Maxed Out Documentary

After cancelling HBO from my satellite package in an effort to save money, my wife was constantly wanting to order pay-per-view movies.  It’d be cheaper to keep the HBO.  The compromise was to get a Netflix subscription, so we could get a couple movies each week.

Netflix also has a lot of movies you can watch as streaming video on your computer.  This week I watched the documentary “Maxed Out” that came out in 2006.

I’d recommend the film to anyone who is in debt or better yet, anyone thinking about getting into debt.  It’s deals a lot with the way the credit industry seems to prey on those most likely not able to pay back their debt.  How they would prefer the debtor to make minimum payments forever and never pay off the debt.

There are scenes about debt collectors, pawn shop owners, and payday loan businesses.  They interview people whose family members committed suicide due to overwhelming debt.  They interview a woman expecting a foreclosure at any time and she talks about suicide.  It’s very sad to think that someone would take their own life to avoid the embarrassment of some financial difficulty.  There is nothing a finance company can do to you that is worth that!  If they take some of your belongings back, so be it.  It’s just STUFF!  They could give you a bad credit score.  It’s just a NUMBER!  As long as your alive and kicking, there’s always time to turn things around and get on a path to a better financial future.

I did enjoy the film, but it’s not perfect.  It puts most of the blame on the financial industry and doesn’t deal much with the bad decisions we as debtors have made.  Sure I was angry when my credit card company raised my interest rate and minimum payment to a level I couldn’t afford, but it was my decision every time I used those cards and everytime I only paid the minimum payment.  I acknowledge my mistakes.

While I think they should have spent a little more time discussing both sides of the problem, the stories about the credit card companies are worth seeing and that’s reason enough to recommend it to others.