这是否解释了为什么信用卡公司用不切实际的利率来吸引贫困学生，就像我的孩子一样?
Three weeks ago, No.2 daughter came home from university for the weekend. She’s in her second term of her second term of her first year. She has a student loan of $3000, like most of her friends, and small allowance from her poor mother (ha!) for transport, books and living expenses. She wears clothes from the local charity shops, and rarely goes out. She hugged me (never usually does that) and then said, “Mum, I need to talk to you.”
三周前，二女儿从大学回来度周末。这是她的第二个任期。和她的大多数朋友一样，她有3000美元的学生贷款，还有她可怜的母亲给的一点交通费、书本费和生活费。她穿着当地慈善商店的衣服，很少出门。她拥抱了我(通常从不这样做)，然后说:“妈妈，我需要和你谈谈。”
“What is it, darling? Tell me everything. ”
“怎么了，亲爱的?”告诉我一切。\
“I’ve applied for a credit card, and I need someone to act as a guarantor for me. Is it OK if I put down your name? Thanks so much, Mum, must dash! Bye. ”
“我申请了一张信用卡，我需要一个人做我的担保人。我把你的名字写下来可以吗?非常感谢，妈妈，我得赶紧走了!再见。\
After I’d hauled her back into the house, it transpired that her bank had written to her offering a credit card at a low interest rate for a trail three-month period, subject to suitability … and so on. Her bank! I trusted them! They know even better I do how broke she is.
我把她拉回家后，发现她的银行给她写了一封信，提供一种为期三个月的低利率信用卡，视情况而定……等等。她的银行!我信任他们!他们更清楚我知道她有多穷。
Here’s a serious question. Why do they call them credit cards when it would be more accurate to call them debt cards?
这是个严肃的问题。为什么他们叫信用卡，而更准确地说是债务卡呢?
Here’s an even more serious story. Another friend’s daughter, Kelly, was studying modern languages at university, and spent a year overseas. At some point in the year, there was a change of procedure, and Kelly’s bank failed to allow her to access her funds in her current account, because the request was from outside the UK. Naturally, there was a lengthy correspondence while she tried to sort this out, so the delay in being able to access her funds meant that she went into the red, and her debts began to rise more than $200 above the agreed limit on her overdraft of $1500.
这里有一个更严肃的故事。另一个朋友的女儿凯利(Kelly)在大学里学习现代语言，在海外呆了一年。在今年的某个时候，程序发生了变化，凯利的银行不允许她进入她的活期账户，因为这个请求来自英国以外。很自然，在她试图解决这个问题的过程中，她收到了一封很长的信件，因此，由于无法及时拿到她的资金，她出现了赤字，她的债务开始上升，超过了约定的1500美元透支限额200多美元。
When Kelly got back home, the bank charged her $100 for going over the limit, and insisted she paid $30 a month to bring the balance back to below her limit. They omitted to tell her that she wasn’t actually paying off the debt, but only the exorbitant interest on the overspend of the overdraft.
凯利回到家后，银行向她收取了100美元的超限费，并坚持要求她每月支付30美元，以使余额低于自己的限额。他们没有告诉她，她实际上并没有还清债务，只是因为透支而产生的过高的利息。
So Kelly had to turn to her credit card which she had used sensibly and sparingly until that point. Because she was a student, and because she didn’t use it much, naturally her credit limit was low.
所以凯利不得不求助于她的信用卡，在那之前，她一直理智而谨慎地使用信用卡。因为她是一名学生，也因为她不经常使用信用卡，她的信用额度自然很低。
And not surprisingly, she couldn’t pay off even the minimum payment on her credit card bill. So there were not only bank charges owing, but also credit card debts and interest. And of course, she was recorded as being a bad credit risk.
毫不奇怪，她甚至连信用卡账单上的最低还款额都还不清。因此，不仅有欠银行的费用，还有信用卡债务和利息。当然，她被记录为不良信用风险。
Things then went from bad to worse. A few months into her final year, the bank notified her that it was going to reduce her overdraft from $1500 to $1000. They told her to apply for a student loan to cover the rest. But when the loan company did a credit check, they discovered the card debt.
事情变得越来越糟。在她最后一年的几个月后，银行通知她将把她的透支从1500美元减少到1000美元。他们告诉她申请学生贷款来支付其余的费用。但是当贷款公司进行信用检查时，他们发现了信用卡债务。
Guess what? She didn’t get the loan.
你猜怎么着?她没有得到贷款。
This was a delightful kid who had great restraint with her spending and was economical about her lifestyle. She didn’t go on spending sprees buying new shoes, and she didn’t use her credit card as if (unlike me) it was a fashion item. She used it to buy food, to survive.
这是个讨人喜欢的孩子，花钱很节制，生活也很节俭。她不去花钱买新鞋，也不像(不像我)用信用卡买时尚单品。她用它来买食物，生存。
And what happened? She had to drop out university.
发生了什么?她不得不从大学退学。
I wish there was a happy ending to Kelly’s story, although maybe there will be. For the moment, she’s working in the local supermarket, and it’s probable that she’ll have another go at university when she has paid off her debts.
我希望凯利的故事能有一个圆满的结局，虽然也许会有。目前，她在当地的超市工作，很可能等她还清债务后，会再去上大学。
So this is what the banks do. They set traps which appeal to our vanity and greed and sometimes to our basic need for survival. And then when we fall into the trap they shout “Got you! Didn’t you realize it was a trap?”
这就是银行所做的。他们设置陷阱，以满足我们的虚荣心和贪婪，有时甚至是我们生存的基本需要。当我们落入陷阱时，他们会大叫“抓住你了!”你不知道这是个圈套吗?”
And here we are today, caught in the credit crunch, with world economies in free fall, all because the wicked bankers set us traps which we fell into, attracting us with endless publicity for loans of money which even they didn’t have! It now appears they were borrowing on their own flashy gold credit cards too.
今天，我们陷入了信贷危机，世界经济一落千丈，这一切都是因为邪恶的银行家给我们设下了陷阱，让我们掉进了陷阱，他们没完没了地向我们提供贷款，而这些贷款连他们自己都没有!现在看来，他们似乎也在用自己的炫金信用卡借款。
So I have a solution to the credit card trap, and I want all of you to listen to me very carefully.
所以我有一个解决信用卡陷阱的办法，我希望你们所有人都仔细听我说。