Mothering › Forums › Natural Family Living › The Mindful Home › Frugality & Finances › Have you seen Maxed Out- the documentary?
New Posts  All Forums:Forum Nav:

Have you seen Maxed Out- the documentary?  

post #1 of 37
4/2/08 at 10:22am
Thread Starter 
Oh my goodness... if you are waffling at all about carrying "a little bit" of credit card debt or need a shot in the arm to get your finances in order, this is the movie for you! It was awesome, in a shocking kind of way.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maxed_Out

http://www.maxedoutmovie.com/syn/index.html

I checked and it is available through Netflix and Blockbuster.

Has anyone else seen it?? I want to discuss it!
post #2 of 37
4/2/08 at 10:32am
Yup. We saw this and were shocked. How naive we were about the whole buisiness.

The worst part for us: we have a relative in the "collections" business. He actually operates one of these places. I have no idea how he manages his business - we're not at all close. But I still feel guilty by association. I mean "walk the plank"?!! Ugh.

Were you surprised at the Wells Fargo having a hand in those terrible paycheck cashing places? They sure have all the bases covered. :

Never has the word "predatory" seemed so apt.
post #3 of 37
4/2/08 at 10:43am
I cried so hard at the end!

I used to work for a couple of Payday Loan customers and it is SOUL SUCKING to work there. First, you have people who really, truly need help, and second you have the rest of the people who are just addicts (alcohol, drugs, or STUFF!) and they LIE to you and eventually you get to the point where you become jaded and believe that EVERYONE is lying to you. Ugh.
post #4 of 37
4/2/08 at 10:44am
It was a little while ago, but I saw it too. It was very good.

The collections folks were disgusting. I'd like to think they were just out of touch, but I wonder about them.

I'd like to read more by the professor that was featured in the movie.
post #5 of 37
4/2/08 at 10:45am
I saw it, too, but it was a while ago. I remember (I think it was this documentary... I've seen a lot) the part about the college students committing suicide because of the amount of debt they have??

Also... the women from Harvard that was talking about American spending practices has a book that I want to read called "the two income trap". It's about how these days most families have two incomes, but are no better off than those living on a single income years ago, and often worse off because there's twice the chance of being laid off (losing an income = not affording your life) or having serious financial trouble if you have a child that is frequently sick or a relative needs extra care, etc (i.e. you have to take time off work). It's written from a "let's fix society" viewpoint, not a "women should be back in the home" viewpoint (obviously she doesn't think that - she's a harvard professor, not a housewife or SAHM).
post #6 of 37
4/2/08 at 11:34am
Thread Starter 
I really thought the professor was articulate and I would be interested in reading more of her work too.
What about the part at the Senate hearings when the VP's from the credit card companies were saying how they think consumers use credit responsibly and they care for their customers? *insert vomit smiley*
It is so sad the number of people that feel that they have no way out....
post #7 of 37
4/2/08 at 11:35am
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by insahmniak View Post
Were you surprised at the Wells Fargo having a hand in those terrible paycheck cashing places? They sure have all the bases covered. :

Never has the word "predatory" seemed so apt.
My husband was very surprised by this. Our mortgage is with Wells Fargo.
He's a little less happy about this today.
post #8 of 37
4/2/08 at 11:48am
This is on my Netflix queue-- I can't wait to see it!

My husband and I were laughing at our credit card company the other day because we can tell they're getting a little frustrated with us (we pay off our balance every month, after putting our bills on it, and are saving up our rewards points for something fun). They've just increased our credit limit by another $1,000, keep sending us those credit card 'checks' (I don't know what to call them-- they're for using our card, but in check form), and keep decreasing our minimum amount due. They may as well write on the statement, 'PLEASE, don't you know we're trying to make money off of you? C'mon, help us out here!'

As an aside-- is there any way to find out what banks use unethical practices to make money (like Wells Fargo)? Is there a watchdog group or something like that out there? That would be a great resource for consumers, I believe.
post #9 of 37
4/2/08 at 12:13pm
This sounds really good.

I think I'll add it to our Blockbuster queue. (It's the cheapest plan they have, promise!)

I hope it comes by the weekend so DH and I can watch it. Cause nothing says hot date night like watching a documentary on credit cards...
post #10 of 37
4/2/08 at 12:17pm
I loved the movie! It truly inspired me to look at debt in a whole different way.
post #11 of 37
4/2/08 at 12:52pm
We finished watching this a few weeks ago - great documentary.

For those of you with Netflix, you can now stream it from their website - you don't have to wait for it to come in the mail.

Same with the Business of Being Born.
post #12 of 37
4/2/08 at 2:08pm
DH is a grad student and was able to find this in his school library for free not long ago. We rented it after reading about it here.

We are fortunate to not have CC debt, but we have friends and family members that have had their quality of lives, etc. destroyed by these companies.

I believe in personal responsibility, but when you see how these companies operate, it is maddening. I mean, I had some idea of how bad it was beforehand, but this documentary really crystallized that for me.

