Scott Walker’s High Interest Debt

A tip from reader Caroline: Matt Yglesias writes that Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker, a presidential hopeful, has a credit card that’s charging him a very high 27.24 percent interest rate. Walker’s financial disclosure report showed him carrying as much as $15,000 in credit card debt on a Barclay’s card issued to him last year. According to the Journal Sentinel, he’s also taken out more than $100,000 in student loans for his two college-age sons.

Scott Walker, essentially, is like a lot of Americans out there: struggling with debt, perhaps due to making a few financial mistakes, as that very high interest rate presumes. I’m not here to judge Scott Walker, though! Only he knows how his financial situation came about. There are many other things we can judge Scott Walker about.

Yglesias tries to give Walker some financial advice: take out a home equity loan with a lower interest rate to pay off the card, maybe, or try transferring the debt to a different card with a lower interest rate. Okay, sure, but people with high credit card interest rates usually don’t have the best credit, so getting approved for a new card might not be so easy.

Photo: Milwaukee VA Medical Center

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