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It's been reported that outstanding credit card debt is standing at about $696 billion dollars. Thanks largely to industry lenders that have extended their numerous offers to people with less than perfect credit or with questionable abilities to repay the charges. Many credit cards are coming with penalty rates above 30%, even if the individual is late on just one credit card payment. That payment might not have even been owed to that credit card company to trigger the higher rates. Several months ago, credit card companies raised their minimum payment requirements from an average of 2% to 4%. There are about 45 million people in the United States without health insurance or that are underinsured. 41% of moderate to middle income adults don't have adequate health insurance coverage. Homebuilder sentiment slumped to an 11-year low in May amid rising mortgage rates, declining affordability and the retreat of speculators, the National Association of Home Builders reported. All three of the index components for the housing market — current sales, sales expectations for the next six months and traffic of prospective buyers — slid in May amid rising mortgage rates. People who refinanced or purchased a new home 3-5 years ago and went with an adjustable rate, are now going to start feeling the pressure of the new payments that will start to go into effect. Close to 40% of people polled in USA today said that they have had to cut back on ordinary purchases to keep up with the increase in gas prices. To top all of this off, according to a study by Harris Interactive for the National Council on Economic Education, two-thirds of adults polled did not have a good understanding of basic economic and personal finance concepts. Can the American consumer handle a credit card payment based upon 30% interest, or the increase in minimum payment requirements, coupled with additional fuel costs of $200 per month? How about when you add in an additional increase of $250 for your newly adjusted mortgage payment? Think you can sell your house and pay off your debts? If there is a drastic housing market correction, you may not even be able to sell your house for what you bought it for. Even a 10-15% correction will leave a good amount of the American homeowners under water. It happened in the late 1980's and all economic indicators are now saying that we are entering into a buyers market. Credit card debt has quadrupled since 1990. Middle-income Americans that do not have proper or any health insurance is up 28% from 2001. Fuel prices continue to remain high. With global demand, prices in the United States may level off but are not expected to go down. If we have another record hurricane season this year and continue to have instability in the Middle-East (and elsewhere), prices may very well continue to rise. With just two or three of these patterns colliding with the American family, it will result in the perfect financial storm that many may not be able to weather. To learn about your financial options and managing you debt, log onto www.debtreliefoptions.com Jon Noble
Staff writer
Debt Relief Options
asktheexperts@debtreliefoptions.com
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