The economic recession which injured the economy of the US, prompted the government to initiate several debt relief programs. Principally, these 'programs' are laws and measures enforced to ensure public accountability. The government credit card debt relief program refers to the reforms enforced in the economy of the US.
There have been several rumors, hoaxes and notoriously misleading ‘facts’, that the United States government is going to bail out the entire debt ridden population by providing direct financial support. Unlike these hoaxes, the government debt relief program is a movement of economic and financial reformation in the United States.
The reforms which will help the people to get rid of their debts and also prevent such situations from occurring again is the ‘relief’ that the government aims at providing.
Within the total debt that was owed by the entire nation’s population, the debt of credit cards was found to be a major culprit. The Obama administration opened fired their guns of reform, relief and accountability on the bare and rock bottom truth that, the total credit card debt was getting out of hand and reaching obnoxious volumes.
✦ For example the total revolving debt in the United States as of 2011, as shot up to $793.1 billion. Reportedly, a large chunk, that is 98%, of it was made up of credit card debt.
✦ Shockingly, in the countless surveys taken, the average credit card debt ranged from $15799 to $8400, per household, during the recession.
✦ The total debt of consumers in May 2011 was reported to be $2.43 trillion, again a major chunk of it was as a result of credit card usage.
The United States government and the Obama administration has started what is known as a ‘age of accountability’, where a greater transparency and communication between credit card companies and consumers is being promoted. The government is however not providing any kind of’ ‘forgiveness’ of debt.
The government debt relief means that the government is promoting reform and is solving and ironing out all kinds of distortions and problems in the economy.
Government Relief for Credit Card Debt
The consumer in this country, and subsequently the economy of United States, is dependent on the concept of credit cards. An enormous volume of transactions, consumer and non consumer, are executed with the help of credit cards. The credit card companies almost drives the consumer sector of United States.
During the time of economic recession, a large volume of people were unemployed due to the real estate bubble that caused a number of banking systems to crumble. The after-effect of the lay off phase was not nice. As people, who had been laid off, were not able to repay their loans and were also not able to clear off their credit card bills.
The government in the year 2009 implemented the Obama credit card debt relief plan along with a methodology to clear the mess of economic recession, still being used today. The primary reaction of the United States legislative bodies was to pass a set of credit cards relief acts including that form the basis of economic reform there.
The prominent enactments include:
- Fair Debt Collection Practices Act which reformed the debt collection processes.
- Consumer Credit Protection Act which safeguarded the jobs of the people who had bad credit reports.
- Credit Card Reform Act 2009 which increased the accountability of credit card companies.
Apart from acts, the government debt relief policy also advocated use of several grants for people in certain difficulties, the prominent examples of such grants include, Federal grants for first time home buyers, people who wanted to undertake a mortgage and buy a home. The Obama administration also aimed at stopping the nose diving graph of the economy.
Grants such as Obama grants for dads and Obama grants for small business and Obama grants for women were passed. To help people cope up with the credit card bills and debts, government credit card debt counseling services were introduced with the help of Federal Trade Commission.
The government debt relief programs also aim at providing people with balanced APRs and better accountability. The government credit card debt relief program certainly started what is popularly termed as an era of accountability bringing in hope for American consumers.