Credit Karma ordered to pay users falsely pre-approved for credit cards

Let’s start with interest rate hikes and obviously the Fed is trying to combat inflation. They’re raising the rates and *** lot of analysts I’ve been watching have said, you know what they’re gonna raise it all year and then in 2023 they’re gonna start cutting the rates then all of *** sudden this week, they say. You know what, I think we’re gonna hold the rates, it’s kind of feeling like they’re gonna hold the rates high through all of 2023 and now the market’s crashing the rates are going up. You know, what does this mean for my credit card bill? It was *** little jarring this week, right. It’s this idea of, okay, I think people are comfortable through the end of the year reducing their spending. We’re, we’re all understand that the real estate market may come back *** little bit as mortgage rates go up and we’re all somewhat comfortable with not really our credit card interest rates going up *** little bit, but you have to your point, this is why the market was rocked this week because there’s this feeling now that this is going to go *** little deeper into 20 23 and this could mean that this recession that arguably we are in now could go into the third or fourth quarter of 2023. And so I think the Fed’s move is extra cautious to make sure that does not happen if I have credit card debt right now, which so many people do, what should I be doing? Should I be focusing all of my money on paying that down? And is there another part of my life that I should maybe be spending less. So I don’t have these rates keep going up. People can’t get out from underneath that at some point. People certainly shouldn’t be sitting on an excess of savings. So once you have like *** few $1000 saved, if you’re able to do that, Then don’t sit on the additional money pay off your credit card debt. Because those rates are climbing so quickly. You know when, when rates are low 3% or something like that, you could argue it makes sense to carry *** balance. I don’t like the argument, but I would listen to it when it gets to 14%, you’re talking about before you know it your your balance doubling. So Uh Jeff I actually want people to feel like they felt in March and April and May of 2020 and use that feeling to stoke their behavior to make some changes right now towards that credit card debt. You gotta take the money out of your savings if you have *** stockpile there and this is designed to pay it to start paying credit card bills off. Yeah, don’t wipe yourself out right, leave yourself *** few $1000 be prudent. But at the same time like if it really if you’re sitting on like four or 56 months of savings if you’re fortunate enough to do that stop because you’re earning close to nothing on it and you’re paying *** ton in credit card debt. Yeah. That’s *** good question. How how long should we have in the bank for savings? I like three months. But I also say that knowing how hard that is to do but people got better in 2020. Like people were actually starting to stack it as the kids might say in 2021, they were unloading it. So we find ourselves in *** weird space right now that I don’t know if people realize that we’re tightening as much as we are. Is there *** way to call the credit card companies or any debt that we have and say you know what I paid my bills on time. Is there any negotiation allowed here Or is this like paint by numbers? It is what it is. Or can you say look I’ve been *** good customer for 15 years. I need some help right now. Can you lower my, can you do that? You can try. I mean we’ve all tried to lower our cable bill from time to time. That way I think. Yeah it does it does work. Here’s what I would say is maybe talk about *** balance transfer, call them up and say hey I’m considering transferring my balance to *** lower interest rate card. I’d rather not do that. Are you willing to bring my rate down *** little bit. Uh That’s *** reasonable thing to do And something else, by the way, I don’t want to go too far off topic, but this is *** great tip. These credit card companies have retention departments and you can sometimes call up and say, you know what? I’m sick of paying this rate. Another credit card. I’m about to leave you guys and another credit card committee is gonna give me *** better rate. They’ll send you to in many cases to our retention and they’ll give you some money back. In some cases, they’ll just say, hey, here’s 300 bucks for you to stay. And I would note this. Um, you attract more bees with honey than you do vinegar. So if you’re going to negotiate with these people, just be nice. You’re not trying to rake them over the coals, Be nice to them, you’re gonna get *** lot further with them. Like, hey, I love, I love being *** love being *** customer. You guys have been great, but I gotta go where the better rate is. What are you gonna do for me? Um, let’s talk about student loans. Where do you stand on it? I mean you have democrats shooting inside the tent? You know, you have republicans obviously who are saying it’s inflationary. Where do you stand? I think you can have really complex feelings about this like I do right, I, there’s some good and there’s some unforeseen consequences coming down the road. So there’s two major problems, You know, this Jeff, the two problems are college is very expensive. Okay. And the second problem is that has created *** lot of student loan debt. And so this is an attempt to take care of the second problem which is *** lot of student loan debt. And in so doing I think it’s going to make college more expensive. So I’m thrilled for people why? Why? Why? Why? Yeah, there’s *** couple different reasons why we already have college presidents going on the record. But anonymously saying now they feel less pressure to keep the cost of tuition down. Um the more accessible student loans are the higher the price of college can go. And there are studies that show there is *** direct correlation there. Now there’s *** secret part of this executive order. That secret. That sounds *** little salacious. There’s *** part that people don’t know about and it’s that um income-based repayments may be capped at 5% of *** person’s income. Exactly right. Here’s what it means is that there’s gonna be *** point in time where based on what your income is. If you do income based repayment, there’s just gonna be this payment that you’re gonna make no matter how much student loan debt you have. If I get out of school with $60,000 in student loans or I get out of school with $180,000 in student loans, it’s still that 5% payment. And so if, if that’s the case, *** lot of people are just gonna go, well, I’ll go to the better school, what’s it really matter? I’m gonna be stuck at that 5%. And so that’s where this thing gets an ugly half life to it and which could cost *** lot of us who have kids who are gonna go to college one day, we hope. Um, and it’s gonna cost, I mean, it’s already outrageous. I have, I mean, look, I have concerns about that aspect of this. You know, there’s *** lot of people upset, be upset if you want that. I’m not gonna talk you off the ledge there, but I will say this if you’re *** parent of an elementary middle school or high school student right now, what happened last week is gonna have *** bigger impact on you than anyone arguing about what is fair in terms of forgiveness. Eight million people are going to have their accounts just automatically wiped out and they don’t have to do *** thing. The rest of everyone else who could qualify is going to have to show some proof of income and they’re going to have to fill out *** particular form. So, and there’s also the idea that it’s slightly possible that this never happens right, that there could be legal challenges around that. Clearly not *** legal expert. I’d have *** nicer shirt on if I if I was, but I would say that there’s *** slight possibility that all of this is for not for the Fed to combat inflation. They’re having to shrink the economy. We’re hearing about layoffs, big layoffs, big layoffs at *** lot of companies. Um, there’s gonna be some pain here. There is that, that’s why this is tough to talk about, you know, even in this format, right? It’s that we’re trying to get our head around what’s happening and it’s, to some degree, it marginalizes the people going through the worst 30,000 ft talking about this imaginary thing called the economy, not imaginary, but it’s not *** real person, doesn’t have feelings, but there are people who truly will lose their livelihoods, who are going to go through some intense, intense pain. And it’s hard to sort of look at like this thing that’s the economy and put that over people’s emotions and people’s families. It’s incredibly hard and, and that’s why *** lot of the sort of political exchange that we have today wants to make everything very binary. It’s either this or it’s this, It’s never this or this. It’s, it’s, it’s really complex because it’s people’s livelihoods. Like you said, maybe it’s *** college grad that just graduated in May of 2022, started *** job, got laid off, you know, three months later and now they’ve got *** ton of student loan debt, much more than $10,000. And so it’s, it’s gonna be tough. And I, you know, I’m not *** predictions guy, but I would look for it to get increasingly tougher through the second quarter or so of 2023, so you just need to mentally prepare yourself for tougher times.