Dave echos a sentiment I’ve begun to hear more and more often. Apparently, it’s getting more and more OK to walk away from ones mortgage:

This isn’t about having your credit score ruined or not being able to get another mortgage for a few more years. It also isn’t about a moral choice anymore, as I thought it was back in 2008. This is about people who have gotten screwed over by the very banks that we have been paying to keep in existence. The banks get all the help they need while the people get nothing – it’s a messed up system right now.

The logic here is truly mind-bending. Let me see if I can get this straight: Those darn banks got bailed out, which is unfair and shouldn’t have happened. But because we did go and bail them out, we should also bail out those people who borrowed far more than they should have. Which is also unfair, but you know, two wrongs always make a right. :roll:

As far as those people walking away from their homes, I have little sympathy for them. Nobody twisted their arm to get them to sign that mortgage contract. They rolled the dice in a game they shouldn’t have been playing. Just because they greatly discounted the odds of snake eyes coming up doesn’t mean they shouldn’t lose when it comes up. At the very least, *I* certainly shouldn’t be losing because they did.

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FHA loans — you know, those loans that, when push comes to shove, we as citizens get to insure — have risen to almost a quarter of all home loans from 3% just a few years ago. Why? Because apparently they don’t care who they loan to:

FHA also has tightened lending standards, requiring a 10% down payment for those with credit scores below 500.

When 10% down payment for a credit score below 500 is an indication of tightened standards, you just have to laugh. Or cry. :roll:

Someone with a score in that range has shown an obvious lack of financial acumen, and has no business with a credit card with a $1,000 limit much less a home loan of potential $100s of thousands. Until one has shown at least the modicum of restraint — and a sub-500 credit score is just about the exact opposite — the dream of home ownership should remain precisely that: a dream.

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American Express Changes Terms, and I Don’t Care

August 12, 2009

A letter showed up today letting me know that AMEX has decided it is about time to change terms on my Blue account. Namely, a pretty hefty jump up in my interest rate. Plus a ridiculous rate on cash advances — does anyone actually do them anymore, and if so, how clueless are they? Tack [...]

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Refinancing for Greater Than Present Value? Seriously?

July 6, 2009

photo credit: frankie_3011
When did we develop the memory abilities of a goldfish? Correct me if I’m wrong, but isn’t this type of stupidity what got us into a pretty serious mess in the first place?
I’m beginning to think it’s time to start saving in some other currencies, because Americans apparently remain too short-sighted to [...]

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Fully Funded Emergency Savings, And More

July 2, 2009

photo credit: me and the sysop
As I mentioned back when we killed off our non-mortgage debt, our next basic step was funding a real emergency savings account. As I’ve seen suggested just about everywhere, somewhere in that mythical 3- to 6- to 12-month worth of emergency cash was the goal.
The first thing I [...]

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Oh No, Don’t Make Us Screw Our Good Customers

May 19, 2009

I really have to laugh at the various credit card companies and their reaction to the imminent passage of new credit card legislation that curtails some of their most egregious activities. Threatening that they may just have to start screwing over their most responsible customers in order to make up for no longer being able [...]

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