Consumerist: EA is the worst company in America

Quote from Somesort : Agreed, people blame banks and lenders for our lovely economy, but no-one forced these people to buy these inflated houses.

However, banks also have to approve these loans, and when they approve loans that they know people can't afford, they're just as bad as the consumer. Then the banks get into financial trouble because of their loans that are in default and "need" bailout money.

It's a vicious circle really and everyone is to blame, excluding the people/banks who know their limits.

Quote from travathian : I wonder how things would have played out in a bracket with only gaming publishers.

I'd still have EA in the top 2. Of course I personally think Ubisoft is the worst.

Quote from thermoelectron : I'd still have EA in the top 2. Of course I personally think Ubisoft is the worst.

EA v. Activision. I'd get EA would still win.

Quote from aridneptune : What the... This makes no sense at all. First of all, the money these banks make from credit-card interest rates is only part of the picture. There's also the exchange fees they collect, and the entirety of the card-services unit at BoA makes less than the global markets unit (trading, investment banking etc.). Moreover, who's getting charged a 30% interest rate? I always pay my balance and get the rewards cards with obscene rates. I think the highest I have is a Citi card with 18% APR on balances.

There have been a number of people who missed one payment on some non-BoA account that then had their BoA interest rate bumped up to the highest level allowable by law.

Quote from Somesort : Agreed, people blame banks and lenders for our lovely economy, but no-one forced these people to buy these inflated houses. If people simply understood how to do some math and figure out that there was no chance in hell of ever paying for a house, they likely wouldn't have done that.

Eh, there were some people who were deceived by lenders, but I doubt they outnumber the people who were out to flip for profit or buying something they knew they couldn't afford. But even that wasn't enough to cause the economic meltdown, it was also the packaging of the bad loans into securities, and the top firms were basically requiring businesses to buy so much of the garbage collection in order to get some of the assets that were actually going to perform (meanwhile essentially betting against these customers, knowing that the bad loan packages would tank).
It really took people from all levels to screw us as good as we got.

Quote from Somesort : Agreed, people blame banks and lenders for our lovely economy, but no-one forced these people to buy these inflated houses. If people simply understood how to do some math and figure out that there was no chance in hell of ever paying for a house, they likely wouldn't have done that.

I think that is an issue too...I took farking geometry in HS but never ONCE did I get a lesson in AUTO LOANS or HOUSE BUYING. You know how much more beneficial that would have been?

I knew my limits and bought the $100k house; but I WAS approved for a $400k loan. No joke. How the FARK do you make a $2500 house payment AND BUY FOOD when you make $50k/yr

Quote from Curtieson : EA v. Activision. I'd get EA would still win.

because there are more fanboyism for CoD & Blizzard's game than all EA's games combined.

Quote from brendo927 : The whole Countrywide debacle comes to mind. BOA was known for having a tendency to jack your credit card rate up to 30%. I worked in the credit card industry and BOA was one of the worst ones besides Chase of course.

it was called universal default. all the companies had it. for some reason i want to say it was outlawed.

basically you miss a payment and they can jack your rate up. or if you missed a payment with a different card by a different company. it was in the fine print.

Quote from dayv : it was called universal default. all the companies had it. for some reason i want to say it was outlawed. basically you miss a payment and they can jack your rate up. or if you missed a payment with a different card by a different company. it was in the fine print.

Another great example of people blaming others for not understanding the agreements THEY signed.

Ill be the first to admit I dont read every agreement front to back. But I take responsibility for that, if I missed something in the fine print then that is on me.

I agree its both the consumer and the lenders fault we got into the mess we're in but its still immoral that these banks took advantage of uneducated people. And BOA and Chase both were the worst ones. Reason being when people asked for help they told people to fark off. Only after missing multiple payments were they willing to work with you. All the people who financed what they could afford and never missed payments really took the short end of the stick.

Quote from tresanus : Another great example of people blaming others for not understanding the agreements THEY signed. Ill be the first to admit I dont read every agreement front to back. But I take responsibility for that, if I missed something in the fine print then that is on me.

this is true if the person with whom you are entering an agreement does not give advice with the signing of the contract. You expect their advice to be accurate and in good faith. Considering people in this country do not know where South America is on a map, how do you expect them to have enough knowledge to be able to spot a shady mortgage deal? Of course those who signed the contracts are at fault but so are the shady banks who gave out high risk loans.

Quote from tresanus : Another great example of people blaming others for not understanding the agreements THEY signed. Ill be the first to admit I dont read every agreement front to back. But I take responsibility for that, if I missed something in the fine print then that is on me.

it actually wasn't in small print. it was part of the table that showed the APR/APY and fees. people just never really got it. the average consumer is a moron.

Its funny how most credit card agreements are 10X bigger than mortgage closing documents.

Quote from brendo927 : Its funny how most credit card agreements are 10X bigger than mortgage closing documents.

uh what? hasnt been that way for me. might be different for everyone i guess.

Quote from brendo927 : Its funny how most credit card agreements are 10X bigger than mortgage closing documents.

lol, you should see our refinance from 2 weeks ago. it was HUGE.

slickest deal ever = recent interest rates (although up a lot since we did our refi)