# CC Interest rates - seriously ?



## Gatos (Aug 16, 2016)

I keep getting these emails from Banamex - you have been pre-approved for a credit card. Last year we had a patrimonial account there (which we have since closed) which came with a free 'top-of-the-line' Citi credit card. Anyway - I started reading the fine print on this offer...

"Tasa de interés promedio ponderada anual 45.1%. Comisión anual $$900 sin IVA. Tasa variable. Para fines informativos y de comparación. Calculado el 13 de julio del 2016. Promoción válida del 25 de julio al 24 de septiembre del 2016."

Now in 33/34 years we have never paid a penny in CC interest but still...

Interestingly - we live in a small community of 44 houses. We have to pay an annual homeowner's fee and from time to time a special assessment. Like earlier this year they voted to repair the stamped concrete in a circle around a massive 'hawaiian-like' palm tree. They wanted something like $200 USD per household for the project. Seems like a heck of a lot of money considering there are 44 properties - that is close to $9,000 USD and we are talking a small piece (although perhaps 6-8" thick) of concrete - in Mexico.

So we paid the assessment on time but apparently 27 others did not. So - last night they sent out an email announcing that all late payers were to be charged 3% monthly interest - that amounts to about 43% annual rate !! And most of these people are well-educated, well todo Mexicans (excepting a few low-lifes like us). Apparently this same interest rate is to be applied to all due payments like the annual fee, water etc.

It always scares me when you see offers like - no interest for 18 months - somebody really needs to be looking out for people who don't know better...


----------



## Orfin (Sep 26, 2016)

Not surprising. Interest rates are very high in countries where the average person cannot afford to pay their own meager living expenses -not to metion interest on borrowed money.
I was cued into money lender schemes in Philippines where they told me if i put up a few thousand dollars, i could get a share of the interest they collected on lending it out. I asked how long would i get the interest share paid to me. They said perpetually. I asked about the principal amount and they said nothing.

I found out that they lend the money out and settle to just get interest payments made and defer the principal payments. The borrowers most often end up not being able to pay towards the principal and end up paying a perpetual interest only ,and even added penalties to the interest if it is ever late. The principal is collateralized by a business or property the money was used for and they end up owning property and business if things go wrong for the borrower.
Of course i told them i wasn't interested. My earnings come easier than most people in the country and its hard for me to see that as an opportunity to make things harder on those people just to make it even easier on myself. You really have to be lucky with a very lucrative business to have those lending schemes work. 
On the other hand, if you have money in the bank ,they offer more interest paid towards that account balance. 

I dont like it one bit, thats one reason why i don't expatriate. I split my time half and half between Home and abroad and keep based at home. No borrowing money either. I won't even live in an association in US where dues are charged unless its something like $100 a year. I have some land in a rural US area that charges non mandatory assoc.-dues and i pay $65 a year and thats ok. It seems like people end up forking over huge amount to people who tell them what they can and cannot do, how they can and cannot use thier homes. Codes and city ordinaces are enough as it is, but then to pay more for added strangulation by private party interests. ? And to think to make the same mistake in Countries rife with exploitation of people. ? 

Some day, they will close in so tight to have people pay to be cows in restraining pens for liberal milking by the people who are raking in the dough to pen up others for profit.


----------



## perropedorro (Mar 19, 2016)

Mexican credit cards have been abusive in both interest and terms ever since I can remember. Next to them American banks look downright philanthropic. Got some in-laws who are in the professional class, well-paid (for Mexico), economically stable, etc. and although they qualified for a platinum fee-free card they're required to use it at least once every billing cycle or they get dinged. Interest rates average 40%, can be up to 70 and is never below 20. Most also have a fee, a few hundred pesos annually, just for the privilege of having it. I need a Mexican card for certain purchases, mostly bus tickets, that won't take foreign cards. For a while last year, American cards also weren't accepted, in of all places, Tijuana. Anyway, while my savings are kept NOB, using my son's address, I keep a few few weeks worth of expenses in a peso account at Santander, even though their service sucks, and they give me a free MC logo debit card. That in combination with a U.S. CC with 0% fee for foreign purchases, I'm set.


----------

