US Finance World

For the first time in three years, credit-card issuers are ramping up their mailbox solicitations. But don’t expect to see your father’s credit-card appeals. Variable interest rates, higher annual fees and a host of new charges will be hidden in the fine print of these offers.

With new consumer protections in the Credit Card Act (officially called the Credit Card Responsibility and Disclosure Act) set to take effect Monday, the nation’s largest credit-card issuers upped their direct-mail solicitations to consumers by more than 45% in the fourth quarter from the prior quarter, according to two leading market-research firms.

But a new credit card these days will cost you. The average annual percentage rates, which climbed steadily most of last year, are now at the highest level in five years.

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Yves Smith and I received a tip at the weekend from a friend who reads the German press regularly about credit default swaps (CDS) on Greek government debt. Read Yves’ piece based on that article here. Below is mine.

Previously, I had mentioned the CDS exposure of the hapless German Landesbanks (banks owned by the individual German states or Länder – hence the term Landesbank). These same companies lost enormous amounts of money in the subprime meltdown – and apparently they have all sorts of other toxic exposure like Greek CDS still on the books.

So I find it interesting that the German daily Frankfurter Allgemeine is focussing instead on the AIG CDS connection to Greece. Here’s part of what they had to say (my translation from German original):

London investment bankers named the American insurer AIG as an additional seller of CDS. It had to be nationalised during the financial crisis, because it had sold default insurance on U.S. mortgage

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This iPhone app idea man is the kind of guy who likes oatmeal in the morning. I am not flashy and I am not really a geeky type. I am simply a dad who loves his kids and wants the best for them. This makes me like most other parents out there, except that I created an app for their telephone to help them manage credit card debt. It is called Debt Dog, but I am getting ahead of myself.

Ever worried about my kids, I am especially concerned with their inability to manage money. This strange obsession I have might exists because of the way I view my job as dad. The dadness in me was tuning in to the recent irregularities that has suddenly appeared in these young adults, AKA my kids. Or maybe it is the regular, normal everyday habit of buying things with no money that is bothering me lately.

Even though they constantly tell me, everybody has credit cards and everybody charges stuff, it does not placate me.

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You may have thought that it is not God’s will for you to go through life in lack or in debt. The truth is that this is exactly right! That is not God’s best for His children. Being in bondage to debt or lack will keep you from being able to do God’s will. This is why you must be free from debt or lack through the implementation of biblical money principles. God wants you to be able to obey Him without being overtaken by fear that you will not have enough money.

How do you know if you are in bondage to debt or lack?

•If you cannot give to ministries that are doing God’s work because it will inhibit you from paying your bills.

•If you cannot help those that are in lack because you yourself are in lack.

•If you cannot go where God wants you because you simply cannot afford the travel expenses.

•If you want to give offerings, but you are torn by guilt because you know it is really not in your budget.

If any of these points sound familiar, then you are in bondage to debt or lack.How Do You Pray?

Do you regularly pray that God will give you a financial miracle? Have you often

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Seen on a recent Citibank (C) statement: “Effective April 1, 2010, we reserve the right to require (7) days advance notice before permitting a withdrawal from all checking accounts. While we do not currently exercise this right and have not exercised it in the past, we are required by law to notify you of this change.”

Whoa. Is this an April Fool’s joke? A contingency plan to defend against the idea of what “would happen if thousands of [bank] customers pledge to withdraw their money from the bank on a certain day, unless the bonuses are capped?” A strategem cooked up by Citi’s new shareholders from the hedge fund industry, an industry in which such withdrawal gates are common? An idea backed by Citi’s big shareholder, Uncle Sam, or one of its regulators, Sheila Bair?

I called Citi about it and they said the warning applies only to customers in Texas and that the notification had been mistakenly included on statements nationwide. Whatever the explanation, it doesn’t exactly inspire confidence in Citi.

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