Roughly 309 million people in the US (http://www.census.gov/population/www/popclockus.html), with approximately 27.5% under the age of 19 (http://www.census.gov/population/www/socdemo/age/age_sex_2008.html). That leaves about 224 million adults. And 70 million is... 31% of that.

...

And now I don't know where I was going with that. I suppose I'm wondering what that number was over the course of the last decade or so, except that's not quite it.

Going to get a cup of coffee and ponder this.

Ohhh nice. I am scared to see what is going to happen!

All I can say is...we asked for it! We want a more stable system, so this is what it takes to extend credit to these people. I think they're serving a formerly unmet need that's only going to grow as credit gets tougher.

Let me ask this - if a friend asked you for $300 to buy an Xbox and a few games, would you do it? What if you know he has renegged on his debts before? What if he's a complete stranger and you know he's renegged on his debts before?

Exactly...so the card companies have erred on the side of leniency (as far as extending credit) in the past b/c they've been able to make up for it with fees and interest rate hikes (often deviously hidden and implemented). Now, with more transparency, we're forcing them to price for the credit risk. This is a good thing - people can take it or leave it, and clearly some people still want to take it. That is our (consumers') punishment for those who used credit unwisely and unaccountably for long.

Ha! Sign me up for one of those! Maybe we can get a few referreal commissions if we start pushing these cards on our blogs!

In response, I would like to add, that my credit score is in the 600s and getting lower as I pay off and cancel one credit card after another. I have no late occurrences or defaults on anything in the past 5 years, but Ive grown sick of being in servitude to the lenders. At the same time I am learning to keep cash in reserve for the unexpected, and to live within my means. I'm sure there are times when having a high credit score would be preferable...Ill let you know when that happens.

I should be clear here that I personally have no problem with the gouge-your-eyes-out APR rates discussed here. As Greg says, Mama Government has mandated that much of the hidden, tricksy stuff that lenders got by on for so long now has to come out in the open.

Fine. So 79.9 APRs are what we get. As long as people know the terms going in, it's all good.

But what will inevitably occur, of course, is that now consumer advocacy groups will unleash their PR forces to decry the "predatory" nature of cards like this -- even though it's all out in the open and easy to find. How such rates are unfair to those borrowers who can least afford them.

My view: It ain't "unfair" if you can see it coming. It ain't "predatory" if you can take it or leave it.

Cue the outcry in 3 ... 2 ... 1 ...

You're right, Michael - that was my point too. You can't ask for transparency and then complain about unfair or predatory practices (unless there is a monopoly, which there isn't). I haven't heard yet whether anyone's actually "complaining" about the 79.9% rate (clearly those signing up for it aren't) - to me, I've read these reports as explaining how card companies are reacting to the legislation. We'll see if the stories start casting stones at the card companies or if rates that once seemed usurious are now deemed acceptable "as long as people know what they're getting into". If we start legislating transparent fees that are too high, customers with poor credit will have little access to money, which may or may not be a bad thing depending on where you stand on this issue.