WHAT A SHOCK. Banks aggressively push plastic on consumers and suddenly more card holders fail to meet payments.
Another absolute stunner is that bank profits last year benefited from the increase of cards being issued and the amount being spent as a result, despite rising default rates.
So banks push the cards. More people take them up. They spend more. Banks make some attractive profits. But some people cannot meet payments any more. They default. But the pros still outweigh the cons for the bank.
What is hard to swallow is the whingeing by certain banks when the defaultees file for bankruptcy. The blame of course lies with the attractiveness of a bankrupt being able to clean their slate after four years.
This, banks argue, encourages consumers to spend. It's not the extra card being rammed into their faces or the attractive and tempting credit limits on offer to help, say, pay the rent after the card owner has been laid off.
It's that blasted four-year discharge.