Banks are masters of smiling while tightening the screws. On the surface, loan programs look like golden tickets to opportunity—buying a house, starting a business, or consolidating debt. Behind the glossy brochures and friendly branch managers, though, lie contracts engineered to keep banks flush with profits while borrowers drown in fees and interest.
What seems like financial freedom often mutates into financial chains. The following ten loan programs show how the system works brilliantly for banks and painfully for those who sign on the dotted line.
