|
Most Recent Online Casino News
Support for the Temptation to Outspend Funds
Lately, whenever I hear those oft-quoted statistics about the average
households credit card debt, I think about the reader who phoned a few
months ago seeking suggestions about her bills.
She and her husband have saddled themselves with an incredible
$100,000 in credit card debt a figure that is nearly double their
household income. Even worse, the interest rates on their cards all have
been jacked up to 24.99 percent.
Thats right: This couple at the brink of retirement age is looking
at paying $25,000 per year in credit card interest. And that $2,000-plus
per month wont even make a dent in the principal balance.
At that rate, they will never be able to pay off the loans. Using a
Bankrate.com online calculator, I determined that even if the couple can
mail in $2,200 a month, it would take them 12 years to eliminate the
balances at a cost of $213,335 in interest.
The source of the problem? Credit card cash advances at the casinos.
Eeek. One cant help but wonder how many other savings accounts and
assets they drained to feed the slot machines, before they started
swiping their plastic through the cash kiosks. And how it must feel now
to write those checks to the credit card issuers as they contemplate the
stigma of bankruptcy vs. an old age shackled to monthly bills. And how
many other Metro Detroiters have wound up in that predicament in recent
years.
Gambling is a harmless, entertaining pastime for some, a tragic trap
for others. Same goes for lottery tickets, the television shopping
channels and the local mall.
Read the
entire article at:
Detroit News
2004 Online Casino News Archive
| 
