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Credit Cards: Love them, Hate them

June 13, 2007

Creditcards.com recently wrote a report entitled, “Taking Charge: America 's Relationship with Credit Cards.” This report was a study that showed some of the more disturbing tendencies that Americans have when it comes to using credit cards.

One of the most alarming facts was that approximately 75 percent of credit card holders ignore the terms and conditions that come with their line of credit. In other words, they simply get their card, begin to use it, and pay it off when they get the money. While this is how a credit card is supposed to work, if you do not know the terms and conditions you may find yourself in a bad spot sooner rather than later. After all, credit card companies are notorious for sneaking in less than favorable terms.

Additionally, the report also showed that 90 percent of Americans had no idea how long it would take them to pay off their credit cards if making only minimum payments. Do you know why this is such a big problem? Well, if you are one of the people who only pay the minimum you probably answered yes. The fact of the matter is that when you are only paying a small portion of your overall balance, interest rates charges are going to pile up over time.

At this time, the average credit card debt in an American household is $9,300. Are you anywhere close to this number? If so, you will want to work hard to bring this down. But before you can do this, you really need to know the ins and outs of credit cards. And thanks to the report on Creditcards.com, this is something that you should be able to do.

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