新标准大学英语四4单元

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The credit card trap1

I have a confession. Several years ago, I was standing in a queue to collect some theatre tickets for my family, and my friend was doing the same for hers. I got mine, and paid for them by credit card, feeling contented by the convenience of this cash- free transaction. It was then her turn to pay. The whole operation passed as smoothly as mine, but my delight soon turned to abject shame. My credit card was a fairly pathetic, status-free dark blue, whereas hers was a very exclusive gold one.

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How did she do this? How could this be? I knew I earned more than her, my car was newer, and my house was smarter. How did she get to appear more flash than me? Now, I had a job which was as steady as any job was in those days – that's to say, not very, but you know, no complaints. I had a mortgage on my house, but then who didn't? I paid off all my credit debt at the end of the month, so although technically, I was in debt to the credit card company, it was only for a matter of a few weeks. So I assumed I had a good credit rating.

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Call me superficial, and I'm not proud of myself, but there and then, I was suddenly jealous of my friend. I decided I no longer wanted a blue card. I wanted a gold one. A gold card was suddenly indispensable, it would make me feel good with myself, and desirable to others. 5 So I applied for the most distinctive, shiny golden card the company offered. 6 I was turned down.4

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When I had recovered from the shock, which took several seconds, I asked why. It appears that because I pay my credit card bill both on time and in full, I'm not the kind of person that they want to have their gold credit card. They target people who are prone to impulse-buying, and potentially bad credit risks, tempted to spend more than they have, and liable to fall behind with repayments. Then they can charge them more interest, and earn more money. That's the way they do business.

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So does this explain why the credit card companies are luring impoverished students with unrealistic interest rates, like my kids? Three weeks ago, No. 2 daughter came home from university for the weekend. She's in her second term of her first year. She has a student loan of £3,000, like most of her friends, and a small allowance from her poor mother (ha!) for transport, books, living expenses. She wears clothes from the local charity shops, and rarely goes out. She hugged me (never usually does that) and then said, "Mum, I need to talk to you."

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"What is it, darling? Tell me everything." 11 "I've applied for a credit card, and I need someone to act as a guarantee for me. Is it OK if I put down your name? Thanks so much, Mum, must dash! Bye. "10

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After I'd hauled her back into the house, it transpired that her bank had written to her offering a credit card at a low interest for a trial three-month period, subject to suitability ... and so on. Her bank! I trusted them! They know even bett

er than I do how broke she is. 13 Here's a serious question. Why do they call them credit cards when it would be more accurate to call them debt cards?12

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Here's an even more serious story. Another friend's daughter, Kelly, was studying modern languages at university, and spent a year overseas. At some point in the year, there was a change of procedure, and Kelly's bank failed to allow her to access her funds in her current account, because the request was from outside the UK. Naturally, there was a lengthy correspondence while she tried to sort this out, so the delay in being able to access her funds meant that she went into the red, and her debts began to rise more than £200 above the agreed limit on her overdraft of £1,500.

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When Kelly got back home, the bank charged her £100 for going over the limit, and insisted she paid £30 a month to bring the balance back to below her limit. They omitted to tell her that she wasn't actually paying off the debt, but only the exorbitant interest on the overspend of the overdraft. So Kelly had to turn to her credit card which she had used sensibly and sparingly until that point. Because she was a student, and because she didn't use it much, naturally her credit limit was low.

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And not surprisingly, she couldn't pay off even the minimum payment on her credit card bill. So there were not only bank charges owing, but also credit card debts and interest. And of course, she was recorded as being a bad credit risk.

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Things then went from bad to worse. A few months into her final year, the bank notified her that it was going to reduce her overdraft from £1,500 to £1,000. They told her to apply for a student loan to cover the rest. But when the loan company did a credit check, they discovered the card debt. Guess what? She didn't get the loan.

