Low Interest Credit Cards

When a loved one passes on, financial burden can increase the family’s hardship and suffering. With so many life expenses ranging from mortgages to car loans to credit card debt, student loans, and everything in between, it’s a common worry to think about the future of large debts and whether or not that debt is inherited. Before worrying too much over inheriting debt, it is important to understand what actually happens when a loved one passes on and leaves a large debt behind.

So what happens when someone with a large amount of credit card debt dies? Is the debt left behind for their families or surviving spouse to pay off? Is the debt forgiven? Is it settled somehow, along with the funeral arrangements?

The answer is, it really depends.

“Whether you inherit debt or not depends on the state you are in ,” says Assistant Professor Mitzi Lauderdale from the Undergraduate Program Director in the Division of Personal Financial Planning at Texas Tech University.

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Some accounts indicate consumer protection reforms of 2010 helped people reduce consumer debt last year, despite grim projections for some on its potential effects. After the passing of the CARD Act, credit card interest rate hikes subsided and the trend toward reducing overall credit debt continued in America, although the debit interchange reform is likely to see the death of many free banking services thanks to its channeling revenue streams. Still, revolving credit debit currently stands at only 800.5 billion, nearly its lowest point in two years, and some issuers have actually eliminated fees like penalty APRs for cardholders who miss payments. These conclusions, drawn by a BillShrink personal debt survey, also show the CARD Act prevented issuers from raising certain rates, in addition to other notable provisions including 45 days’ notice on fee and rate changes and a cap on penalty fees so that they don’t exceed the cost of the offense that activated the fee .

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When most of us find ourselves so incredibly deep in debt — credit card or otherwise — there’s not much we can do. If we’re lucky, our creditors will work with us to make a deal and lower our interest rate or give us more time to pay off what we owe. Rarely is debt ever just forgotten or canceled — that is, unless you are an impoverished country.

It’s been announced that a group of countries are canceling about $1 billion of debt that Afghanistan owes them. In March 2009, Afghanistan’s public debt was estimated at $2.1 billion; half of that is owed to the Parish Club, which, according to CNN, is “an informal group of creditor governments from major industrialized countries that meets monthly in Paris with debtor nations on restructuring their debts.”

The club is forgiving the debt partly because of Afghanistan’s involvement in the program Heavily Indebted Poor Countries.

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Lesbian sex, abortion, gay marriage and … credit card debt.

That mixed bag of hot-button topics is just a small sampling of what’s in Esquire’s “Survey of American Women,” released in the May 2010 issue. The just-for-fun study complied the results of about 10,000 women who took the men’s magazine survey online between Feb. 4 and March 3, 2010.

Most of the questions centered around relationships (If you knew you wouldn’t be caught, would you cheat?), sex (If you were or are a lesbian, what celebrity would you sleep with?) and plain old hawtness (Who’s the best looking man in America? Hint: See picture above.) But readers also got a small peek at the financial habits of today’s Esquire-reading women.

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People who have been struggling for months or years to eliminate their credit carddebt can take heart from others who have achieved this goal.

For example, a recent CNNMoney.com report profiled several consumers who now live on a “cash only” basis after having eliminated debts that in some cases exceeded $20,000. The report noted that some difficulties come up from making such changes, like keeping track of purchases, dealing with sudden expenses, and making travel reservations.

In most cases, these people continue to use debit cards as well as cash, notes CNNMoney.com, and things like emergency savings reserves and carefully-drawn budgets are standard practice for them as well.

Even if the dream of a debt-free life is far away or feels impossible for many Americans, it hasn’t stopped people from making considerable progress since the recession got underway. In the third quarter of 2008, the nation’s combined revolving consumer credit debt peaked around $957.3 billion. Read more…