Every year around the holidays consumers go crazy – and that means lots of spending on credit cards. Come mid year, most people find themselves even worse off – having spent too much at the holidays and then continuing to do so for the first six months of the year. The best thing most consumers can do is cut their cards in half to save them from themselves.
The New York Times did a study of consumer credit debt since 1990. The number of consumers holding credit cards has grown 75%, which in itself is a scary prospect. But then you look at the amount of credit card debt that has accumulated – over $1.5 trillion dollars from 1990 to 2003 alone. Now, what this basically means is that although the number of people getting credit is only 75% - and the amount of credit is about 350%, that leaves a large share of the consumer debt being spread out over a much smaller amount of people taking on that debt.
Not to mention the student loans, mortgages, car loans, home equity loans, etc. that people take out every day. With these figures it is plain to see that our countrymen are growing poorer by the minute. ■
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