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This was a delightful kid who had great restraint with her spending and was economical about her lifestyle. She didn't go on spending sprees buying new shoes, and she didn't use her credit card as if (unlike me) it was a fashion item. She used it to buy food, to survive. 21 And what happened? She had to drop out of university.20

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I wish there was a happy ending to Kelly's story, although maybe there will be. For the moment, she's working in the local supermarket, and it's probable that she'll have another go at university when she has paid off her debts. So this is what the banks do. They set traps which appeal to our vanity and greed and sometimes to our basic need for survival. And then when we fall into the trap they shout "Got you! Didn't you realize it was a trap?"

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And here we are today, caught in the creditcrunch, with world economies in free fall, all because the wicked bankers set us traps which we fell into, attracting us with endless publicity for loans of money which even they didn't have! It now appears they were borrowing on their own flashy gold credit cards too. So I

have a solution to the credit card trap, and I want all of you to listen to me very carefully.

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I want you to lay out all of your credit cards in a line, take a large pair of scissors and cut them into small pieces. Then put them in an envelope and send them to your bank, with a letter saying (more or less) "I trusted you and you deceived me. You've got the whole world into this ridiculous credit card trap, and if I now cut your cards in half, and take away your potential to tempt money away from honest people like me, maybe it will be your turn to learn what it's like to run out of cash."

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As for me, I don't want any more credit cards, no more status symbols, no more bad feelings about wishing I could show how superior I am to others. I'm not going to yearn any more for what I cannot afford or cannot have.

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信用卡陷阱1

有一件事我得坦白。几年前，我排队为家人取戏票时， 我的朋友也在为她的家人取票。我拿到了票，用信用卡付了 账，对这种非现金交易的便利感到很满意。然后就轮到她付 款了，整个交易也进行得同样顺利，但我的高兴劲儿很快就 变成了莫大的羞耻：我的信用卡太寒酸了，是不显示身份地 位的深蓝色卡，而她的信用卡则是高级的金卡。

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她是怎样弄到金卡的？怎么会这样呢？我知道我挣得比 她多，我的车比她的车新，我的家比她的家漂亮，她怎么看 起来显得比我光鲜呢？ 我有一份跟那时候任何工作相比还算安定的工作——虽 然不是非常安定，不过我也没什么可抱怨的。我是通过按揭 贷款买的房子，可那会儿谁买房不贷款呢？我每个月底都付 清信用卡欠款。所以，虽然从技术上讲，我欠过信用卡公司 的钱，但只是欠几个星期而已。所以我认为我的信用等级应 该很高。

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你可以说我肤浅，而我也并不感到自豪。但就在当时当 地，我突然非常嫉妒那位朋友，我决定不要蓝色信用卡了， 我要一张金卡。金卡突然变得不可或缺，它会让我自我感觉 良好，会让别人觉得我更有魅力。 于是，我去信用卡公司申请最特别、最耀眼的金卡。 可是，我的申请被拒绝了。

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过了几秒钟，我才从这个打击中回过神来，我问自己 为什么被拒绝。显然，因为我每次都按时全额付清信用卡欠 款，所以我不是他们想要的那种金卡客户。他们的目标客户 是那些随时有购物刷卡的冲动、有潜在信用风险、经不住诱 惑超支消费、并且经常延期还款的人。这样他们才有机会收 取更多的利息，挣更多的钱，这就是他们的经营之道。

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这能够解释为什么信用卡公司会用超低利率诱惑像我们 家孩子那样的穷大学生吗? 三个星期前，我的二女儿回家过周末。她在读大一第二 学期。

和她的大多数朋友一样，她借了3,000 英镑的学生贷 款，并从她可怜的妈妈(哈！)那里得到一小笔补贴，用于 支付交通费、书费和生活费用。她穿的衣服是从当地的慈善 商店买来的，并且她平时也很少出门。她拥抱了我( 她以前 从不拥抱我),然后说：“妈妈，我有事要跟您商量。”

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