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American Morning
Tragedy at Sago Mine; New Credit Card Rules
Aired January 06, 2006 - 08:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: We're beginning to hear stories now from the second crew at the Sago mine, the six miners who escaped the explosion on Monday morning.
Brian Todd talks to one man who made it out, but wasn't able to save his brother.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
BRIAN TODD, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Owen Jones looks out over these hills and thinks about what he lost and what he could have lost. Jones was deep inside the Sago Mine early Monday morning, not far behind his older brother Jesse.
JONES: There was no warning, no nothing, just an incredible amount of air, more than what you can possibly imagine and dust. And you could not see. It absolutely blew me. I tried to got up on the man trip to try to get off and get out of it somewhere, somehow. And it blowed me off of it.
TODD: In the darkened chaos, Jones says, he collected himself and was able to walk out of the mine with the rest of his crew. They all knew, with carbon monoxide swirling around, how dangerous it was inside.
JONES: They begged me to go. But I said, I have got a brother in here. I'm going to see if there's -- I got to stay. I'm going to see if there's anything I can do.
TODD: Jones says he and some others pushed back inside slowly, but the air was too poisonous to breathe and he couldn't get close enough to save Jesse.
(on camera): Forgive me for asking you this. Do you feel any sense of guilt that you got out and your brother didn't?
JONES: You always feel that. Yes. It's going through my mind like a tape recorder, just over and over, wish that they would have tried this, wish I could have done that. Yes. Yes. It hurts you.
TODD (voice-over): Jones says he's worked these mines for 16 years, his two older brothers, even longer. He does not believe Jesse died instantly.
(on camera): What do you think he was doing in his last moments?
JONES: Probably thinking of his family, his daughter and all. He was a good dad. He loved his little girl very much.
TODD (on camera): Owen Jones does not blame the mine company for the accident, and says it responded as well as it could. He doesn't know whether he'll work as a miner again, but says he'll never go back to the mine where his brother died.
Brian Todd, CNN, Tallmansville, West Virginia.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
S. O'BRIEN: The mine is now closed. The company doesn't know when they're going to get back to work. An investigation has already begun -- Miles.
M. O'BRIEN: If you're swimming in credit card debt, the last thing you might want to hear this morning is your minimum payment is going up. Well, hate to be the bearer of what seems like bad news, because it is. And truth be told, it is a good thing, as our next guest told me a few days ago. Scott Bilker's latest book is called "Talk Your Way Out of Credit Card Debt."
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
M. O'BRIEN: Thanks for being with us, Scott.
We would be indebted to you if you could explain to us the new minimum-payment formula in layman's terms.
SCOTT BILKER, FOUNDER, DEBTSMART.COM: Sure. Well, it used to be the banks would calculate the minimum percentage based on a flat percentage of how much you owe. But now what's happening is there's been some regulation, guidelines set from the Office of the Comptroller of Currency to increase the payment so that way people are out of debt more quickly, and also to make it so people aren't paying so much in interest.
M. O'BRIEN: Oh, so this a government mandate then? This is not doing something they're doing necessarily voluntarily?
BILKER: They're certainly not doing it voluntarily, but it's not really a mandate; it's guidance issued. So they have really an option to do it, but everyone is really doing it. The Office of the Comptroller of Currency oversees 2,500 national banks.
M. O'BRIEN: All right, so boil down, the formula goes, the new formula will go like this. Explain it.
BILKER: Sure, it's going to be to About one percent of your outstanding balance, plus the monthly finance charges. So in the case, if you had, say, $2,000, at 15 percent, you'd pay one percent of the balance,, plus the APR monthly charge, which would be 1,25 percent, or 2.25 percent. So it's not going to be as expensive as a lot of people may think. There's some information out there saying that minimum payments are going to double, go up four percent, five percent. That isn't necessary lip the case. M. O'BRIEN: All right, so let's run through an example then and explain why this actually, you know, could be kind of advantageous to people, because it could force them to pay back their debt a little quicker. Let's run through it.
