Nick Wolney
speaker
54 appearances
1 recordings
1 series
first heard Dec 2024
last heard Dec 2024
Nick Wolney’s voice in public audio — every appearance, attributed to the second.
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Appearances
That was introduced by Senator Hawley of Missouri, which was not on my bingo card that he would be the one to introduce that.
The last time it was introduced, it was introduced by Bernie Sanders. And AOC, sometimes politicians will introduce these laws even though they know they're going to die in a vote because it's a good political gambit for them, right? So Senator Hawley, when he's out on the campaign trail, people say, like, you're not fighting for the little guy. He'd be like, yeah, I did.
You know, I introduced this bill. You know, even though, you know, there's a tremendous amount of lobbying money from banks, understandably, that is flowing through DC at any given moment. So while we do see some of these different pieces of legislation emerge, you know, you go online to look at the status of the bill and it's been introduced.
You know, the stage that it's in is, okay, it's been introduced and it's with the committee and, you know, it's unlikely that it's going to see the light of day again.
There is. There is a policy fix. Whether or not we can bring it to fruition, I think, is the challenge. So the most immediate policy fix would be to cap interest rates and to just allow us to stop the bleeding in terms of consumers falling deeper and deeper into into debt, taking a really good look at what are the limits that we are extending to consumers.
We've got another, I'll just say it, we've got another villain in the picture, and that villain's name is Buy Now, Pay Later.
Yeah. And so what's tricky about Buy Now, Pay Later is that those companies have been skirting reporting requirements. And so for many people, we can't even see how much that they have out on Buy Now, Pay Later. At Bloomberg did a Harris poll last month where they found that a third of respondents said they have over $1,000 out on buy now, pay later. And this is four payments over six weeks.
It's purposely four payments so that they can skirt under the Truth in Lending Act, which once you get to five payments or more on any form of debt or any kind of loan – then you have a bunch of additional regulatory requirements that you have to adhere to. So that's why you almost always see it be for payments, usually over a six-week period.
And so it's sort of a cousin to the credit card, right? So now people already have all their credit card debt, and you can use your credit card for buy now, pay later as well.
If you have credit card debt, then it's just going back to the bones of personal finance, right? I like to say that when we come down to it, personal finance, it's just eight words. Make more money, lower expenses, invest the difference. And so if you're trying to pay down that debt and you want to put some extra money toward that debt,
then taking a good look at your budget, seeing where you could lower expenses, perhaps bringing some extra money into the picture, that's going to be the most impactful way to make a dent on those balances. Stop using the credit card. Maybe if you're someone who uses the digital wallet a lot, maybe it's time to take those cards out of your wallet just so that you're not...
tempted in the moment to shop or to spend, things like that. It could also be time to do some of those maybe more unsavory financial activities. You call your cell phone company to see if you can get your bill lowered. You call the credit card company to see if you can get the APR lowered. There's plenty of free scripts and stuff like that online.
I know it doesn't sound like much, but 50 or 100 bucks a month of savings, it really adds up. It's over $1,000 a year when you add it up. And for many people, that can help make the biggest difference. We need some policy change that is about the cost of living as well, not just about the credit card as the instrument.
Because I think, you know, despite their best intentions, consumers are going to keep using that tool to make ends meet for as long as it's available to them and for as long as prices are at where they're at right now.
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