The Secret History Of The Credit Card
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/credit/
I just watched Frontline on PBS and was pretty amazed at what I saw. The episode was a documentary on the credit card industry and all the trouble that it causes. They interviewed consumers, senators, bank officials, federal regulations officials, the BBB, and even the guy who started it all.
The message, or at least the general feeling that you get from it all is that the credit card industry is based around getting people into debt, then trapping them into perpetual payments. They do not provide enough information for people to get out of debt quickly, nor do they inform consumers about their 'rights' to rate hikes and fees.
Furthermore, they alluded to a very scarey fact about our nation's government. You'd think that there are legislators who are committed to fighting the greed of the banks, and there are, but every bill they've proposed has been shot down - by what, though? To the common person, these bills would seem like a necessary and logical step in controlling the banks and reducing debt. However, the banks are paying off YOUR representatives to vote on their behalf.
Credit card debt is a huge problem today. It's easy to look the other way and say, "We'll I'm a responsible consumer. If you got yourself into debt, it's your problem." Getting into debt is easy if you're not careful, but the way credit card companies work, they are committed to making it impossible to get out of debt. They want you to keep making payments for the rest of your life.