BILKER: Sure. If you had $2,000, 15 percent, using that example, with the two percent minimum monthly payment, it would take about 79 months to pay that back and cost $3,158.
Now with the new minimum payment which, in this particular case is 2.25 percent, it would take 66 payments to pay back and cost $2,938. So you'd save about $220/
M. O'BRIEN: OK, so people really, if they're look at the big picture here, shouldn't complain too much about it. It's not that much of a different, but in the final analysis, it's going to actually save you quite a bit of money?
BILKER: It's will save you money. And what it's going to do is stop banks from having negative amortization occur on your account where you just keep going into debt faster and faster. I'm sure you've heard a lot of people where they have a $500 credit limit, but yet now they owe $3,000 on their credit card, and that happens because, if they have a late fee, it's added into the balance, and then the minimum payment is a calculation of old way, a percentage of that balance. Now it's going to be that one percent, plus finance charge, plus fees, so your late fees are the over-limit fees are going to be including in that. So this way, when you make that minimum payment, you're back where you started and able to pay the debt down.
M. O'BRIEN: All right, this, truth be told, is this a big profit center for the financial institutions. In a sense, they're cutting into their profits by doing this, aren't they?
BILKER: Yes, they are. I mean, they really don't want to do it. They want to keep you in to debt as long as possible. In fact they lowest minimum payment I've ever seen on one of my personal accounts is when I did a balance transfer, about $17,945, and the minimum payment on that, $15.
M. O'BRIEN: Wow! That's something. They want you in debt forever.
BILKER: Right.
M. O'BRIEN: Give us just a piece of take-away advice for folks who feel like they have a little too much credit card debt, and as they figure out those numbers, it makes them nervous.
BILKER: Well, I'll say the biggest thing you want to do is never be late, because when you're late, banks are going to raise your rate, what's known as default rates and penalty fees. And I've seen rates go as high as 30 percent. So you never want to be late, even if you need to borrow money from one credit card to make sure you pay on time, it's smarter than being late and being charged a whole bunch of interest payments. M. O'BRIEN: Scott Bilker is an expert on debt, and more importantly, saying out of it. His latest book is "Talk Your Way Out of Credit Card Debt." Thanks for being with us.
BILKER: My pleasure. Thanks for having me on, Miles.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
S. O'BRIEN: Well, Howard Stern has already brought enough new listeners to Sirius satellite radio that he's going to get $219 million in stock. Stern was on LARRY KING LIVE" last night. Larry asked him about the move from free radio so satellite.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
HOWARD STERN, SATELLITE RADIO HOST: Are you a loser? Is this a lose/lose situation? I go, lose? I can't. I can't imagine a loss in this. My fans are coming with me. I'm free to do the kind of radio I want. I am happier than I've ever been. The studios are beautiful.
LARRY KING, HOST: Yes, they are. I've been up there.
STERN: They're gorgeous. And you know, the only thing that's different is I'm starting something new, and in order to start something new, I had to give something up. I had to give up the thrill of hitting the button on terrestrial radio, but I was done with terrestrial. I was dead in the water.
I have the loyalist fans in the world. You know, I put out a movie, they showed up, a book, whatever it is, I've done I don't think I've ever betrayed my audience. I've always delivered the best product I could deliver, possibly that I could deliver, and I think they appreciated that.
Well, lo and behold, so here we are a year later, I haven't done my first broadcast yet, and today they announced 3.3 million people have signed up.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
S. O'BRIEN: That exclusive interview with Howard Stern by Larry King. You can see "LARRY KING LIVE" of course, 9:00 p.m. Eastern, and again at 9:00 p.m. Pacific Time, right here on CNN.
M. O'BRIEN: It's the new year, which means it's New You time. Our New You resolution kicks off again this Monday.
Did you make any resolutions?
S. O'BRIEN: I always make 20 or 30.
M. O'BRIEN: And they last three or four hours or so.
S. O'BRIEN: The bigger question, is did you keep any resolutions from last year?
What is this sixth? I'm doing all right.
