Although the amount of money that Americans owe in credit card debt has actually gone down over the past year, reversing the trends of two decades, the most recent statistical estimates indicate that this has been only a temporary occurrence.
Once the newspapers reported a technical end to the economic recession, consumers slowly but surely began to pick up their old habits.
Despite double digit joblessness rates still traumatizing areas of the country, the brief societal pressure to cut corners and save for the future apparently vanished to the ether.
Consequently, the compiled credit card debt account balances for United States residents started to proportionally increase.
Folks just didn't seem to care nearly as much about the repercussions of their interest bearing credit card debt loads, and the national bill statement continued to rise.
Any day now, the total balance for all personally held credit card debt will surpass the barely conceivable sum of one trillion dollars.
What's worse, the recent shake up of the financial markets has disallowed many of the former methods of consolidation to which Americans had grown accustomed.
These sorts of financial...
coping mechanisms, shall we say, often proved to be more trouble than they were worth for the credit card debt borrowers and the nation as a whole.
Nevertheless, in accordance with the proliferation of easy credit card debt for consumers with negligible income and shaky to nonexistent repayment histories, home equity mortgages and lines of credit became all too commonplace as real estate prices fantastically escalated.
Home owners should have realized that the outrageous leaps seen in property appraisals could not possibly have been based on the actual market value of an ordinary residence located in an otherwise unchanged area.
Twenty or even thirty percent hikes in decent but hardly spectacular houses whose surrounding area featured historically flat appreciation - Stockton, say, or Sacramento - should have been an obvious warning sign against the credit card debt binge and consolidation equity loan purge of revolving debt balances.
To an even greater degree, such astronomical over valuations should have sent alarms flashing across Wall Street.
Moreover, the potential for foreclosure of family residences should've been immediately apparent to the (supposed, really) governmental oversight groups in Washington D.
C.
Alas, political pressure from the massive unsecured lender lobby took whatever measures necessary to aid the mortgage industry in their fight against even the slightest federal legislation precisely because they recognized how integral these consolidation loans had become to the expansion of personal debt.
For some families beset by medial bills and other financial obligations resulting from emergencies - including the substantial credit card debt balances that followed a significant stretch of unemployment - mortgage loan consolidation may indeed have sounded like the most efficient strategy.
Most assuredly, if the appraisal values still exist (remembering that interest rates spiral upwards once the lien or liens against the house pass eighty percent Loan To Value), a refinancing of the primary mortgage that could incorporate credit card debt bills may slice Annual Percentage Rates down to the low single digits for approved borrowers.
Of course, in return for the minimal rates, the heads of household must also keep in mind the likelihood that, unlike charged off credit card debt accounts, defaulted mortgages threaten foreclosure.
A United States citizen's home will more than likely be his most important investment over a lifetime.
That in mind, especially with such newfangled solutions as debt settlement negotiation reducing credit card debt balances by up to sixty five percent, all but the wealthiest borrowers should figure out some sort of system of compensation absent the dangers of putting a family on the street.