By making their payments on-time and in-full, consumers can quickly start to build the good credit scores they deserve and that will open new pathways to better financial outcomes.
AUTHOR COMMENTARY
I would like to point out, however, the notion that you have to go into debt to make wealth is asinine. You do not need to go into massive debt to build a credit score just to live some place, for example. Friends and family will think you are nuts, but they are slaves, so who cares what they think, right? It is more than possible, especially nowadays when many people are itching just to make some kind of revenue, so abysmal credit scores will be irrelevant.
[7] The rich ruleth over the poor, and the borrower is servant to the lender. [26] Be not thou one of them that strike hands, or of them that are sureties for debts. [27] If thou hast nothing to pay, why should he take away thy bed from under thee?Proverbs 22:7, 26-27
While I think that this survey was a bit low, it only reiterates what The WinePress has reported on for some time.
Currently, the United States (the most indebted nation, bar none), has over a reported $28.9 trillion in federal debt, with over $84.92 trillion in total debt, and over $7.64 trillion in debt held by other countries. The Divided States of America does not know how to stop spending – a nation that continually prints trillions of dollars out of thin-air while the rate of that cash (money velocity) is moving at historic lows.
Moreover, in 2019 – you know, the supposed “good times” when America was being made “great again” – over the average American could barely scrape together $400 in a savings account, with mile-high debt. That is not a “boom.” And that debt has ballooned exponentially since then – as Trump and the media routinely bewitched the masses into thinking everything was getting better. The Trump administration simply white-washed a rotten and decrepit barn that was collapsing in on itself.
How do you fix tens of trillions in debt? “Simple:” burn it to the ground and have the loving oligarchs come in and say ‘We’re here to help “Build Back Better.”‘
On top of this, many of people in my generation can only get most of their wealth or opportunity to advance, is, to wait for older generations in their family to pass away, and collect their inheritance. That’s not me being facetious, that is just a fact. But what happens is, after Uncle Sam takes his unjust cut for “taxes,” the person also inherits that debt. This is why many in my generation – who lack integrity, ambition, a sound mind, and prudence – have just come to accept they will live in some small apartment, working at low-paying jobs, and make ad-revenue from Tik-Tok, Twitch, Only Fans, etc.; who will live in perpetual debt.
To the reader, use this as a reminder to pay off as much debt as you can. This needs to be at the top of the list for you. Moreover, if this death shot starts to really cull off a lot of people like we think it will, then a lot of that wealth and inheritance will be going somewhere… so be patient and wait for the opportunities – I believe some are coming.
A good man leaveth an inheritance to his children’s children: and the wealth of the sinner is laid up for the just.
Proverbs 13:22
[9] And they that dwell in the cities of Israel shall go forth, and shall set on fire and burn the weapons, both the shields and the bucklers, the bows and the arrows, and the handstaves, and the spears, and they shall burn them with fire seven years: [10] So that they shall take no wood out of the field, neither cut down any out of the forests; for they shall burn the weapons with fire: and they shall spoil those that spoiled them, and rob those that robbed them, saith the Lord GOD.Ezekiel 39:9-10 – this is referring to the second advent after Jesus destroys the antichrist army, and the saints begin to inherit the earth for the thousand year of Jesus Christ. For instruction righteousness, I believe some of that could happen here in America, and in other nations as the result of this kill-off in the time ahead.
Americans In Massive Debt. Setting Up ‘GoFundMe’ Accounts To Pay Bills
America is over $23 Trillion in debt, and that number could be higher. That damned lie of “you have to go to college to be successful” has made debt in America skyrocket!
Thousands of students getting worthless degrees (women’s studies, liberal arts, communications, gender studies, fine arts etc.) and they wind up with no job skills or work ethics, $20,000 in debt, and they work at McDonald’s or Pizza Hut.
Even those that become successful doctors or lawyers, they got say, $350,000 in debt and worse: they get loans for a new Mercedes Benz, fishing boat with a steering wheel, Ford 2022 F-350, a huge 2 story house with four bathrooms, man cave, she shed, game room, foyer, and so on adding like $500,000 of debt!
The idea of creating wealth out of debt is downright insane. That’s the basic ideology that is taught in the Rich Dad Poor Dad books by Robert Kiyosaki. That book is also popular among MLM pyramid schemes.
Jacob, I have a copy of Rich Dad Poor Dad, and I try to read it but some parts and how to be like rich dad is too hard to understand. What are your thoughts?