M. O'BRIEN: It's pretty bad when you see the New You stuff, and you think, ooh, I want that cheeseburger, right.
S. O'BRIEN: Um, that looks good.
M. O'BRIEN: These are the things you're not supposed to be doing, Soledad. Join us as six people work to change their lives despite what Soledad does to tempt them otherwise. Each has a partner to keep them on track. And f course Dr. Sanjay Gupta is there as the proctor, or something like that, I guess. The New You with the power of two starting Monday, here on AMERICAN MORNING, 6:00 a.m. Eastern. I don't know it, but I'm a poet.
S. O'BRIEN: No, you're not, actually.
(MARKET REPORT)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
S. O'BRIEN: All morning, we've been bringing you the latest on the Sago mine story. You can catch much more on the story tonight on "ANDERSON COOPER 360." Here's Anderson with a preview.
ANDERSON COOPER, CNN ANCHOR: Soledad, coming up tonight on "360," a special hour of "Hope and Heartbreak: The Story of the Sago Mine Tragedy," from those first and anxious moments to the final letter of a dying miner.
Also tonight, danger from the deep, a rescue volcano awakes. Are we ready if it erupts? And what you weigh may depend on where you live. The list of the fastest cities in America. You may be surprised at who tips the scale at number one. All that and more, tonight at 10:00 p.m. Eastern -- Soledad.
S. O'BRIEN: Thank you very much, Anderson.
I want to know who's the fattest city in the country.
M. O'BRIEN: Well, you can tune in tonight.
S. O'BRIEN: I will. Absolutely.
M. O'BRIEN All right.
Coming up, this year's Oscars is going to have a brand new host. Jon Stewart has been announced from "The Daily Show" obviously. Some people, though, saying he's not the right guy.
S. O'BRIEN: His humor may not be a good mix with the Oscars.
M. O'BRIEN: Andy, you're in his camp?
S. O'BRIEN: Really?
M. O'BRIEN: All right. S. O'BRIEN: I don't know. I think he's hilarious on "The Daily Show," but it will translate when the people in the audience are the Hollywood...
M. O'BRIEN: I think it's going to be like a Letterman moment. You know, remember how bad that was, Oprah, Uma, Uma, Oprah.
(CROSSTALK)
S. O'BRIEN: No, I don't think so. I don't know. We're going to talk about it coming up next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
M. O'BRIEN: All right. Jon Stewart. What would he do? Jon Stewart hosting the Oscars. Last night on his program he addressed this very issue. Let's listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JON STEWART, HOST, "THE DAILY SHOW": I'm excited. I was allowed to host the Oscars this year and I'm really excited about that. It's like -- I don't know. I will say this. I don't know a ton about movies, other than I'm not very good in them.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
M. O'BRIEN: So will he be good as the host? Hey, Bradley Jacobs, "US" magazine. Good to see you.
BRADLEY JACOBS, "US WEEKLY": Good to see you. Now, I'm a personal fan of Jon Stewart. Most everyone I know likes Jon Stewart...
S. O'BRIEN: Uh oh. This is -- he's starting with the backing up!
M. O'BRIEN: Did I screw up -- I screwed up the magazine. Wait a minute. Did I say it wrong again.
S. O'BRIEN: No, no, you're right.
JACOBS: You're great. "US Weekly."
M. O'BRIEN: He just shouted in my ear. What did I say wrong?
S. O'BRIEN: "US Weekly." You're good.
M. O'BRIEN: "US Weekly" magazine.
JACOBS: You got it. Everyone at "US Weekly" loves Jon Stewart but -- and everyone in Hollywood loves Jon Stewart...
S. O'BRIEN: But...
JACOBS: But I'm a little worried that his humor is not really going to translate to the viewers of the Oscars. Now, I don't think of him as being so different from Chris Rock, who famously bombed last year, or even David Letterman who -- whose "Uma, Oprah, Oprah, Uma" thing went down in history as being, you know, one of the worst Oscar moments in history. So he's another kind of lefty, New York, L.A., liberal news person sort of personality that they've brought in to host the Oscars and I'm not sure he's going to work.
