Credit Card Use and Debt in America

Credit Card Use and Debt in America A promising deal, low interest rates, even lower monthly payments, a free t-shirt, instant cash advances; these are all promises credit card companies make to lure you in to what could be a later trap of debt. All humans are born with natural instincts, however, when it comes to the word free, and all that “free” entails, few listen to the voice in the back of their head. The voice that is telling them that NOTHING is free and they sign their name away, registering for that little piece of plastic that later sucks them into a whirlwind of problems, a place where “free” is the last thing they feel. With the presence of debt on the rise, people, particularly students, are pressured to find ways around it, yet with a lack of practical methods, doing so is highly unlikely. To fix this problem in America, I propose that the government should make it harder for citizens to obtain a credit card by placing stricter rules and regulations on getting one. In America, the credit card was introduced to meet the desires of an impulse buying society. Currently, there are about 350 million people and 1.2 billion credit cards in the United States (Karger, 2005). This is a sign of just how popular “plastic money” has become. Many American’s view the credit card as the answer to financial crisis, yet this could not be farther from the truth. Rather than providing financial relief, the credit card has led to financial crisis for its holders, particularly in America where it has become a common feature. As of 2009, the total debt on American credit cards stood at $962 billion (Carradine, 2009). Debt is unfortunately, and sadly an extremely common issue in society today. So common in fact that a surplus of shows, books, and even clips on the ever popular You Tube have been created just to address debt problems and to advise the people who have them. Although debt has been around for centuries and is certainly not a new dilemma,

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