Newly Bankrupt Raking In Piles of Credit Offers
NY Times, December 9th, 2005
TACOMA, Wash. - As one of more than two million Americans
who rushed to a courthouse this year to file for bankruptcy before a
tough new law took effect, Laura Fogle is glad for her chance at a
fresh start. A nurse and single mother of two, she blames her use of
credit cards after cancer surgery for falling into deep debt.
Ms. Fogle is broke, and may
not seem to be the kind of person to whom banks would want to offer
credit cards. But she said she had no sooner filed for bankruptcy, and
sworn off plastic, than she was hit with a flurry of solicitations from
major banks.
"Every day, I get at least two or three new credit
card offers - Citibank, MasterCard, you name it - they want to give me
a credit card, at pretty high interest rates," said Ms. Fogle, who is
41 and lives here. "I've got a stack of these things on my table. It's
tempting, but I've sworn them off."
Read more...