Maxed Out: Hard Times, Easy Credit and the Era of Predatory Lenders (2006) is an independent feature-length documentary film and (2007) book that chronicles abusive practices in the credit card industry.

The main premises of the documentary and book are that banks and other creditors deliberately market to people who are more likely to have problems paying and that the creditors benefit from connections to government, the debt collection industry, and from lawmaker apathy. …

Click PLAY or watch the trailer on YouTube.

How do credit card companies get away with 20% or 30% interest fees?

How can that be legal?

Shouldn’t they be prosecuted as loan sharks?

You can watch it online FREE.

… This business model is unsustainable. Sooner or later they’ll need to switch to a system where everyone pays a small amount for all loans. No more 0% interest if you pay it off by the end of the month.

GOAL — pay off my credit card debt in 2012. 🙂