M. O'BRIEN: Wait a minute. But lefty New York, L.A., that -- Billy Crystal fits that bill pretty well, too.
JACOBS: No, Billy Crystal is the most mainstream "aw, shucks" kind of perfect Hollywood person. He's a movie star. Think of the movies he's been in. "When Harry Met Sally," "City Slickers." Everyone loves those movies. He was perfect. Looks how he hams it up. Can you see Jon Stewart doing that?
M. O'BRIEN: Yes, he's good with the jokes.
JACOBS: No, no. He's way too acerbic. He's way -- I just -- I'm not certain that he's going to be able to pull it off.
S. O'BRIEN: You know what I always found very weird about the Oscars is that you're -- I saw Chris Rock doing it last year. You know, I got to attend the Oscars. And he's delivering it to a crowd of Hollywood people. But of course, you have this other audience watching, too, which are the people at homes. And it's kind of hard to figure out...
JACOBS: Yes.
S. O'BRIEN: ... you know, what's funny to two very different groups of people.
JACOBS: You have to manage both, and...
S. O'BRIEN: I thought Chris was funny last year, but the audience was like, huh. And then, you know, Sean Penn really took great exception to the Jude Law joke and that was weird.
JACOBS: Oscar people, the Academy itself and people watching at home, well, they will take a little bit of ribbing, but you cannot turn the whole evening into a joke, and that's what Chris Rock did and that was the problem. I mean, the people who watch the Oscars take it very seriously generally, and Jon Stewart has to recognize that.
M. O'BRIEN: It is a tightrope. Now, he has hosted the Grammys. And based on that, what do you think?
JACOBS: You know, the Grammys crowd is a little cooler crowd than the Oscar crowd. And he didn't really even satisfy the Grammy people. Yet another reason to worry.
S. O'BRIEN: He has -- some people have pointed to this I guess engagement he did with this magazine, what do you call it? Where he was speaking in front of magazine publishers. He was invited to speak. And it didn't go quite as well as I think the magazine publishers would have hoped.
JACOBS: You know, Jon Stewart and his show, they're very politically tinged. They've been outspoken against the Bush administration. And, yes, when he went to -- he spoke in front of the Magazine Publishers of America and he kind of dissed them, he dissed "Cosmopolitan," he dissed "Time" magazine. He dissed all these people, yet they paid him something like $150,000 to speak in front of them.
S. O'BRIEN: They hate that.
M. O'BRIEN: Who would be the perfect host if you were casting this?
JACOBS: I kind of like -- well, I sort of liked Whoopi Goldberg, I have to say. I liked Whoopi, I liked Steve Martin. I like those hosts. No one really can hold a candle to Billy Crystal as far as the Oscars are concerned. I think maybe they should look at Jay Leno at some point. I mean, Jay Leno has that kind of very mainstream touch where he sort of can jab Hollywood people, but it's done with a sense of spirit and it's done with a love of the entertainment industry.
I don't know. The Oscars are in a little bit of an identity crisis right now. That's why they keep throwing these different hosts up there and seeing who works.
S. O'BRIEN: I don't know if I agree with you. I think Jon Stewart might be able to pull it off. I really do.
JACOBS: We'll see.
S. O'BRIEN: We'll see. We'll put money on it, $5.
M. O'BRIEN: We'll have you back on the morning after. Wait a minute. No wagering here.
S. O'BRIEN: Thanks, Brad.
M. O'BRIEN: This is a family show! Bradley Jacobs from "US Weekly" magazine.
JACOBS: Thank you, Miles.
S. O'BRIEN: You'll get it one day.
M. O'BRIEN: One of these days, I'll get it right. Good to have you drop by.
S. O'BRIEN: Ahead this morning -- you guys hear this story? -- it's our "Extra Effort" segment this morning. Three people save a 14- year-old girl. She fell right off a subway platform into the tracks. Happened here in New York City. Two of the folks jumped onto the train track. The train is approaching. I am not exaggerating this in any way. We're going to talk to all the heroes, just ahead on AMERICAN MORNING. Stay with us.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
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