DH and I don't want to use our cards at all anymore after seeing this. Even though we don't have the debt issue with them, we feel like we shouldn't even be allowing them to profit from our transactions w/ merchants.

Very eye opening. I agree, the woman from Harvard was great and I didn't realize she authored the Two Income Trap (which I've been meaning to read anyway).
post #13 of 37
4/2/08 at 8:47pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by notwonamesalike View Post
We finished watching this a few weeks ago - great documentary.

For those of you with Netflix, you can now stream it from their website - you don't have to wait for it to come in the mail.

Same with the Business of Being Born.




I actually just received both of these today from Netflix!
post #14 of 37
4/2/08 at 10:00pm
Dh and I watched this together last fall right after we started the Dave Ramsey plan.

I think it should be shown in every high school Home Ec class.
post #15 of 37
4/2/08 at 11:16pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by beccalou79 View Post

As an aside-- is there any way to find out what banks use unethical practices to make money (like Wells Fargo)? Is there a watchdog group or something like that out there? That would be a great resource for consumers, I believe.
Pretty much any bank that is national abuses their customers and/or employees.

Bank of America, Chase, and Wells Fargo are three banks that I REFUSE to do business with. I had an account of BofA and they screwed me over, I had an account with Norwest, that got all screwed up when WF bought them, and I worked for BankOne when Chase acquired them and I got screwed over as an employee.

I prefer credit unions. They are friendlier and know that when you say "We don't do debt" to NOT bring it up again, and again, and again.... (Unlike DH's bank, Fifth Third.... )
post #16 of 37
4/2/08 at 11:16pm
I actually didn't like the movie. Sorry!

There were some good parts- I did enjoy the Harvard professor. And I was shocked by some of the predatory lending that occured, especially concerning the people who were obviously mentally impaired.

But I was totally put off by all of the sob stories. Although I have compassion for the people who lost family members to suicide after going into debt, I think it's a stretch to blame the credit card companies. I was also turned-off by the soldier's wife who was crying about having trouble paying for her truck and camper.

As for the collection agents, I think they showed the worst of the worst. Yes, I think it's awful that collection agents stoop to that level. But I have a hard time believing that is typical. I've worked in collections in the past, and it was NOTHING like what was portrayed in the movie.

Basically, I thought the emotional parts of the movie were overdone, but I enjoyed the factual information.

A similar documentary that I enjoyed more is The Secret History of the Credit Card, which was on PBS's Frontline. You can watch it for free on the PBS website:
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/credit/
post #17 of 37
4/3/08 at 10:33am
Thanks, Annethcz! I'll have to check that out. Anyone know of more debt/money documentaries? I love watching documentaries...
post #18 of 37
4/3/08 at 12:36pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by annethcz View Post
I actually didn't like the movie. Sorry!

There were some good parts- I did enjoy the Harvard professor. And I was shocked by some of the predatory lending that occured, especially concerning the people who were obviously mentally impaired.

But I was totally put off by all of the sob stories. Although I have compassion for the people who lost family members to suicide after going into debt, I think it's a stretch to blame the credit card companies. I was also turned-off by the soldier's wife who was crying about having trouble paying for her truck and camper.

As for the collection agents, I think they showed the worst of the worst. Yes, I think it's awful that collection agents stoop to that level. But I have a hard time believing that is typical. I've worked in collections in the past, and it was NOTHING like what was portrayed in the movie.

Basically, I thought the emotional parts of the movie were overdone, but I enjoyed the factual information.

A similar documentary that I enjoyed more is The Secret History of the Credit Card, which was on PBS's Frontline. You can watch it for free on the PBS website:
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/credit/
I saw it too, and felt that same way that you do.

I didn't really feel sorry for most of the people. I did feel bad for the parents whose kids committed suicide, and I felt really mad about how they took advantage of the mentally impaired. That one man could barely write his name, much less understand credit.

But several of the other people just need to stop over-consuming.
post #19 of 37
4/3/08 at 2:06pm
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by zersha View Post
I saw it too, and felt that same way that you do.

I didn't really feel sorry for most of the people. I did feel bad for the parents whose kids committed suicide, and I felt really mad about how they took advantage of the mentally impaired. That one man could barely write his name, much less understand credit.

But several of the other people just need to stop over-consuming.
Well I agree, but how many people do you know that are strong enough as individuals to stand up and say "No, I won't buy all this crap."
Not enough apparently if the national AVERAGE credit card debt per family is $9000.

It was very sad to see the anguish the mothers experienced when their college students comitted suicide (presumably) over credit card debt.

Devastating.
post #20 of 37
4/5/08 at 11:03pm
Here is the link on Google video:
Maxed Out

I am watching it right now. How fascinating! And sad.
New Posts  All Forums:Forum Nav:
  Return Home
  Back to Forum: Frugality & Finances
This thread is locked  
Mothering › Forums › Natural Family Living › The Mindful Home › Frugality & Finances › Have you seen Maxed Out- the documentary?